Gender inequality in sport in France : How to improve the situation of women in sport in France?
Schann, Anne-Gaëlle (2014)
Schann, Anne-Gaëlle
Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu
2014
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201405137574
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201405137574
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of my research was to explore the answers for fighting against gender inequality in sport in France and the operations for developing women’s sport in terms of female athletes, mediatisation, infrastructures ... Since millennia, women have always been considered as the weaker sex and less able to perform well in sport. Despite this, much equality can be observed in sport (wages, infrastructures, number of female elite athletes, number of female models, image of female athletes, representation of women in clubs or federations, difficulty to find sponsors...).
I examined the issue through four approaches: feminism, culture, business and legal aspects. Feminism is a doctrine based on equal treatment and status for the both genders. The analysis showed that feminist theory cannot be applied to everything. Nevertheless, currently, women are still discriminated in terms of wages, status, number of infrastructures for doing women’s sport or number of hours available for free time and sports. Some animations have been launched to make up for these inequalities, such as bills, awareness of inequalities, discovery of sports at school, training of staff at school, and so on. Special days or weeks have been created but they reinforce discrimination against women.
France is reputed to have a strong male dominated society with many stereotypes of women. Changing three images is required: image of girls, image of sport, and image of women’s sport. The Medias are the main actor to change mentalities, because they perpetuate stereotypes through their advertisements. General practitioners should also advice parents and encourage them to enrol their children in sport for their well-being and pleasure.
I discovered also that the women’s sport was not as well exploited as men’s sport, while the demand is growing. Households consume a lot in sport, but sports items for women are still rare in sports shops. Despite bad results, sports clubs continue to invest mainly into men’s teams, while women’s teams are actually performing better with fewer investments. Some actors claim that the market of women’s sport is not big enough. In that case, some operations are needed to attract more customers, as companies do when they want to sell a new product: discounts, mediatisation, open-door of sports clubs, creation of gyms or day nurseries...
The final approach was the legal one. The government by the Ministry of Women’s Rights and the Ministries of Sports has launched several bills and reforms to force some actors to develop women’s sport. In politics, legislated quotas have worked well, so it should do the same in sports industry. Still, this answer should be the last one, because forcing someone doesn’t lead to a positive interest and an entire commitment.
Therefore, many solutions can be applied to change things, but all actors of sports industry need to be involved and find their own interests.
I examined the issue through four approaches: feminism, culture, business and legal aspects. Feminism is a doctrine based on equal treatment and status for the both genders. The analysis showed that feminist theory cannot be applied to everything. Nevertheless, currently, women are still discriminated in terms of wages, status, number of infrastructures for doing women’s sport or number of hours available for free time and sports. Some animations have been launched to make up for these inequalities, such as bills, awareness of inequalities, discovery of sports at school, training of staff at school, and so on. Special days or weeks have been created but they reinforce discrimination against women.
France is reputed to have a strong male dominated society with many stereotypes of women. Changing three images is required: image of girls, image of sport, and image of women’s sport. The Medias are the main actor to change mentalities, because they perpetuate stereotypes through their advertisements. General practitioners should also advice parents and encourage them to enrol their children in sport for their well-being and pleasure.
I discovered also that the women’s sport was not as well exploited as men’s sport, while the demand is growing. Households consume a lot in sport, but sports items for women are still rare in sports shops. Despite bad results, sports clubs continue to invest mainly into men’s teams, while women’s teams are actually performing better with fewer investments. Some actors claim that the market of women’s sport is not big enough. In that case, some operations are needed to attract more customers, as companies do when they want to sell a new product: discounts, mediatisation, open-door of sports clubs, creation of gyms or day nurseries...
The final approach was the legal one. The government by the Ministry of Women’s Rights and the Ministries of Sports has launched several bills and reforms to force some actors to develop women’s sport. In politics, legislated quotas have worked well, so it should do the same in sports industry. Still, this answer should be the last one, because forcing someone doesn’t lead to a positive interest and an entire commitment.
Therefore, many solutions can be applied to change things, but all actors of sports industry need to be involved and find their own interests.