SUPPORTER: Securing sports education through innovative and inclusive gender equality plans
Short description
The EU is committed to gender equality in all sectors and industries, including the European Research Area. Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) are considered an important policy instrument in achieving this in research and innovation. Consequently, having a GEP is now an eligibility criterion for EU funding. However, GEPs are rarely inclusive or intersectional, and they do not address gender-based violence. The aim of SUPPORTER is therefore to advance inclusive gender+ equality in research and innovation in the European Research Area by developing inclusive and intersectional GEPs, with specific reference to gender-based violence. The project supports institutions to develop intersectional, innovative, inclusive and impactful GEPs, tailored towards sports higher education institutions and explicitly addressing gender-based violence. The project co-creates an innovative capacity-building and mutual learning programme, and delivers support and mentoring towards the development of the GEPs. SUPPORTER implements a twinning-inspired approach, methodologically based on three interlinked processes: analytical, reflective, and implementation.
SUPPORTER is a collaboration between eleven European partners. The UGOT team consists of researchers from the Department of Sociology and Work Science, the Department of Food and Nutrition and Sports Science, and the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research at UGOT.
Researchers at UGOT: Sofia Strid, Angelica Simonsson, Karin Grahn, Suzanne Lundvall
Partners: Fondation Europeenne de la Science (ESF), France (Project coordinator); University of Gothenburg (UGOT), Sweden; Kentro Erevnon Notioanatolikis Evropis Astiki mi Kerdoskopiki Etaireia (SEERC), Greece; Univerzitet u Banjoj Luci (UNIBL), Bosnia & Herzegovina; Univerza v Lubljani (UL), Slovenia; Univerzita Karlova (CU), Czechia; Natsionalna Sportna Akademiya Vassil Levski (NSA), Bulgaria; Lietuvos Sporto Universitetas (LSU), Lithuania; Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara (uvt), Romania; Georgian State Teaching University of Physical Education and Sport (GSTUPES), Georgia; Institutia Publica Universitatea de Educatie Fizica si Sport (SUPES), Moldova
SUPPORTER on EC CORDIS: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101094529
SUPPORTER webpage: https://www.supporter-project.eu
Activities
Webinar
Towards Safer Sports Environments: transforming MEN'talities
On 5 February, from 14:00-15:30, SUPPORTER will host a webinar on how violence in sport reflects societal norms around masculinity. The session aims to engage men in promoting gender equality and influencing the behaviour of other men. It will also highlight how gender-equal behaviour can lead to positive outcomes for all genders, benefiting both sport and society.
Report on Institutional Roadmaps
In May 2024 Ververidou, F., Tatsioka, Z., Vilarchao, E., Strid, S., & Ipolyi, I. (2024) published the deliverable Report on the design of the institutional roadmaps that is the first step towards the development and implementation of inclusive, innovative and impactful GEPs with a particular focus on gender-based violence in sports education. The institutional roadmaps are the result of a co-design process in which implementing organisations were supported through training sessions, mutual learning activities and continuous mentoring, hopefully making them more feasible and realistic. To find out more, read D4.1 Report on the design of the institutional roadmaps (zenodo.org)
Policy Brief
Also in May 2024, a policy brief authored by Vilarchao, E., Ipolyi, I., & SUPPORTER Consortium (2024), was published with the aim to communicate SUPPORTER’s policy-related observations and implications thereof to the EC.
More precisely, the observations consist in the need for contemplating the intersection of three different dimensions in policy-making, interlinked by the SUPPORTER context: institutional dimension, sports education-dimension and the ‘widening’-dimension. Further, there is a need for contextualising the assessment and progressive development of GEPs across Europe. Finally, given the crucial role of sports in social inclusion, it also highlights the potential of sports and sports higher education as part of it, as a catalyst for gender+ equality societal changes.
For the full brief: D4.4 Policy Brief 1: support to the implementation of inclusive Gender Equality Plans (zenodo.org)
Project results
As part of the SUPPORTER project, eight sports higher education institutions from Central and Eastern Europe have successfully developed, endorsed, and published their inclusive, innovative, intersectional, and impactful gender equality plans.
The gender equality plans are the result of three years of collaboration and evidence-based work. Each institution conducted a gender equality audit, designed tailored roadmaps, and engaged in mentoring, training, and mutual learning. This participatory approach ensured that the final plans were tailored to each institution's specific context and the needs of the sports sector, while also complying with European guidelines for institutional change.
These eight gender equality plans now serve as inspiration for other sports institutions wishing to design or implement their own inclusive gender equality plans.
Resources for working with gender equality
For institutions and organizations looking to start their own work on promoting gender equality in sport, SUPPORTER has developed several resources:
- Capacity-building videos: Drawing on the consortium's diverse expertise, SUPPORTER has created training and mentoring programs to strengthen the capacity of institutions. These videos address key concepts and challenges in addressing gender-based violence in academic settings, gender equality plans as a tool for institutional change, data collection and analysis, and more.
- Recommendations: SUPPORTER has also published four sets of guidelines highlighting the roles and contributions of coaches, universities and sports faculties, as well as lecturers and teachers, in promoting gender equality in sport.
