Why empower women through sport

The following are excerpts from an eye opening article by www.womenwin.org

Sport empowers. Over the last decade, sport has increasingly been used as a tool for empowering youth in developing countries. However, opportunities to participate in sport are often designed for, and dominated by, boys and men. Gender inequity and discrimination remain deeply entrenched and widely tolerated throughout the world, resulting in a devastating and cascading list of global social, economic and development costs. Limitations placed upon adolescent girls and young women restrict them from fulfilling their potential and play a significant role in perpetuating the world’s poorest economies.

We know that sport is empowering, particularly for girls, and challenge gender norms. Sport participation offers girls an opportunity to build their self-esteem, courage and self-efficacy. It is a place where they can take up leadership positions and through sport programs girls' belief in their own ability increases. This translates into everyday life – it encourages them to take initiative, raise their voices and attempt things they never assumed were possible. When community members see girls achieve in sport, they often recognize their potential to achieve in other domains. Lastly, sport is a powerful tool and platform to strengthen social ties, networks, engage the community and promote positive messages. In short, wins on the field translate into wins off the field – One Win Leads to Another.

Women Win has developed a theory of change based on the belief that all adolescent girls are born leaders. This theory serves as a foundation for all our programmes and activities. We believe that leadership is a set of skills, behaviours, and attitudes that can be learned, practised, and refined through experience, mentorship, and education. We believe that all girls and young women have leadership capacities that will become evident once recognized and nurtured. Women Win defines leadership as follows:

Leadership reflects the ability of a girl or young woman to exercise her rights and drive change.

Women Win has identified three stages of leadership development in adolescent girls that we have called Prepare, Practise, and Play.

PREPARE

A girl discovers and develops her skills and talents, and becomes aware of her leadership potential. She accumulates knowledge and information. She finds the confidence to set challenging goals for herself and strives to live by her values. This includes being proud of where she came from as well as where she’s going.

PRACTISE

A girl connects and interacts with others, which means she learns to expand and strengthen her leadership potential and skills. Through interaction she learns how to team up, solve conflicts, and have healthy relationships. It’s in this stage that her leadership abilities and confidence further develop and solidify.

PLAY

A girl takes action and influences and motivates others by applying her skills. She creates change by doing and giving back to her community. Girls can play at different levels, demonstrating leadership in their own lives, giving back to the community, or making an international impact, or all three.

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