Identifying and Eliminating Barriers to Women’s Professional Advancement in Sport

This parallel event was sponsored by the International Women’s Group on Women and Sport, the Women’s Sport Foundation, and WomenSport International. Held in the Boss Room in the Church Center of the UN, it was designed to engage participants in discussion about the status of women in sport. The session began with brief introductions of the each of the discussion facilitators, who represented a wide variety of experiences in sport. The discussion leaders then broke the participants into 5 discussion groups.

One of the discussion groups, led by Katherine Starr, founder of Safe4Athletes, discussed sexual abuse in sport and what can be done to reduce and prevent it. All sports are vulnerable to sexual abuse, but sports that engage young athletes (like gymnastics) may be more vulnerable (or more visible) than those which engage older athletes (like cycling). Katherine explained the uniqueness of the coach-athlete relationship, and how detrimental it can be when the person responding to reports of abuse doesn't understand that relationship. She also emphasized how important it is that the person responding to issues of abuse be outside of the team dynamic, and not responsible for the team’s winning record or finances.

A second discussion group talked about about research, development, and education. Participants in this group shared their personal stories of empowerment through sport. One attendee shared how participating in tennis later in life served as a catalyst for her, and she emphasized the importance of promoting sports to women at all stages of life. Another athlete from Pakistan shared her experiences as a successful young athlete who went largely unrecognized by her country’s media. She spoke about the importance of using media, especially social media, to draw attention to the value of sport in women’s empowerment and women’s rights.

Women Physicians as a Catalyst for Change

“The biggest mistake I have committed is not asking him to leave the room.”

You are a first year resident doctor. A pregnant patient comes in with her husband. She presents with symptoms of an upset stomach and headache. You look at her abdomen and notice bruises all over. You turn to the patient and ask what happened. Before the patient can open her mouth, her husband says she bumped into a table a couple days ago.

What do you do? Do you take his words as the truth or question further? Should you ask the husband to leave the room?

These questions were presented at the session “Roles of Women Physicians in Sustainable Development by Addressing VAW”. Violence against women (VAW) happens all over the world, not specific to any culture, nationality, religion, etc. In many cases of VAW, it is often a physician who has close third-party contact with the victim. Training medical students and physicians to look for signs of abuse and violence is a step towards getting the victim the necessary support she needs.

This panel, sponsored by the Medical Women's International Association and the American Medical Women’s Association African Views, consisted of a panel of 13 women physicians from all over the world. Each spoke on different programs to educate medical students on how to recognize victims of abuse and violence as well as how to handle the situation properly.

In Australia, when a physician identifies a patient as a victim of VAW, a hotline can be used to dispatch security personnel to escort the woman to a safe space as her case is being handled by police. In the United States, efforts are being made to allow physicians to be with the patient, one-on-one, as long as the patient is above 12 years of age.

It is estimated that 1 of 3 women are victims of VAW. Yet, so little is currently done on a national level to address VAW. VAW is as much of a public health issue as H1N1, Ebola, and most recently, the Zika virus. The difference in approach, from allocation of extra funds to mobilization of health professionals, shines a light on how neglectant the government is on women. If similar action plans for the Ebola breakout was enforced for VAW, would there be less women suffering around the world?

With Dr. Teresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, president of AMWA 2015-2016.

Holding the Real Criminals Responsible; Prostitution and Sex Trafficking

The question was posed... what is prostitution?

• "Commercialization of sexual deeds and the cornerstone of gender inequality"
• "Paid rape, involuntary servitude. It is not about sex to the person being sold, it is an ask of desperation for her as a result of the lack of alternatives"
• "Buying and selling of women and girls, sexual torture"

This is how the panel members defined and discussed prostitution. Despite these terrible descriptions, people often argue that prostitution and sex trafficking offer women in poverty a chance to make a living and a chance at a better life. It can be argued that they have more power and control than the men buying their services by taking advantage of their circumstances to make a living. This is the foundation for arguing that by legalizing prostitution, the women would be safer and have more control over the industry. It also allows them to take men and pimps to court that violate them. This panel argued, legal or not, these women are being violated which is demonstrated by their definitions. They do not have a choice and sex cannot be bought. It is only being bought by one person, the man, and the women is basically an object men can violate in whatever way they please.

The women on this panel felt very strongly that prostitution is not a choice, its not sex and it results in lifelong physical and psychological damage. Legalizing prostitution, as has been done in many countries, has not improved the situation at hand. In fact, violence in Germany increased and an illegal industry grew as a result. The panel agreed that the best way to go about legislation regarding sex trafficking and prostitution is the Nordic Model. The Nordic Model ensures that the women are not criminalized, focuses on punishing the sex buyers and provides exit services for the women. The police are trained not to detain these women in prisons for more then 48 hours because they are not the criminals. The sex buyers are sanctioned by more then just a slap on the wrist that equivalent to a violation for j walking. The exit services are extremely important so that women receive the psychological treatment they need, find out who she is and keep their records clean from criminal activity that allows them to move forward in life.

It is important the UN and the world recognize this model is the only model that makes sense and criminalizes the right individuals when it comes to sex trafficking and prostitution. A version of this model has been exemplified in Minnesota, through a non-profit called Breaking Free. The main goal is to provide a better way to deal with criminalizing sex buyers and taking care of the women upon exiting the industry. Additionally, the organization helps  educate society about the reality of violence against women and help young girls understand there is an alternative.


The panel moderator was from the Coalition Against Trafficking and in Women (CATW) and more information can be found here http://catwinternational.org/. Vednita Carter's foundation, Breaking Free, can be found here http://www.breakingfree.net/.

Ending Violence against Women Online: Effective Responses to Promote Women's Rights and Safety

The prevention of violence against women used to get less attention from the public than other issues such as health, hunger, and poverty of girls and women. Since 2009, Take Back the Tech, the Association for Progressive Communications, Gender IT, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands launched a project in 12 countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to investigate how women have used technology. They looked at what particular experiences online could be, what online harassment and stalking, such as black emails and images could provoke, and its related violence and injustice, as well as how the internet has changed their lives. The countries involved in this study are The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, and Pakistan. However, there has been very little that women could do to tackle these problems. Therefore, these organizations are looking into available remedies.

            In terms of methodologies, the organizations develop a map of the countries regarding what has happened with individual cases. The organizations also stress the importance of gaining consent from the participants, which is a vital piece of the internet world. From their investigation, the organizations found that some women are affected even when they are offline. For example, one woman was filmed accidentally in a video which was placed on YouTube later and circulated among a group of boys. She was threatened by having sex with these boys for not sharing this video with her parents. Moreover, invisible actors play important roles behind the scenes. The most common scenario is that the sexual harassment is done by a known person. It doesn’t only cause physical and emotional harm, but it is also invasion of privacy. Sadly, there is a lack of attention to Global South regions.

Currently, the biggest challenges are the absence of an international convention toward those who violate women’s rights and a lack of legislation against cyber crime. Many reports have been ignored or even deleted. Many feminist accounts are hacked as well. By 2003, only six countries had internal laws for protecting women on the internet.  Some countries have laws on cyber crime; however they are mainly bank-oriented, such as the disclosure of credit card information. Nevertheless, online sexual harassment definitely includes psychological violence, which is the most difficult to report and to prove in the courts on the national level. In Kenya, people affected do not know how to use technology. By the end of 2014, Take Back the Tech, the Association for Progressive Communications, Gender IT, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands started approaching the police for partnerships to ensure the urgency of carrying out legislation. So, how is the international community going to handle it? This is the question that we must continue working on.