Continental Women’s Forums, a Fashion Show at the 2007 Volkswagen
Women’s World Cup, equal prize money, female representation on the ITTF
Executive Committee; all suggests very strongly that when it comes to
sport the International Table Tennis Federation is well ahead of the
field.
Certainly that would appear to be the situation following
the comments of Nawal El Moutawakel on Monday 26th January 2009 at a
forum in Brussels who, if she visited one South American country, would
undoubtedly be highly delighted.
Female Leaders
At the
gathering organised by Sport et Citoyenneté, she encouraged the
International Olympic Committee and other sports organisations to
increase the number of female leaders in sport.
Nawal El
Moutawakel is an Executive Board member of the International Olympic
Committee, an Olympian and Morocco’s Minister of Youth and Sport.
IOC Members
At
the moment only 16 of the 107 members of the International Olympic
Committee’s decision makers are female, 15 per cent; a figure that does
not impress Nawal El Moutawakel.
Self-Belief
However,
whilst table tennis has made progress in recent years with regards to
encouraging more women to become involved is the root cause of the
problem a case of "you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it
drink"?
We can encourage, urge, persuade but at the end of the
day; the person in question must have the desire, the heart and the
self-belief.
Different Perspective
Women must be brave and not be afraid of challenging the male of the species.
I’m
not suggesting that they should don war paint, mount a chariot and lead
and army to battle in Queen Boadicea mould but neither should they
believe that their role is to have the carpet slippers warm when the
tired husband returns from a day’s toil at the office.
Also, as
women are in the minority when it comes to positions on decision making
committees; perhaps their views have more chance to be considered and
are possibly from a different perspective.
Paucity
In
table tennis there is progress, certainly there is a paucity of female
national federation and association presidents but thanks to the
efforts of the ITTF Women’s Working Group with Claude Bergeret (ITTF
Executive Committee Member) and Lilamani de Soysa (ITTF Project
Manager), there is progress and models for other sports to follow.
The view is that "more needs to be done" but I’m not sure what the phrase means. It is so vague.
Gender Balance Rectified
It
is from the person that the desire must come and gradually as more
women become involved in decision making positions, the role models
will be created and the gender balance will be rectified and perhaps we
have a possible example to follow.
Follow Ecuador
Consider
the small South American country of Ecuador, like all other nations it
is suffering through the current world recession but table tennis in
the country is moving forward.
The National Training Centre has
been totally renovated, a sponsorship deal with Stag has been struck
with the hall comfortably holding 15 table tennis tables, a court mat
has been laid, there are more girls than boys in the national squad and
four young players from the Hebei Training School in China (two boys,
two girls) are due to arrive for a six month stint as practice partners
on 23rd February 2009.
Also, the President of the National Table
Tennis Federation has insisted that all members of the national team
are resident in Guayaquil where accommodation is available at the
National Training Centre.
One Fact
One more fact: the President of the Ecuador Table Tennis Federation is a woman and so is the Minister of Sport!
Source: www.ittf.com
