The European Commission shows in the “EU Strategic Actions for Sport” report that in spite of the fact that the number of women actively involved in sports has increased, by the age of 18 female participation in sports represents only 21% of the total, and the age of 14 to 16 is when the biggest number of dropouts take place. Furthermore, as stated by the Women on Boards Report on Gender Balance in Global Sport, there are still very few women in leadership positions in sports organisations, and when it comes to the role of coaching, women represent a small minority of the coaches employed in elite sports.
The “Equal Play: Breaking the Basketball Glass Ceiling” (EQUAL) project seeks to tackle that by promoting women's,
a historically underrepresented group, participation in basketball. This proposal aims to promote the empowerment of young female basketball players aged 14 to 16 from 5 Mediterranean countries (Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Cyprus and Croatia). Likewise, it promotes awareness among young women and their families about the importance of sport and
female participation in it. The main purpose is to reduce the abandonment of basketball practice in that age group, as well as, especially, to strengthen their capacities and skills to continue their sports career as players, coaches and referees.
To achieve this, a consortium formed by a basketball club/academy, three sports associations, a City Council managing basketball municipal schools and a multidisciplinary research and outreach center proposes different activities to promote empowering young women as leaders in basketball practice: designing a methodology to reduce gender inequality which starting with basketball can also be applied to other sports; tailoring support to women in basketball; joint awarenessraising actions; and dialogues between young players and women who have already advanced in their sporting careers.
