The Brighton Conference on Women and Sport

ABSTRACT

This article is the first detailed academic analysis of the background, organisation, content, and immediate outcomes of the first World Conference on Women and Sport which took place in Brighton, UK, between 05 and 08 May 1994. Women and sport conferences are now commonplace in many parts of the world. Yet in the mid-1990s, Brighton was ground-breaking and the result of concerted activism for women and sport by agents who had participated in various advocacy organisations for decades. Titled ‘Women, Sport, and the Challenge of Change’, the Conference convened approximately 280 delegates, including representatives of major sporting and non-sporting organisations, based in over eighty countries. They contributed toward establishing a more coordinated and purposeful international strategy for women and sport. However, confusion and competition between existing organisations advocating for women and sport is apparent before and during Brighton. The Conference has also encountered criticism for Western ethnocentrism and liberalised political outcomes. This article contributes to understanding the galvanisation of a collective identity and politicisation of advocacy for women’s sport, and the salience of conferences as sites enabling this. Archival document analysis and interviews with key agents involved with the advocacy were employed to understand the relations, politics and significance of the Conference.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• sport
• Brighton conference
• Brighton Declaration
• advocacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 IWG, ‘About’, https://iwgwomenandsport.org/about/ (accessed July 02, 2019).

2 IWG, Women and sport: From Brighton to Windhoek, Facing the Challenge (London: UK Sports Council, 1998).

3 Kari Fasting and others, From Helsinki to Gaborone: IWG Progress Report (Gaborone: IWG, 2018).

4 See Johanna Adriaanse and Inge Claringbould, ‘Gender equality in sport leadership: From the Brighton Declaration to the Sydney Scoreboard’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport 51, no. 5 (2016): 547–66; Jennifer Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”: Local-global strategies and empowerment’, Women’s Studies International Forum 22, no. 5 (1999): 461–71; Darlene Kluka, ‘The Brighton Declaration on women and sport: A management audit of process quality’ (PhD diss., University of Pretoria, 2008).

5 See Susanna Hedenborg and Gertrud Pfister, ‘Introduction’, Sport in Society 15, no. 3 (2012): 283–6; Carol Osborne and Fiona Skillen, Women in Sports History (London: Routledge, 2011); Roberta Park and Patricia Vertinsky, Women, Sport, Society: Further Reflections, Reaffirming Mary Wollstonecraft (London: Routledge, 2011); Jaime Schultz, Qualifying Times: Points of Change in U.S. Women’s Sport (Illinois: University of Illinois, 2014); Jean Williams, A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850–1960 (London: Routledge, 2014).

6 Jennifer Hargreaves, Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s Sports (London: Routledge, 1994).

7 Madeleine Pape, ‘Gender Segregation and Trajectories of Organizational Change: The Underrepresentation of Women in Sports Leadership’, Gender & Society (2019), doi:10.1177/0891243219867914

8 Margaret Hall, Feminist Activism in Sport: A Comparative Study of Women’s Sport Advocacy Organisations, ed. Alan Tomlinson (Chelsea School Research Centre: University of Brighton, 1995).

9 CCPR, Report of The Langham Life 1st International conference on women and sport, 4–6 December 1978 (London: CCPR, 1978), 15. Accessed: WS/UK/7/3, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

10 Hall, Feminist Activism in Sport.

11 Elizabeth Darlison, Communication to WSI executive committee. 27 March 1995 [fax]. Accessed: WS/I/1/011/3 Jan 1995–Apr 1995, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

12 Jordan Matthews, ‘A Critical Analysis of the Development, Outcomes and Definition of the Women and Sport Movement (W&SM)’ (PhD diss., University of Southampton (Chichester), 2015).

13 Margaret Hall, Feminism and Sporting Bodies: Essays on Theory and Practice (Champaign, IL.: Human Kinetics, 1996).

14 ESC, Statement Booklet: Women in Sport (London: GB Sports Council, 1993). Accessed: WS/I/5/002/2, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

15 Margaret Talbot, ‘Moving ahead: Women and sport in Europe’ (paper presented at the 12th IAPESGW Congress, August 1993, Melbourne, Australia). Accessed: WS/I/1/001/3, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

16 Celia Brackenridge, Untitled letter (12 November 1992). Accessed: WS/I/1/010/2 June 1992–Dec 1993, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; UK Organising Committee, Meeting minutes (3 February 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; Anita White, interview with author, 2013.

17 Anita White, interview with author, 2011.

18 Margaret Talbot, interview with author, 2012.

19 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Women, Sport and the Challenge of Change (London: GB Sports Council, 1993): 2. Accessed: WS/UK/2/1/6/1, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

20 Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”’.

