Radio 4 Womens Hour - S Asian women in sport

[Iwasonlytryingtohelp]

Did anyone hear the discussion this morning on WH about barriers to women from Southern Asia or of Southern Asia heritage to participating in sport? I need to listen to the second half on catch up, it was very interesting but talked in quite general terms as to what those barriers might be. I wonder if single-sex provision came up at all as I am aware that can cause challenges

I didn't, but thanks for highlighting it. Looks like this is the episode. Will have a listen.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000y5dq

P.S. minor gripe - I see we are now minoritised women. I have no idea who comes up with these names and how we have to keep up with all constantly shifting lingo.

Only just started listening to this and I already have questions.

South Asian is a fairly broad term - is there any research into the sort of levels of engagement in sports depending on the ethnic group or religious background of women? Are, for example, Hindu or Sikh or Christian South Asian women more likely to participate in sports compared to Muslim South Asian women and vice versa or are the levels of poor representation roughly the same across the various subgroups?

Are there certain sports that do seem to attract the participation of South Asian women, like maybe badminton, hockey etc versus others like gymnastics or swimming?

The first woman kept emphasising access or the lack of it, but at no point explained what is meant by access, and neither did the presenter ask her. 🙄

sigh I get annoyed with these programmes because they proceed from a certain set of assumptions rather than actually exploring all angles. Back to listening.....

YES! I thought that about the access point too. Also are there different cultural or religious limitations for different groups? Do we need sports centres to put on more female-only classes? is it that some sports clothing is deemed too immodest? Is it an indicator that girls from more traditional backgrounds are discouraged from participating, and assuming we think that is a bad thing, how do we change such attitudes in a culturally sensitive way so that ALL girls and women can benefit from the health and social benefits of sport?

I also though the elephant in the room is that we no longer have single sex spaces.

Where are women of faith to get changed and train if we don't have female only sessions which are respected and enforced?

Of course this creates a barrier to sport. It is very interesting that wasn't mentioned.

Finally got around to listening to the entire segment. So type of clothing was mentioned, dietary requirements, issues around body image and confidence (which also extends to women more widely rather than specifically women from ethnic and religious minorities), being mindful of cultural and religious observances - are the ones I can remember.

Yes, it was quite obvious that issues around single-sex requirements were omitted. The lack of female only classes, female only changing spaces and environments might deter women and girls from more conservative families and cultural backgrounds.

Also what is usually glossed over in these conversations is sexism within families arising from certain cultural and religious norms. Sons get to stay out late and have a wider range of sports to participate in, while daughters grow up with unspoken but widely understood expectations that their social and outdoor activities don't tend to include sports. More liberal families will have a fairly relaxed outlook and may even encourage daughters to participate in sports. However, the angle is almost always 'white people vs oppressed brown people' while disregarding other deep seated issues that impact on women's abilities to participate in such things.

I thought it was a poor discussion of an important issue. The aspect of patriarchy was dismissed as not significant, all ‘South Asian’ women seemed to be lumped together as were all sports. The issue of whether low participation is because the women actually want to do sport but face barriers or don’t want to and why that might be wasn’t explored. A lot of the issues - body image, food etc apply to everyone. And of course the big one of single sex spaces was ignored! I’ve never heard the phrase ‘minoritised’ before either so that was a bit distracting.

School sports needs a massive overhaul (starting with asking schoolgirls what they actually want) if they wish to encourage wider participation.

I think the topic would have benefited from having an entire hour or at least 45 minutes dedicated to it so that various related issues could be explored. Of course there were technical issues, but I still felt there could have been a wider range of participants with differing viewpoints and more time to discuss it.