Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-06-04-Speech-3-323"
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"en.20030604.10.3-323"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, when the Swedish golf star, Annika Sörenstam, wanted to compete with the men in the American professional tournament, the male golf world got the jitters. A number of male golfers reacted with suspicion and antipathy, and others rejected the idea outright. The men wondered what was to happen now. Perhaps she was better than some of them. The reaction encountered by Annika Sörenstam when she wanted to measure her ability against the men is symptomatic of many men’s attitudes to women and sport. Not that I believe that men in general actively conspire against women in sport, although there are some who do so. What is done through thoughtlessness and prejudice has the same effect, however. Women are discriminated against in sport. That is something that emerges very clearly from Mrs Fraisse’s, in my view, quite excellent report. Women obtain fewer resources and shorter training periods and are quite often treated unfairly by sponsors. Moreover, it is often men who call the shots in sport. To this should be added precisely what many others have already said, namely that the media devote more space to men than to women.
I am president of a sports association: the Järnvägen Handball Club in Hallsberg. It is a club with a fair degree of equality in terms of its membership, with approximately as many girls and women as boys and men. We have worked single-mindedly to create equal opportunities for girls and boys. I will not say that we have succeeded fully, but we have made a fair bit of progress. A lot still remains to be done, and we have to make an effort in our handball club. All other sports associations must also make an effort and single-mindedly work for an environment of equality in sport.
Sport is significant in many ways. It is almost always beneficial and healthy for those who practise it. It creates opportunities for social contact and for being together and helps people flourish. Through sport, we can combat drugs and exclusion and give people room to grow and develop, but everyone – girls as well as boys, women as well as men – must have the same opportunities.
The European Parliament cannot remove all the causes of the lack of equality in sport, any more than we can remove such causes in other areas of society. We can, however, be clear about what we want, and we can encourage ourselves, the Member States, sports associations, the media and those who participate in sport always to think in terms of equality and equal conditions for women and men. The Member States can be tougher in the action they take. There can be a halt to subsidies paid to associations that do not fulfil objectives in terms of equality. Sponsors can exercise pressure on clubs. If they do not practise equality, they do not receive any money. There must, therefore, be the will to bring about equality in sport. Where there is a will, there is a way. Let us make use of that will to bring about equality in European sport."@en1
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