Elisa – report about Gender Equality

In questionnaire we asked question about gender equality in sport in general and in softball, 76 softball players male and female from all over Europe answer and this are the results:
More than half of them think that there is inequality in sports, that male athletes have more opportunity and are paid more than famale athletes. 60% of them think that boys are more encourage to play sports and they think that in order to change this we should have more sports in school, we should encourage girls more in playing sports, starting from a young age and that we should treat girls and boys in the same way.
Then we asked why they think men and women stop playing sports, 62% think that men will play as long as they can and only 19% think the same about women, instead most of them think that the main reason why women stop playing is because of children.
When we asked them question about the softball environment, most of them (80%) agreed that softball should have more female coaches, more female umpires and more female members in general. In the end we asked them when they will stop playing and why, 74% answer that they planning to play for a long time, 31% will stop when they will not have any more motivation, 14% will stop because of work and 16% because of children, but also 80% answer that they will continue to be part of the club even after they stop playing.
In conclusion, gender inequality in sports is still present in our society and if we want more equality in the future, we need to ask ourselves: What should we do to chance this reality? and What can we do to encourage more girls to play sport?