IT’S amazing how much influence Scotland has in many sports worldwide and this week the focus in on golf. The R&A, based in St Andrews and who govern golf worldwide outside of the United States and Mexico, are a case in point.
They have consent to do so from 156 amateur and professional golf organis-ations, covering more than 30 million golfers in 143 countries.
That is quite a statistic and it is heartening to read this week that they have launched a Women in Golf charter to increase women and girls’ participation and membership and to encourage more families to enjoy golf as a leisure activity. They will also encourage the creation of more job opportunities for women.
Not only is this a powerful statement of intent from Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A, it is backed up by a promise to increase their overall investment into women’s, girls’ and mixed golf to £80 million over the next 10 years. When large organisations such as the R&A and Uefa take steps to change the culture within sport, you can’t help but feel excited for the future, hopeful that change will be effective and that “diversity and inclusion” become redundant bywords from a past age.
But perhaps we will hold that thought for a little while longer. At the opposite end of the scale, Women in Football revealed they had seen an overall increase of almost 400% in the number of reports of sex discrimination and harassment they received, with alleged abuse on social media accounting for the biggest leap. So perhaps we shouldn’t pop the champagne just yet.
Scottish Women in Sport continue to do their bit and we will discuss the barriers facing females and sport at our conference in Edinburgh on Friday. Not only will we talk to experts in many areas, we have invited a panel of young people to join us, so we can hear about their specific issues.
We still have some places available if you are interested – register at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/breaking-down-barriers-for-females-and-sport-tickets-44145586638 or drop me a line at scottishwomeninsport@gmail.com
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