INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

This Manual is one of the results coming from our project Empowering Women in Basketball

(co-funded by Erasmus+ Sport with Grant Number 622309-EPP-1-2020-1-HR-SPO-SSCP).

The Empowering Women in Basketball project combines the efforts of five organizations from:

● Croatia (KK Dubrava, Udruga Echo, KK Akademija Anda Jelavic);

● Italy (ASSOCIAZIONE SPORTIVA DILETTANTISTICA MARGHERITA SPORT E VITA);

● Slovenia (ZKK KRKA Novo Mesto).

In order to address the general objective of the Erasmus sport program of promotion of equal

opportunities in sports, with the focus on women in basketball, concretely the following specific

target groups:

● athletes;

● managers of female basketball clubs/associations;

● female coaches;

● female referees.

The need for this project arises from the national observations of the partnering countries and

on the awareness that women in basketball field have fewer opportunities – especially when it

comes to sport as professional activity and as leisure activity, which are increasing topics for

EU. In both cases, sport represents a large and fast-growing sector of the economy and makes

an important contribution to growth and jobs. Sport encourages social interaction, which is

important for both young and old, women and men, and promotes physical and mental health.

It can also foster education, communication, negotiation skills and leadership, vital for women’s empowerment.

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Promoting equality in sports is one of the key goals of the Council of Europe since the very

beginning of the program's implementation in the field of sports, which is often considered to

be the area of prevalence of male values.

The main aim of our project is is strengthening capacity of women in basketball through Best

Practice Exchange Workshops (BPEW) in order to:

• Increase the capacity of women sport administrators in order for them to gain new

knowledge and managerial skills;

• Motivate young women kinesiologists to become coaches in women basketball clubs;

• Encourage former women basketball players to become basketball referees; • Increase the visibility of women’s basketball clubs in order to attract more girls into sport.

The expected outputs are:

• raising awareness on women’s basketball in project countries; • raising awareness on the importance of including more female coaches and referees

into basketball;

• building the capacity of women basketball clubs and female managers/administrative

staff in basketball clubs.

As written in the resolution of the European Parliament concerning women and sport,

‘Women's sport is an expression of the right to equality and the freedom of all women to take

control of their bodies and participate in sports publicly, regardless of nationality, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion.’ (2003).

In terms of qualitative outcomes, the project expects to achieve:

● Encouragement of the visibility and status of women’s basketball in project countries; ● Strengthening women’s youth basketball;

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● Enhancing the status of women involved in basketball (administrative staff, coaches and

referees).

The first chapter presents all three countries and their approaches to the issue related to

women in basketball, which includes athletes, managers of female basketball clubs/associations, female coaches and female referees.

Partners collected data and numbers, and some of them highlight a big difference between

women in basketball and men in basketball. In each Country, there are clear difficulties dealing

with the encouragement of female basketball; therefore, clubs, organizations, basketball

federations try their best in order to help to improve numbers and figures.

In the second chapter, you will find many good practices coming from such important realities

in female basketball sector within the partnering Countries. For example, you will read about

the former national team player of Croatia, Anda Jelavic, who founded her own basketball club,

or you will know how the Italian regional, Apulia, is rich in international basketball events and

can count on such long-time experienced female basketball clubs.

In the third chapter, we present a different way for women to find their own professional path

through the media world (e.g. basketball journalists, TV speakers, etc.).

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