Urgent Need To Tackle Gender Inequality In Sports Leadership Roles

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- The lack of women’s participation in decision making roles in  Malaysian sports should be addressed urgently, said Japanese Centre for Research on Women in Sport (JSW) Executive Director Dr Etsuko Ogasawara.

The recommendation was given after the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s (OCM) Women in Sports Committee revealed that only 15 percent of women have taken up leadership roles in the sector in the country as of 2020.

Etsuko said the revelation during the ASEAN Women in Sports Conference recently, is at a worrying level and is not sufficient to flourish gender equality in the field.

"A governance code or a rule must be established in the sector in accordance to the international standard of 40 percent of female participation in decision making role in sports.

"I think Malaysia also needs to collaborate with an international body to come to an agreement just like what Japan did to tackle the gender inequality issue," she told Bernama on the sidelines of the  ASEAN Women In Sports Conference 2023 held in Subang Jaya, recently. 

Etsuko added that Japan has taken the initiative to increase the participation of women in sports by signing the Brighton plus Helsinki 2014 Declaration in April 2017, which demands the ratio of women in board members of sports organisations to be increased to at least 40 percent. 

The declaration was signed by five major Japanese sports organisations - the Japan Sports Agency, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), the Japan Sport Association, Japanese Paralympic Committee and Japan Sports Council.

“Upon signing the declaration, JOC's women’s participation in leadership role rose from 20 percent to 40 percent. Then, the Tokyo Olympic Organising Committee went from zero percent to 42 percent of women participation for the 2020 Olympics held in Tokyo," she added.

The current Asian representative member of the International Working Group (IWG) executive board, added that the five-year period from 2017 to 2021 was crucial for Japan in fostering gender equality in sports.

However, she said the effectiveness of female participation in Japan's sports decision making role over the years is yet to be evaluated.

Speaking about her journey in sports and her fight towards women participation in the field, Etsuko, 65, who will be retiring next year, embarked on her journey by being the number one swimmer during her teen days in her hometown at Ibaraki prefecture, Japan and then pursued a master’s in sports science to become a top level swimming coach.

Etsuko also served as an assistant professor at the National Institute of Fitness and Sport in Kanoya, Kagoshima, and became the head coach of the swim team before beginning her doctoral studies.

Years later, she joined the Japanese national swimming team in her late 20's as a coaching staff for the 1986 Seoul Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

"I was proud that one of my (male) students, Daichi Suzuki got a gold medal and later on became Japan's First Chief Commissioner of Sports Agency in 2015," she said.

Pursuing her passion in sports for women, Dr Etsuko, who currently is a professor of sports management at Jutendo University, chaired the First Asian Conference on Women and Sports in 2001 which was participated by 14 countries.

She also co-chaired the 2006 World Conference on Women and Sport in Kumamoto, Japan which was participated by 700 people from 100 countries for the period 2002-2006.

With over 40 years of commitment and passion in the field, Dr Etsuko has received many awards namely Contribution Award of AVON for Women in 2004, International Pathfinder Award from the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport in the USA in 2012 and Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) Sport Award (Women and Sport Award) in 2018.

-- BERNAMA