21 ArchivesHub, ‘The Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Archive’, https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/aa7945c7-a188-39a6-a1a5-974044f991b6 (accessed August 01, 2019).

22 IAPESGW are a non-governmental organisation established in 1949 who, ever since, have hosted quadrennial World Congresses on women in sport, physical activity, recreation and dance.

23 AWF, ‘Archive’, https://www.chi.ac.uk/chichester-institute-sport/sport-research-0/anita-white-foundation/preserving-heritage/archive (accessed August 01, 2019).

24 Osborne and Skillen, Women in Sports History; Schultz, Qualifying Times; Williams, A Contemporary History.

25 Brenda Grace, ‘Women, sport and the challenge of politics: A case study of the Women’s Sport Foundation UK’ (MA diss., University of Alberta); Gill Clarke and Barbara Humberstone, Researching Women and Sport (London: Macmillan Press, 1997).

26 Ann Oakley, The Ann Oakley Reader: Gender, Women and Social Science (Bristol: The Policy Press, 2005); Verta Taylor, ‘Feminist methodology in social movements research’, Qualitative Sociology 21, no.4 (1998): 357–79.

27 Brackenridge, Untitled letter (12 November 1992).

28 Petta Naylor, Brighton Conference Progress Report – January 1994. 2 February 1994. Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; Anita White, Letter to Celia Brackenridge (25 August 1993). Accessed: WS/I/1/010/2 June 1992–Dec 1993, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

29 GB Sports Council, An International Conference.

30 Ibid.

31 EWS, Meeting Minutes (3-4 February 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

32 Kari Fasting, interview with author, 2011.

33 Anita White, interview with author, 2013; UK Organising Committee, Meeting minutes (3 February 1994).

34 International Women and Sport Group, Meetings minutes (3-4 February 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

35 Celia Brackenridge, Handwritten Notes (February 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

36 Sue Neill, Interview with author, 2012; Carole Oglesby, Interview with author, 2012; Anita White, Interview with author, 2011.

37 Carole Oglesby, Interview with author, 2012.

38 Brackenridge, Handwritten Notes (February 1994).

39 Ibid.

40 International Women and Sport Group, Meetings minutes (3-4 February 1994).

41 Ibid.

42 Brackenridge, Handwritten Notes (February 1994).

43 Anita White, Interview with author, 2013.

44 Hanspeter Kriesi, Political Context and Opportunity, ed. David Snow, Sarah Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004); Charles Tilly, ‘To explain political processes’, American Journal of Sociology 100, no. 6 (1995): 1594–610.

45 Anita White, Letter to D. Simms (10 January 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; International Women and Sport Group, Meetings minutes (3-4 February 1994).

46 Brackenridge, Handwritten Notes (February 1994).

47 Margaret Hall and Gertrud Pfister, Honouring the Legacy: Fifty Years of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (Smith College: IAPESGW, 1999).

48 Celia Brackenridge, ‘“Don’t just do something – Stand there”: Problematising community action for women in sport’ (presented at the 12th IAPESGW World Congress, 6 August 1993, Melbourne, Australia). Accessed: WS/I/1/001/3, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; Talbot, ‘Moving ahead’.

49 Elizabeth Darlison, Fax to Celia Brackenridge (17 March 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

50 Elizabeth Darlison, Fax to Celia Brackenridge, Kari Fasting, Barbara Drinkwater and Marion Lay (24 February 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

51 Darlison, Fax to Celia Brackenridge (17 March 1994).

52 Elizabeth Darlison, Fax to Celia Brackenridge, Kari Fasting, Barbara Drinkwater and Marion Lay (24 February 1994).

53 Sallie Barker, interview with author, 2013.

54 Ibid.

55 Darlison, Fax to Celia Brackenridge (17 March 1994).

56 Brackenridge, Handwritten Notes (February 1994).

57 Unspecified, Handwritten notes (10 March 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

58 International Women and Sport Group, Meetings minutes (3-4 February 1994).

59 Talbot, interview with author, 2012.

60 Patricia Bowen-West, Letter to IAPESGW colleagues (7 December 1993). Accessed: WS/UK/2/1/6/2, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

61 Elizabeth Darlison, Letter to Patricia Bowen-West, 26 April 1994. Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

62 Oglesby, Interview with author, 2012.

63 Marjorie Snyder, interview with author, 2013.

64 Elizabeth Darlison, Fax to WSI Executive Committee (29 March 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

65 Diane Palmason, Memo to Women’s Sports Foundation Conference participants (March 1992). Accessed: WS/I/1/010/1 May 1990–May 1992, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

66 Celia Brackenridge, Fax to Tina Slade (24 March 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

67 J.B. Atkin, Memo to Donna Lopiano, (16 March 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

68 Tina Slade, Letter to Celia Brackenridge (14 April 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; Snyder, interview with author, 2013.

