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The member of the RA NA delegation to PACE Sona Ghazaryan gave a speech at the Assembly Plenary Session on behalf of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party. The deputy, particularly, said:

“Honorable chair, dear colleagues,

First of all, I would like to thank the reporter for the very well-penned and detailed report that presents important data and clear and strong messages on what should be done to make sport free of sexism, gender discrimination, and violence.

As it is clearly stated in the report, sport does remain an environment which is more favorable for men.

Though the gates of sport have been gradually opened for female athletes, they still face a number of issues such as discrimination, gender pay gap, violence, sexist comments.

I would like to highlight the role of media, including social media, that often helps reproduce and strengthen stereotypes and hate speech instead of contributing to sport becoming a safe and equal place for everyone.

Media tend to represent women athletes as women first and athletes second.

A UNESCO survey says that coverage of women in sports is often dominated by references to appearance, age, or personal life, whereas men are primarily depicted as powerful, independent, dominating, and valued as athletes.

Two weeks of Olympic coverage are a rare time when sustained coverage of women sports stars hits the headlines.

Yet outside the period of major sporting festivals, statistics claims that 40% of all sports participants are women, yet women’s sports receive only around 4% of all sports media coverage.

The impact of the pandemic was also crucial for female athletes and created more of physical and social pressure on female athletes.

The report points out a number of actions that should be and can be done to improve the situation, such as trainings for all actors in the field of sport to prevent violence against women. Having more women in decision-making bodies in federations, more leadership and coaching roles will lead to a more gender sensitive world of sport.

Yesterday at the subcommittee of sport education and youth, we hosted Ms. Raveney, Deputy Executive Secretary of EPAS, and I asked if there could be one thing to be done to reach gender equality what should it be? The answer was clear: equal pay.

There is still a 35% gender pay gap.

In 2017, sporting intelligence compared 12 best-paid women’s sport leagues with 12 best-paid men’s sport leagues.

The study found out that on average men in these elite sports earned 101 times the amount that women in the elite sports made. We must strive to change this. Equal pay for all.

Sport should be a source of motivation for all, an area that is equal and just itself and promotes equality and justice elsewhere.”