Political advances for women and sport in the mid-1990s

ABSTRACT

The topic of women’s and girls’ rights, access and inclusion in sport and physical activity has become a mainstay of sporting and non-sporting organisational discourse. Notwithstanding, there is little published on why, how and who enabled these topics to become politicised to this extent. For example, academic texts state key moments for the advancement of women and sport, such as conferences and resolutions, but rarely provide further detail. By explaining how transnational women and sport advocacy groups lobbied the United Nations (UN) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) into actions for women and sport in the mid-1990s, this article adds to knowledge about how advocacy groups in international sport succeeded in working together to collectively effect change despite demonstrating contention amongst one another. Data from archival analysis of papers and correspondence of key agents involved in these processes were complemented with semi-structured interviews with some of the same individuals decades later. Using terms and concepts from social movement studies, the article shows how the International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG) and WomenSport International (WSI) developed in relation to each other and the political environment in which they were playing a key role in shaping. Their relationship was not straightforward, due in part to the formations and structure of each group, but their purposive efforts with other agents contributed to a collective endeavour that achieved milestones for the political legitimacy of women and sport.

KEYWORDS:

• Women and sport
• social movements
• United Nations
• International Olympic Committee
• advocacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Darlison was former Deputy Manager of the Australian Sports Commission and a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sydney.

2. A set of ten principles that when adhered to will ‘develop a sporting culture that enables and values the full involvement of women in every aspect of sport’ (IWG 1998, p. 51).

3. White was Assistant Director of National Services at the GB Sports Council in 1994 before being promoted to Director of Development. Iivula-Ithana was Namibian Minister for Youth and Sport in 1994 and Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation from 1996.

4. Sport was first specifically recognised as a human right in 1978 by UNESCO.

5. Celia Brackenridge was an academic and was central to the creation of WSI and the national women and sport advocacy organisation in the UK. Anita DeFrantz competed in the Montreal Olympics in 1976, was involved with the Organising Committee of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and was elected as a member of the IOC in 1986. Margaret ‘Ann’ Hall is an academic who played formative roles in the creation of WSI and the national women and sport advocacy organisation in Canada. Sue Neill was Head of Policy, Research and Planning at Sport Canada and was IWG co-Chair from 1998–2002. Margaret Talbot was an academic and held senior positions in European and international women and sport, recreation and dance advocacy organisations throughout the 1990s. Anita White’s designation can be found in footnote three.

6. In addition to the statement paragraphs, there was also recognition under the Women in Power and Decision-making strategic objective that the ‘underrepresentation of women in decision-making positions in the areas of art, culture, sports, the media, education, religion and the law have prevented women from having a significant impact on many key institutions’ (UN 1995, para. 183).

7. The addition under rule 2 of the Olympic Charter was ratified in July 1996 by the 105th IOC Session in Atlanta, USA (IOC 1996a).

8. DeFrantz (interview) and White (interview) both acknowledged how the IOC and IWG World Conferences were staggered to avoid competition.