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Gender equality in sport coaching top of the agenda for Carnegie researcher at prestigious European conference
Dr Norman, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Sport, will speak about gender equality in coaching following the EU’s new published guidelines for gender equality in sport, with coaching being one of the four main areas of priority highlighted.
Dr Norman said: “This is a fantastic opportunity as the conference is a prestigious one and historically, these conferences have seen the creation of some seminal declarations to do with women in sport, such as the Brighton Declaration (1994) and Helsinki Spirit (2000). The conference will be attended by academics, organisations and practitioners from all around the world.”
The conference, titled ‘Moving Towards Gender Equality in Sport’, will be jointly hosted by the European Women and Sport (EWS) organisation and the Swedish Sports Organisation. It is being held in Stockholm between Friday 8 and Sunday 10 April.
Dr Norman explained: “The purpose of the conference is to make the issue of gender equality in sport visible and to present and discuss successful actions on gender equality in sport. Specifically, the conference will present the updated EU recommendations for gender equality in sport, including the four areas of strategic action: gender balance and equality in decision making in sport; gender equality in coaching; fight against gender-based violence in and through sport; and fight against negative gender stereotypes in sport and the role of the media.”
Dr Norman continued: “The Euro barometer on Sport and Physical Activity 2014 highlighted that the participation of girls and women in Europe in general is still not at the same levels of participation as boys and men. In addition, research has shown that the number of women in leadership positions in sport governing bodies in Europe is still very low (average of 10%) with exceptions in some EU Member States and at local level.
“Despite some positive action, substantial changes through legislation and policies have rarely taken place, with the exception of the Nordic countries, UK and France and in a small number of international sporting federations. Furthermore, employed female coaches are in the minority of the coaches in Europe and often earn less per month on average than their male colleagues with differences of up to 1000 euros reported for the same type of job.
“There have been many positive activities, projects and actions taken for women in sport. However, it is still questionable how sustainable these activities have been and how many mainstream sports organisations were involved. It seems that many sports organisations have not been able to institutionalise gender mainstreaming within sport. The EWS conference will focus on what has changed since the inception of the EU guidelines since 2014.
“My keynote, entitled ‘Surviving rather than thriving? Improving the representation and experiences of women sports coaches’, will present a discussion of how we can recruit, retain and progress more women in coaching based on our understanding of current research and action.”