2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

This roundtable proposes to spark an engaging discussion on the relationship between sports and sexism.  Sports commonly reproduce social inequalities, including racism, sexism, and classism.  Yet, they’ve also provided a forum to contest those hierarchies. A vocal feminist community has criticized sport culture from a global perspective.  Participants seek to collectively envision the changes necessary to transform sport into a sphere of gender equality and inclusion. Intersectional feminism will be central to the discussion. This panel will discuss ideas based on lived experience, advocacy, and formal research on how to move forward in a field that is predominantly male. The participants hope to discuss, with one another and fellow attendees, several important questions, including:

*What does it mean to participate in sports, despite the overt sexism of key organizations?

*Do women sportswriters automatically become activists?

*Is there a way to draw attention to these issues on a global scale?

*How do we change prominent cultures of misogyny in sports media?

We will discuss the ways to engage a broader public in methods to dismantle sexist and misogynist practices in sports.

*Have the recent increase of women in key administrative and executive roles of major sports federations effective in developing sport for girls and women?

*Are the discussions of gender equality ineffective if deeper conversations about class and race are not included?

*Are initiatives in the global south succeeding in helping empower women while using sport as a vehicle for change? Does this affect the culture of sport of that region?