Women’s Day message from the Seychelles Women & Sports Association (SWASA) |07 March 2015

‘May this special day inspire you all to bring about greater gender equality and championing of women in sports’

This year’s theme ‘Empowering Women - Empowering Humanity: Picture It!’ speaks volume for us as we are proud to say that we live in a country that believes in and advocates gender equality.

We often hear our leaders speak of empowerment. But how much are our girls being empowered to make great lifestyle choices?

Education is not only about learning algebra and geometry, it is more than that. We should ask ourselves how as a community we are working together to make sure our young girls grow up to be educated and independent women. We call on more stakeholders to help our girls, be on their sides, and teach them how to grow up to become responsible citizens. The time to act is now. We need to make sure that as a nation we do not allow our girls to make poor lifestyle choices. Let us work harder at protecting our girls from falling prey to any kind of abuse, something we often hear about in the news. The facts are alarming. We should not only protect our girls, but we should also teach our boys to respect our girls.

Let us all encourage our daughters to take up sports as their benefits are endless for their personal, academic and social development. Aside for the great health benefits and theories proving it increases one’s concentration span, sports also create informal platform for sensitive topics to be discussed.

In many countries, women do not have equal opportunities as men in sports. This disparity between the rights of women and men is due to several cultural and religious practices that make it difficult and in many cases impossible for us to say that the opportunity to practice and participate in sports is equal.
This involvement in sports is not only restricted to athletes but also to coaching and administrative positions. There are very few women holding top positions in the IOC, NOCs and IFs. Less than 20% of the executive roles in the Olympic Movement are occupied by women.

Despite that, the level of participation of women in the Olympic Games has improved progressively throughout the history of the Games. In 1960, 11.5% of the participants of the Games in Rome were female and this grew to 22% in 1980  in Moscow, 42% at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and 46.4% for the London Games in 2012. Although the numbers are admirable, nevertheless, we must ask if they couldn’t be greater.

Women should call for equal opportunities in sport in conjunction with greater media exposure. This will aid in promoting women sports especially for young girls, thus empowering female participation for the future.
Happy Women’s Day.

Delta Ward-Horner
Chairperson SWASA