Western Cape plans to boost women in sport

WESTERN CAPE NEWS - The Western Cape Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Anroux Marais, presented a Women in Sport Provincial Action Plan (Pap) to sport bodies at the George Civic Centre on Saturday 22 February.

Pap seeks to prioritise the agenda of women in sport and the department is conceptualising the development of a provincial plan of action to proactively approach the barriers that still exist.

This includes socio-political discourse, cultural influences, lack of multiple resources, and hegemonic male structures and practices - from playground domination by boys, to leadership positions occupied by men.

In her address Marais said while great strides have been made to empower women, it is a serious cause for concern that men are not being prepared for these empowered women.

"In a bid to respond to this, a whole-of-society approach must be adopted in which all stakeholders can reflect, question, resist, review and rebuild where urgently necessary. It is also essential to build an emotional framework to make sense of the dialogues at the core of sexism, not only in sport but in the larger South African socio-political context," she said.

Marais pleaded with the federations to actively support her plea for change in sport.

"With more than 50 actions proposed, I urge you to select at least 10 to bring into fruition at your respective federations and clubs as soon as humanly possible. Each of you present here today know and understand your contexts best and therefore I think it more practical for you to strategically decide on which actions can easily be implemented, mindful of the already constrained budget and limited capacity.