Women and sport, Salis (deputy vice president of Coni): “Vehicle to promote gender equality”

ROME – There are over 8.5 million women who play sports in Italy, 43.3% of the total number of sportsmen and women: a figure which shows that a gender gap persists in sport, which however has gradually narrowed in recent years in which mainly competitive athletes have grown up. This is what emerges from the Censis Report on “Women, work and sport in Italy. For the growth of the territories and of the country”, presented at CONI together with the project created by the Lottomatica Foundation and the Italian Judo Fight Karate Martial Arts Federation. The report highlights how without women who work, and without women who play sports, the country will not grow, or at least will grow less than it could. For this reason, increasing the number of sportswomen is not only a matter of social justice and equal opportunities, but must also arise as a matter of development and national interest. “Sport promotes the values ​​of inclusion, cooperation and respect but unfortunately, even in this area there are sometimes gender disparities and imbalances that need to be eliminated through a plurality of actions”, explained Silvia Salis, deputy vice president of CONI. The Censis study shows that sportswomen have higher educational qualifications than those who lead a sedentary life: 26.9% are university graduates and 36.5% have a high school diploma, against, respectively, 9.7% of university graduates and 27 .3% of female graduates who do not play sports. The Report also underlines how 45% of women who engage in physical activity practice it outdoors: sportswomen are closer to nature and implement a series of behaviors with a lower environmental impact, which indicate greater attention to sustainability . Sportswomen are not only greener than other women, but they are also more involved in digital life paths, which simplify and improve their lives: 81.3% use the computer, 95.6% surf the Internet. Finally, women who play sports go more than others to visit exhibitions and museums and read more books: 67.8% have read at least one book in the last year, against 25.9% of those who don’t play sports. “Targeted campaigns, incentives and greater investments are needed to bring girls and boys closer to sport from a young age”, to “strongly affirm the value of women’s sporting activity and the right of women to practice sport also at a competitive level: only in this way can sport truly become a vehicle for promoting gender equality in society”, he concluded.

RED/Agipro