SCOTTISH Athletics is running away with the top prize for ensuring diversity and inclusiont. They recently issued equality guidance to all their member clubs and made it easily available to everyone through their website and social media platforms. This wasn’t drawn up in a darkened room with the aim of ticking a rather large box, this was a collaborative effort with member clubs taking part in a survey.
One of the major decisions made which takes – some would say – a brave step, was that following discussions with athletes, event organisers and event commissions, they agreed that all Scottish athletics championship events would include a non-binary gender category within the event entry options. This was something that they agreed to run as a pilot from the start of last month and have included in all events which stage a national championship.
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Many people believe that we live in an equal society and that discrimination is a thing of the past; this is not the case at all. The ultimate aim of Scottish Women in Sport is not to exist, as at that point we would have no need to raise awareness of equality issues and could stop campaigning for change. Recent events that have come to my attention definitely disprove this theory and my understanding now is that it may take many years before we can comfortably say we live in an equal society, where men and women are treated alike and the same opportunities are open to all.
We see little glimmers of change, we see women taking up leadership roles where beforehand they wouldn’t be considered at all. However, the reason they are visible and there is still debate is that it is still news, as this is a rare occurrence, a one-off. That doesn’t offer us the balance that we should have.
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As the aim of most sports is to increase participation, it is clear to me that having gender balance at the top, where the decisions are made, will make for better solutions and a greater understanding; giving organisations a strong combination of male and female approaches to problem solving. You can read the guidance from Scottish Athletics at www.scottishathletics.org.uk/45615-2/.
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