Women and Sport in Asia

Rosa Lopez De D'Amico, Maryam Koushkie Jahromi, Maria Luisa M. Guinto, Rosa Lopez De D'Amico, Maryam Koushkie Jahromi, Maria Luisa M. Guinto

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780367675837
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000393163
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This is the first book to survey the participation of women in sport and physical education across Asia, from the Middle East and South Asia through to the Asia-Pacific region.

Covering sport and physical activity at all levels, from school-based PE and community sport to elite, high-performance sport, the book provides an important overview of developments in policy, theory and research across this complex and dynamic region. It has a strong focus on gender equity but is informed by important intersecting influences that affect the lives of girls and women and their participation in sport. Including contributions from leading scholars from across the region, the book draws on multi-disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, and history, and makes an important contribution to global understanding of diversity, challenges, and achievements in the sporting lives of Asian Women.

This book will be a fascinating read for any student, researcher, or policy-maker working in sport studies, gender studies, women's studies or Asian studies.

Part I
Background and initiatives

Chapter 1
Introduction

Asian women in sport

Maryam Koushkie Jahromi, Rosa López de D’Amico, and Maria Luisa M. Guinto

The study on Asian women in sport reveals a huge gap in literature that this book hopes to address. Although they have been written about, very little has been articulated by Asian women regarding their status in sport. This book provides the verbal space for them (and some male collaborators) to narrate their distinct observations and experiences, considering what they deem as important information from their point of view. As such, this effort represents a significant breakthrough for Asian women in sport.

Several factors affect sport participation among girls and women, including physical, psychological, and socio-cultural (Appleby & Foster, 2013; Coleman, Cox, & Roker, 2008). Considering the diversities in every continent, women’s sport participation could be a manifestation of the culture, economy, politics, and social status of women in any country. Asia is the largest continent covering approximately 30% of the earth’s land area and the most populous continent with around 60% of the total population in the world. The continent contains 48 countries which are autonomous territories and three dependent territories including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau which are dependent on China. The 10 most populated countries in Asia are China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Turkey, and Iran by priority (Worldometer, 2020). This continent is the birthplace of many of the earliest civilizations. Asia is very diverse in terms of culture, language, and race. The geographic term “Asia” was originally used by ancient Greeks to define the civilizations of their empire. Due to the vastness of Asia, its regions are classified as West, South, North, and Central Asia. A wide variety of languages of about 2,300 are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. A majority of Asians speak the common languages of Chinese, Hindi, English, Russian, Indonesian, Bengali, and Japanese. As such, this region includes cultural diversities. Shared language and ethnicity among Asian countries illustrate the flows of many immigrations. Asia is also home to all major religions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism as well as hundreds of minor religions. Hinduism (25%) and Islam (24%) represent the largest religious groups in Asia with over a billion followers (Gelfand et al., 2011).

Women in Asia are facing continued constraints in obtaining gender equality and empowerment, although indications of progress have been evident in recent years. Comparisons among East and South Asian countries have shown some of the similarities and differences between Asian countries (Lee & Park, 2011). In many South Asian countries, women are still regarded as second-class citizens. Their mobility, work, self-esteem and self-image, worth, and identity continue to depend on the male members of society. Their lack of empowerment and both their financial and emotional dependence have limited their self-expression and choices in life (Niaz & Hassan, 2006). In some countries of Asia, the number of women and girls in educational institutions exceeds that of men and boys, and increasing literacy levels of females and males in South and South-West Asia is considerable (United Nations, 2016). While women’s life expectancy is more than that of men, their morbidity is higher. Women hold a minority of senior management-level positions in the civil services, even though they constitute half or more of the total staff, and approximately half of the countries in Asia have limiting legislations for the participation of women in elected bodies. These diversities may influence all aspects of women’s life including sport.

This book is about women in Asia and their participation in Physical Education (PE), Physical Activity (PA), and sport. Physical education includes school-based exercise activities, and sport includes all forms of games, competition, or activities needing physical effort and skill that are played or done according to rules, for enjoyment, and/or as a job (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020). It contains overviews of international developments in policy, research, and theory involving gender and sport of some countries in Asia. The clear focus throughout the book is PE, sport, and gender equity, but informed by important factors that affect the lives of girls and women and their participation. The multidisciplinary nature of the contributions derived from sociology, cultural studies, anthropology, and history will increase global understanding of diversity, challenges, and achievements in the sporting lives of Asian women. This book is the result of the collaboration among scholars with different backgrounds, experiences, language skills, and countries of origin, thereby enriching the knowledge exchange, international cooperation, and potential reach.

Motivation for the book originated from the network of scholars in the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW) and inspired by the success of two IAPESGW-initiated books: Muslim Women and Sport (Benn, Pfister, and Jawad, 2010), which was a major contribution to the understanding of contemporary Islam and its complex implications to Muslim women in sport; and Women and sport in Latin America (López de D’Amico, Benn, and Pfister, 2016), which became the first book ever to be published either in English or Spanish about the realities of women and sport in Latin America. With the invaluable support from the International Council of Physical Education and Sport (ICSSPE), this important work featuring women and sport in Asia has been realized. This book contains synopses of women’s status in sport across 20 countries: Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. In each chapter, geographical, political, economic, demographic, and socio-cultural contexts are described, followed by discussion of women’s rights and issues relevant to possible gender inequity, participation in PE/or sport at school and at the professional level of sport.