69 Donna Lopiano, Letter to Tina Slade (24 March 1994). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

70 Snyder, interview with author, 2013.

71 IWG, Meeting agenda (23-24 November 1994, Ottawa, Canada). Accessed: WS/I/1/011/2 May 1994–Dec 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; White, Interview with author, 2013; Fasting, Interview with author, 2011.

72 Neill, Interview with author, 2012.

73 Meg Hancock, Alexis Lyras and Jae-Pil Ha, ‘Sport for development programs for girls and women: A global assessment’, Journal of Sport for Development 1, no. 1: 15–24; Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”’; Kluka, ‘The Brighton Declaration’; Sheila Scraton and Anne Flintoff, Gender and Sport: A Reader (London: Routledge, 2002).

74 White, Interview with author, 2013.

75 GB Sports Council, Brighton Conference delegate invitation list (c1994/April). Accessed: WS/UK/2/1/1, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

78 Barker, Interview with author, 2013; White, Interview with author, 2013.

79 Talbot, interview with author, 2012.

80 Nabilah Abdulrahman, Interview with author, 2013.

81 Ibid.

82 Barker, Interview with author, 2013.

83 GB Sports Council, An International Conference, 2 (emphasis added).

84 Jennifer Hargreaves, Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity (London: Routledge, 227).

85 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Women, Sport and the Challenge of Change. Welcome Brochure (London: GB Sports Council, 1994). Accessed: WS/UK/2/1/6/8, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

86 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Welcome Brochure, 9.

87 Marion Lay, interview with author, 2012.

88 Myra Ferree and Carol Mueller, Feminism and the Women’s Movement: A global perspective, ed. David Snow, Sarah Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 576–607.

89 White, interview with author, 2011.

90 Abdulrahman, interview with author, 2013; Lay, interview with author 2012; Gayatri Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present (London: Harvard University Press, 1999); Talbot, interview with author, 2012; White, interview with author, 2013.

91 Fasting, interview with author, 2011.

92 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Welcome Brochure.

93 Hall, Feminism and Sporting Bodies.

94 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Welcome Brochure, 4.

95 GB Sports Council. An International Conference. Women, Sport and the Challenge of Change. Conference Proceedings (London: GB Sports Council, 1994), 120. Accessed: WS/UK/2/001/001/2, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

96 See Ferree and Mueller, Feminism and the Women’s Movement, 595, for discussion around conferences as an under-researched organisational repertoire of feminist and women’s movements; White, interview with author, 2013.

97 Celia Brackenridge, interview with author, 2011.

98 Jay Coakley, interview with author, 2011.

99 Ibid.

100 Ibid.

101 GB Sports Council, Sport2, May/June (London: GB Sports Council, 1994), 14. Accessed: WS/UK/2/1/1, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; Tansin Benn, Gertrud Pfister and Haifaa Jawad, Muslim Women and Sport (Oxon: Routledge, 2011), 3; Chandra Talpade Mohanty, ‘Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses’, ed. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. (London: Routledge, 1995), 261.

102 See Raewyn Connell, Southern Theory (Cambridge: Polity, 2007), 45–7, for discussion about the hegemony of Northern theory and its dominance in knowledge construction, including a claim to universality, reading from the centre, gestures of exclusion, and grand erasure.

103 Snyder, Interview with author, 2013.

104 Oglesby, Interview with author, 2012; Snyder, Interview with author, 2013.

105 Darlene Kluka, Interview with author, 2013.

106 White, Interview with author, 2013.

107 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings, 65.

108 Hank Johnston, What is a Social Movement? (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014) 159; Ferree and Mueller, Feminism and the Women’s Movement.

109 Bob Edwards and John McCarthy, Resources and Social Movement Mobilisation, ed. David Snow, Sarah Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004); Tilly, ‘To explain political processes’.

110 Hall, Feminism and Sporting Bodies.

111 White, Interview with author, 2013.

112 GB Sports Council, Sport2, 7.

113 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings, 43.

114 P.J. Smith and E. Smythe, ‘(In)Fertile ground? Social forum activism in its regional and local dimension’, Journal of World Systems Research 16, no. 1 (2010): 6–28.

115 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings, 122.

116 Ibid, 127.

117 Ibid, 131.

118 White, Interview with author, 2011.

119 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings, 147.

