Sports have No Gender
Erasmus+ Sport project about women empowerment
The project will focus on a particular theme: the image and the vision of women spread and conveyed in the sports world. Actually, even though the value of female sports activities is , both at professional and junior and amateur levels is increasingly recognized and appreciated, the image of woman at media level, when is associated to sports, still suffers the influence of stereotypes and prejudices.
This kind of communication raises from two main reasons that are intersected in interdependent connection:
The media sports communication often put in the foreground sports fundamentally as male phenomenon, at which female sports appear subordinate. For understanding this situation it's enough to open the web page of many sports newspaper: main news are dedicated to male sports (especially football), the female athletes that have more space are the ones whose it is emphasized physical beauty, columns are focused on pictures, news and video about women just as wives, girlfriends, lovers of male athletes.
The perception of many passionates of sports corresponds with this type of communication and in consequence it is possible to say that the media give to its public what the public wants.
The project, starting from this analysis wants has the general objective to act for contributing to combat these sexist stereotypes.
The main objectives of the project, essential for aiming to the general objective, will be:
realizing analysis of types of communication and languages used by media for describing image and role of women in sports fields, identifying the terms, the words, the images that are based on sexist stereotypes existing in society;
identifying and spreading best practices able to contribute to improvement of language and communication about roles and image and vision of woman in sports.
Partners
NEWS
The consortium of the ‘Sports have no gender’ project meets in Fyli to design good practices on gender equality to be followed in the world of communication - Workshop #2
Fyli, 28 April, 2022
On 28 April 2022, the delegations of the associations involved in the “Sports Have no gender” project met in Fyli to take new steps in the direction of gender equality in sport.
The meeting was aimed at achieving a specific objective of the project, namely: to implement good practices that influencers, journalists, communication experts and civil society in general, should follow to convey an adequate image of women in sport, through media and communication channels.
It was considered successful to bring together the different experiences and specificities dictated by the different national contexts, to implement local activities of analysis in preparation for the meeting, based on the following points:
Identification of the experiences of associations, sports clubs, federations etc, which constitute a positive example for the promotion of the dignity of women in the field of sport and their role within this sector;
Analysis of the main measures to ensure equal opportunities in sport, by the institutions of each country of the participating organisations, in the last 5/10 years.
The international workshop, after an “ice breaking” session, opened with the sharing and representation of the different local activities mentioned above and with the identification of the main obstacles that today do not guarantee an adequate form of communication with reference to women in sport. Sharing was a fundamental starting point not only to enrich the knowledge of each individual participant, but also to share points of view and approaches, which allowed the team to carry out the subsequent activity, based on the identification of good practices to be introduced in the world of communication in order to increase gender equality, with adequate tools and a correct approach.
At the same time, the team chose the official hashtag and slogan, which formed the basis of the dissemination campaign of the identified good practices, and aimed at reaching as many actors as possible, now collected in an official document.
The meeting concluded with a trekking session that once again demonstrated the enormous power that sport can have in bringing people together, increasing opportunities and inclusion for all, and further increasing synergies among the participants’ team members.
The consortium is already working to organize the project closing activities within the next closing meeting to be held in Rome.
You can download the good practices created by partner countries from the website of the project:
https://www.piattaformaprogetti.eu/sports-have-no-gender/
Sports have no Gender - 2nd International Meeting - Workshop #1
Rome, 1 April 2022
Sport Leaders and Youth Workers working to identify stereotypes and language patterns that fuel the gender gap in sport
On March 31, 2022 an international meeting was held in Rome, with the participation of sport leaders, youth workers, coaches active in the sports sector of the associations promoting the project “Sports have no gender” coordinated by ECA Onlus.
The meeting, coordinated by ECA Onlus, was hosted by the Italian association IDEA EUROPA, which for years has made social inclusion its flag, and saw the protagonists of the delegations: Greek, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Romanian and Italian, discuss the role and image of women in sport and the way in which their figure is conveyed through the media. In fact, today, despite the fact that the value of women’s sports, both at competitive level and at youth and amateur level, is increasingly recognized and valued, the image of women in the media still suffers from the influence of stereotypes and prejudices. And it is precisely this type of prevailing narrative that the meeting and the project in its general structure want to counteract.
Even before the exchange, the participants were engaged in a long work of local analysis where for each country of reference were identified a representation of the female figure in their own country, disseminated through the main media, newspapers, and media;
concrete examples of images and “wording” used to identify women in sport, with sexist, disparaging and under-representative meanings of the athlete as a professional and a sportswoman.
The first working session focused on sharing and deepening the local activities previously carried out, including moments of comparison, debate and points of view, while the second session saw the participants build an awareness campaign to be launched not only in the countries of origin of the delegations but also beyond the borders of their own countries, thanks to a strategic use of multimedia channels and digital platforms that the consortium will use.
You can download the analysis's made by partner countries from the website of the project:
https://www.piattaformaprogetti.eu/sports-have-no-gender/
Sports have no Gender - Kick Off Meeting
Erasmus Pus Plus Sport, Small Collaborative Partnership
Rome, 1st of September 2021
On 1st of September 2021, the partners of the project “Sports Have no Gender” met in Rome for the Kick Off meeting of the project.
ECA Onlus is the coordinator of a project that involves partners from Greece EVNIKOS SPORTS CLUB (Greece), ASOCIATIA TINERILOR CU INITIATIVA CIVICA (Romania), Hidak Ifjúsági Alapítvány (Hungary), VSI "VEIKLUS ZMOGUS" (Lithuania).
The partners in Rome had the chance to share the main objectives of the projects, the main activities and the needs for the next steps of the project. Moreover, they spoke about the road map of next transnational meetings, discussing about dates and venues.
The project will focus on equal opportunities in sports, and specifically on sports communication and on the image of women in sports.
ECA will lead a path of language analysis in all involved countries and in Europe in general. Moreover, the partners will identify, evaluate, and promote best practices and tools for contributing, in different contexts, to the improvement of language and communication regarding the role and image of women in sport.
At the same time, the project will make possible to create a "network" for non-profit associations, associations involved in sport and sports clubs on the issue of equal opportunities for women at European level.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
