Presentation of a final report with recommendations for future public policies
It was presented at the Congress Center of Alfândega do Porto the report for gender equality in sport that analyzes the sports reality in Portugal. An instrument that served as a basis for the presentation of a set of 15 recommendations contained in the final report of the working group for policies on equality in sport, whose creation the Government approved on August 4, 2022, by order of the Secretaries of State for Equality and Migration and for Youth and Sport, coordinated by Leila Marques, paralympic athlete and vice-president of the Paralympic Committee of Portugal (CPP).
The meeting was attended by Ana Catarina Mendes, Deputy Minister and Parliamentary Affairs, who highlighted three essential points. "The Portuguese population is very sedentary, and this does not exclude men or women, and there is an effort and an appeal for everyone to participate in sports activity," she explained. Second, "there are many women practicing sports today, but few or none in the leadership of the various sports associations and federations. "Third, women over 25 years old leave the practice of sports, due to the lack of conciliation of family life with professional and personal life and for maternity issues," he says.
Besides the presentation of the working group's conclusions, which encourages in general a greater participation of women in the various organizations, the session also included a panel discussion on "Sport with a Gender Perspective".
João Paulo Correia, Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, Isabel Almeida Rodrigues, Secretary of State for Equality and Migrations, and Vasco Pinho, Councillor for Sports of the Matosinhos City Hall, among other individuals, also attended the initiative.
Gender equality in sport is a topic on the agenda of the day in Matosinhos, having been recently discussed at the City Hall in the scope of the first preparatory meeting for the 18th Conference of Sports Ministers of the Council of Europe.
The promotion of gender equality is a very present subject in Matosinhos having been the object of a campaign for the promotion of gender equality "=Igualigual", launched in 2020 by the Municipality. The campaign aims, in general, to contribute to the transformation of inadequate perspectives and behaviors that perpetuate unequal models in social roles, based on gender inequality and that lead to discrimination, social exclusion, victimization, abuse of power and even episodes of violence in relationships.
The second edition of the campaign "=Igualigual", launched by the City Council last year will focus on gender inequalities in sports and aims to pass a message about the importance of breaking prejudices and stereotypes associated with the practice of sports based on gender.