120 Edwards and McCarthy, Resources and Social Movement Mobilisation.

121 White, Interview with author, 2013.

122 Ibid.

123 Ibid.

124 Neill, Interview with author, 2012; Talbot, Interview with author, 2012; GB Sports Council, Women in Sport: Select Bibliographies – April 1994 (London: GB Sports Council, 1994). Accessed: WS/UK/2/001/24, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

125 Barrie Houlihan and Anita White, The Politics of Sports Development: Development of Sport or Development through Sport? (London: Routledge, 2002), 64.

126 GB Sports Council, Women and Sport: Policy and Frameworks for Action (London: GB Sports Council, 1993). Accessed: WS/UK/2/001/21, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester; White, Interview with author, 2013.

127 Houlihan and White, The Politics of Sports Development, 65.

128 Barker, Interview with author, 2013; White, Interview with author, 2013.

129 Kluka, Interview with author, 2013.

130 Ida Webb, Brighton Declaration handwritten notes (c1994). Accessed: WS/UK/2/1/6/10, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

131 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings.

132 White, Interview with author, 2013.

133 Ibid.

134 GB Sports Council, The Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport (London: GB Sport Council, 1994). Accessed: WS/UK/2/1/1, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

135 Brackenridge, Interview with author, 2011.

136 Chris Shelton, Interview with author, 2011.

137 Lay, Interview with author, 2012.

138 Edwards and McCarthy, Resources and Social Movement Mobilisation.

139 Fasting, Interview with author, 2011.

140 Snyder, Interview with author, 2013.

141 Ibid.

142 Anita DeFrantz, Interview with author, 2013.

143 Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”’; Matthews, ‘A Critical Analysis’.

144 Brackenridge, Interview with author, 2011.

145 Hall, Feminism and Sporting Bodies, 102.

146 Hall, Feminism and Sporting Bodies, 102; Doug Bevington and Chris Dixon, ‘Movement-relevant theory: Rethinking social movement scholarship and activism’, Social Movement Studies 4, no. 3 (2015): 185–208.

147 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings.

148 Talbot, Interview with author, 2012.

149 Kluka, Interview with author, 2013.

150 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings.

151 Barker, Interview with author, 2013.

152 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings, 152.

153 Barker, Interview with author, 2013; White, Interview with author, 2013.

154 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings.

155 Houlihan and White, The Politics of Sports Development, 65.

156 White, Interview with author, 2013.

157 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings, 136.

158 Anita White, Letter to Celia Brackenridge, 22 February 1994. Accessed: WS/I/1/011/1 Jan 1994–Apr 1994, Anita White Foundation International Women and Sport Movement Archive: University of Chichester.

159 Talbot, Interview with author, 2012.

160 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings, 136.

161 White, Interview with author, 2013.

162 Ibid.

163 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Welcome Brochure, 9.

164 GB Sports Council, An International Conference – Conference Proceedings.

165 Ibid, 149.

166 Ibid, 149–50.

167 Matthews, ‘A Critical Analysis’.

168 Kari Fasting and others, From Brighton to Helsinki: IWG Progress Report (Helsinki: VALO, 2014); Jordan Matthews, Analysis and Review of International Working Group on Women and Sport Progress Reports 1994–2010 (University of Chichester: Anita White Foundation, 2012).

169 Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”’, 466.

170 Brackenridge, Interview with author, 2011; Fasting, Interview with author, 2011; Neill, Interview with author, 2012.

171 Kluka, Interview with author, 2013; Barker, Interview with author, 2013.

172 Talbot, Interview with author, 2012.

173 Oglesby, Interview with author, 2012.

174 Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”’, 467.

175 Snyder, Interview with author, 2013.

176 Brackenridge, Interview with author, 2011.

177 Neill, Interview with author, 2012; Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”’, 468.

178 Neill, Interview with author, 2012.

179 See Hall, Feminist Activism in Sport; Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”’; Jordan Matthews, ‘Tensions and future directions for the Women and Sport Movement’, in The Palgrave Handbook of Feminism and Sport, Leisure and Physical Education, ed. Louise Mansfield, Jayne Caudwell, Belinda Wheaton, and Beccy Watson (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2018), 189.

180 White, Interview with author, 2013.

181 Hargreaves, ‘The “Women’s International Sports Movement”’.

182 See Fasting and others, From Brighton to Helsinki.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jordan J. K. Matthews

Jordan J. K. Matthews is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Development, Business and Coaching at the University of Chichester, UK. His doctorate focused on the socio-historical development of organisational activism for women and sport and his current research looks at the experiences of women leaders in sport.