A Call for Equality: Reflections from 2nd Deaf Women in Sports Leadership Seminar (10/01/08)

Men and women are equal. Both of them are human being. Equal rights and respect should be enjoyed by both parties. However, in some societies, women are always the marginalized gender. Let us ask ourselves: (1) What is equality?; (2) What does it mean by being equal to one another?; (3) In sports, how do we express equality between men and women?; and finally, (4) How women can contribute themselves into this equality? These are the certain points discussed during the 2nd Deaf Women in Sports Leadership Seminar which was held last September 25 to 27, 2008 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The mentioned seminar was organized by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD) and Asia-Pacific Deaf Sports Confederation (APDSC), and was attended by two PSFD Executive Boards: Ms. Carolyn Dagani and Ms. Sherie Lyn Ong.

Equality is defined by being equal to one another and both parties must enjoy the same privileges and value. If men works outside home to provide assistance for the family, then, women should have that rights too because she can also provide assistance to the family that she loves. Both genders may avail of the same profession for survival like doctor, lawyer, nurse, secretary, technicians, teachers, librarians, president, senator, director, writer, and so on.

In many field of sports, specifically Deaf sports, men and women categories are obviously visible which presents equality that both parties can play different sports disciplines like: badminton, bowling, table tennis, lawn tennis, shooting, swimming, archery, volleyball, athletics and many others. Through the mentioned categorization, equality between men and women are respected, and most importantly, it shows that women are not lesser beings who should only stay at home and do household chores, a problem that is currently present in some societies.

As a response in promotion of equality between women and men, the women should be the advocate to start the initial step towards equality. In governing sports organizations, there should be equal quantity of men and women instead of allowing sports organizations to be dominated by male where most of them sit as leaders with only few women or worse no women at all. Additionally, in participating different sports competition, like world games or Deaflympics, there should be also equal amount of men and women participants in different provided disciplines. Sports organizations should keep the participation balanced by giving equal space of involvement between men and women. For an example, in different types of sports, if there are five men there should be also five women.

If there are few or no women participants, the decision should rest within the women. Scarcity in participation might be caused by lack of well trained women to compete in different sports disciplines. Hence, it is advisable to propose that different sports organizations should provide equal training in many kinds of sports for men and women. In addition, women should encourage other women to be part of different sports related trainings and activities in order to increase the quantity of women who can be part of different sports related games and events.

Most importantly, advocacy and action should be started by women. It is their objective to gain equal privileges, recognition and respect; hence, they should start the initial step in advocating the results they achieved to see. Women should call the women, train and mold them into women that is appreciated and valued by the society as equal. This is women’s call for equality.