Part I contextualizes the book with a description of the Asian region and review of the international sport policies for women’s participation in PE and sport. Chapter 1 offers a glimpse of Asia and its diversity, and describes the structure and content of the book. Chapter 2 traces the international developments in policies for PE and sport and examines the history and discourse of values-led legislation in the field of gender equity in PE and sport. Chapter 3 looks at female empowerment through sport for development policies that have been implemented internationally. It provides examples of the impact of those policies and good practices in some countries in Asia.

In Part II, the situation of women and sport in Asian countries is examined in 20 chapters, with particular attention on gender equity, and the challenges and successes of girls and women related to physical education and sport participation in school, community (sport for all) and high-performance sport at the local and international arenas. Every chapter presents the unique geographical, political, economic, and demographic profile of the country, its socio-cultural context, and a general view of women’s rights and issues. Additionally, it discusses the country situation on PE and school-based sport, equity issues such as gender and disability, curriculum and school-club provision, community activities (such as indigenous games, traditional sports, and physical activities), facilities and resources (including spaces and opportunities for unorganized sport activities), providers (state, private, commercial), and cultural influences on gender relations and laws. Women participation in high-performance sport, leadership, media, governing bodies, and management are also described. The key enablers and deterrents to women’s participation in physical education and sport are likewise highlighted in each country chapter. Finally, Part III presents the summary comments and recommendations of the editor-contributors in view of moving forward.

Asia is a rich cultural continent, hosting countries where various cultural, social, and political patterns exist. The book contributes knowledge from various countries and cultures that are not so visible in mainstream English publications. The authors present information on country-specific socio-cultural patterns, the place of women in society, their sports culture, and participation of women in PE and sports. It was challenging to address this topic as considerable data related to women, sport, and PE in many countries in the region has not been published in mainstream scholarly work. Moreover, the greatest complexity of this venture was to write in a historical moment as the world struggled through the COVID-19 global pandemic. Nevertheless, the authors rose to the challenge and collaborated to articulate the state of women and sport in many countries in Asia.

References

• Appleby, K. M., & Foster, E. (2013). Gender and sport participation. In E. A. Roper (Eds.), Gender relations in sport: Teaching gender. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-455-0_1
• Benn, T., Pfister, G., & Jawad, H. (Eds.). (2010). Muslim women and sport. New York: Routledge.
• Cambridge dictionary. (2020). https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sport
• Coleman, L., Cox, L., & Roker, D. (2008). Girls and young women’s participation in physical activity: Psychological and social influences. Health Education Research, 23 (4), 633–647.
• Gelfand, M., Raver, J., Nishii, L., Leslie, L., Lun, J., Lim, B., Duan, L., … Yamaguchi, S. (2011). Differences between tight and loose cultures: A 33-nation study. Science, 332, 1100–1104.
• Lee, J., & Park, H. (2011). Measures of women’s status and gender inequality in Asia: Issues and challenges. Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, 17 (2), 7–31.
• López de D’Amico, R., Benn, T., & Pfister, G. (Eds.). (2016). Women and sport in Latin America. New York: Routledge.
• Niaz, U., & Hassan, S. (2006). Culture and mental health of women in South-East Asia. World Psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 5 (2), 118–120.
• United Nations. (2016). Gender equality and women’s empowerment in Asia and the Pacific perspectives of governments on 20 years of implementation of the Beijing declaration. Bang-kok: United Nations Publications.
• Worldometer. (2020). Countries in Asia. www.worldometers.info/population/countries-in-asia-by-population/

Chapter 2
International developments in policy for equity

Girls and women in physical education and sport

Rosa López de D’Amico María Dolores González-Rivera

Introduction

The year 2020 marked the celebration of 72 years since the United Nations [UN] Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, 42 years since UNESCO adopted The International Charter of Physical Education and Sport in 1978, and 45 years since the first United Nations Conference on Women was celebrated in 1975. While there has been advancement in terms of human rights to the individuals, nevertheless it has not been enough to eliminate the gaps and inequalities that still exist in the world today (e.g., United Nations, 2019), and that includes the access for all children to a physical education (PE) class.

The year 2020 is also the anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action that was agreed upon during the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women – 1995; it is a hallmark in the agenda for women’s empowerment for its key global policy, addressing 12 critical areas of concern on gender equality. Every five years the agenda has been reviewed and, despite some progress, there are still many areas needing change to achieve gender equality (UN Women, 2020b).

There is no doubt that the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals 2000–2015 created an impact on the political agenda of all nations and organizations and this contained a specific goal targeting gender equality. The eight goals were not achieved, so a revised agreement ‘the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) became the new political driver with 17 g...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Part I Background and initiatives
• Part II Country cases
• Part III Moving forward
• Index