CONFERENCE REPORT
WOMEN IN SPORT SPECIAL
The Sport Without Fear session at the conference, moderated by Lydia la Rivière Zijdel (centre), tackled the issue of sport as a human right
LEADING THE CHANGE
The sixth IWG World Conference on Women and Sport was held in Helsinki this summer. Tom Walker reports on the highlights
A
record number delegates travelled to Helsinki, Finland for the sixth International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG) World
Conference on Women and Sport in June 2014. Nearly 900 sports administrators, researchers, government ministers and other sports leaders from 100 countries attended the event, held under the banner of “Lead the Change - Be the Change”. The four-day conference offered more than 50 sessions, presentations, seminars and workshops – each exploring the topic of gender equality in sport through theory, policy and practice. Held every four years, the 2014 conference programme was put together under five ‘sub-themes’: increasing girls’ participation in sport; leading the change in sport policy; enhancing female leadership and coaching; women’s physical activity and wellbeing; and promoting sport as a safe haven and bastion of human rights.
PROGRESS REPORT A further theme of the conference was to encourage decisive measures and firm commitments from delegates to increase gender equality in sport. One of these was the amendments made to the original Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport,
42 IWG IWG
Launched in 1994 IWG has served as a platform to give a voice for women and girls across the globe. Through an active network of decision-makers, politicians, researchers, educators and students, coaches, athletes and volunteers, the voices of women and girls have been shared at parliaments, conferences and seminars. Since its launch and first World Conference in Brighton in 1994, more than 400 organizations have signed the Brighton Declaration, which aims to engage organizations to commit towards a more equal sporting world.
adopted at the first IWG Conference in 1994. Despite its standing within the international sport movement – a total of 419 organisations have signed the declaration – it was felt that significant developments in the international policy landscape during the last 20 years demanded an “update” to the document. The document will now be known as the
Brighton Plus Helsinki Declaration and is designed to take into account and benefit from all national and international charters,
laws and regulations introduced since 1994. The new declaration was supported by a comprehensive progress report – entitled From Brighton to Helsinki – intended as a source of inspiration for policy and decision-makers who are working to advance the status of (and opportunities for) girls and women in sport. Raija Mattila, co-chair of this year’s
conference, said: “The conference allowed us to explore the latest knowledge regarding gender equality in sport and to review the impact of the 20-year- old Brighton Declaration. I’d encourage everyone to use the results of the progress report, which also provides examples of initiatives that have been undertaken by Brighton Declaration signatories to further empower women.”
A SOCIAL OCCASION As well as the 900 delegates, the sessions were streamed live on the internet, attracting thousands of viewers around the world. Social media played a major role at the conference too, with the twitter hashtag #IWGHelsinki being used throughout the four days – and managing to trend globally during the opening ceremony. For those wanting to view keynote sessions, the archive can be accessed through IWG’s youtube
sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 3 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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