A community conversation on gender equity in sports and recreation in the territory was held in late November.
The online sessions were organized by the Yukon government in partnership with Sport Yukon and Canadian Women and Sports with one session for girls and gender diverse teens, and another for adults.
Each session lasted for about an hour. The session for girls and gender diverse teens was moderated by Janna Tait, physical literacy education coordinator at the Yukon government’s sport and recreation branch, while Michelle Dezell from Canadian Women and Sport moderated the adult session.
The event focused on how to promote gender equity action plans in sport and recreation in the territory.
Community recreation consultant Jenyfer Neumann said the conversations are the start of an engagement process with the goal of making a gender equity action plan for sport and recreation in the territory.
“We do know that more needs to be done to get girls physically active. There is an imbalance for physical activity between boys and girls. We also know that as girls get older, they have less physical activity. So girls in Grades 9 to 10 have less physical activity than girls in Grades 6 to 8.”
Neumann said the dropout rate in sport is much higher for girls and boys. The ratio, she says, is 3:1 for girls who drop out of sports programs in comparison to boys.
“So we do know there is work that definitely needs to be done. We do need to see that there is, you know, this imbalance among gender for physical activity whether girls, women or gender diverse people are participants or athletes or coaches or officials or leaders.”
She told the News there are a lot of benefits for sport and recreation, including physical health, mental health, leadership skills, competence and social skills and other broad community benefits.
“But if there’s an imbalance then women and girls would not be realizing those benefits,” she said.
Neumann said the conversations were well attended, with those present showing a lot of interest. For the girls and gender diverse teenagers, about 20 participants registered while the adult session had 30 people register.
“We just want to reach out to those who couldn’t attend, we want to reach out to make sure that we can engage them and hear their voices, whether it’s through more sessions or through a survey or rescheduling.”
A post-session survey is currently being developed by the organizers to gauge feedback from the sessions. Neumann said they asked different questions for the girl and gender diversity and the adult sessions.
For the girls and gender diverse teens, she said they asked what their experiences were with movement, what activities they’ve done in the past, what activities they may not do any more and why they might have stopped.
“We asked what they would like to do and the kinds of support they need in participating in any activity. So we asked those sorts of questions and they could participate anonymously, which is really great.”
For the adult session, she said they asked more about a vision for a gender equitable future, what barriers people experience, have experienced or seen and examples of success.
“What can be done to address the barriers that people aren’t aware of, or to experience and see, you know, the low hanging fruit per se, like out of opportunities for change, what would be the ones that are the easiest to implement right away,” she said.
“We want to hear perspectives of women, girls and gender diverse people in our territory. We know we want to make a gender equity action plan that meets our territory’s needs and we’re working towards creating a better future for all Yukoners.”
Contact Patrick Egwu at patrick.egwu@yukon-news.com