Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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women in sports for my two artifacts.
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I chose to read the book, The Sharp End of
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Life by Do the Wall a nick and I watched
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the movie Afghan Cycles by Sarah Menzies.
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The sharp end of life follows the journey of Deirdre
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Walsh Clinic as she becomes a climber in her late
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50s, it details what it was like to start climbing
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at an older age as well as what it was
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like to participate in a male dominated sport.
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Duty also shared her journey of raising her son, world
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renowned climber Alex handled and the difficulties she faced in
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her marriage Georgia became the oldest woman at age 60
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to climb el capitan, one of the hardest climbs in
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the world.
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The movie Afghan Cycles follows a group of girls in
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Afghanistan that start a woman's biking team.
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The movie shows the hardships that these women face on
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a daily basis, all because they were participating in a
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sport. Most of the women have to train in secret
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as people threatened to kill them if seen writing, even
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though it's very dangerous to be riding a bike in
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Afghanistan as a woman, they still choose to do it
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because it gives them a sense of freedom and empowerment.
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After reading the book, The Sharp End of Life and
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watching the movie Afghan Cycles, it led me to the
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question of how do sports empower women and what is
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the importance of female role models in sports?
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So why is there a lack of participation from women
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in sports?
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Quote, only 25 of women participate in sports compared to
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43 of men.
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End, quote, the Women's Sports Foundation was able to identify
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key reasons why less women participate in sports, quote, sports
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require a place to participate and for many girls, especially
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in dense urban environments.
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That means traveling to facilities through unsafe neighborhoods or lacking
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any means to get a good facility miles away.
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End, quote, the movie Afghan cycles follows the lives of
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the lives of a group of girls riding bikes and
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the struggles they face.
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The main one being safety, quote, death threats, constant harassment,
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so predictable that the whole team trains in secret dodging
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trucks and countless road hazards on the edge of town.
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End quote, if you're a woman in Afghanistan or any
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other rural part of the world, you need to be
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willing to risk your life in order to engage in
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sports. That's why not very many women in these places
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do For women that do engage in sports at a
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young age, they will often drop out by the age
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of 14 when the quality of the level of their
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sports experience decreases.
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We see this through the lack of quality coaches for
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women's sports.
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As most coaches are focused on the boys programs that
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have more money for training, quote equipment and even uniforms
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aren't funded for many girls programs at the same level
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as boys, so their ability to grow and enjoy the
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sport is diminished.
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End, quote.
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Another big reason is fear.
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Many girls have a fear of being judged on appearance,
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fear of being judged for choosing to play a sport
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rather than focusing on school or their families and fear
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about their ability.
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How do sports empower women?
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Un Assistant Secretary General and un women Deputy Executive Director
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Lakshmi puri said in a speech that quote, and many
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countries it has been recognized that sport can be a
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force to amplify women's voices and tear down gender barriers
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and discrimination when women in sport defy the misperception that
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they are weak or incapable.
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Every time they cleared a hurdle or kick a ball,
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demonstrating not only physical strength but also leadership and strategic
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thinking, they take a step forward towards gender equality.
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End quote, countless amounts of evidence have shown that participation
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in sports empower women by breaking down gender stereotypes, improving
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women's self esteems and contributing to the development of leadership
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skills. Being a member of a team helps girls to
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develop leadership qualities.
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You learn to work together with others to adapt and
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to listen as well as speak up.
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These leadership qualities teach girls that they are powerful and
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that they have a voice in this world and sports
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can empower them to share it without fear In the
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book. The sharp end of life, the writer do.
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The Walnut recounts her struggles of becoming a female climber
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in her mid 50s.
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Duty describes herself as being a quote lumpy old mall
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who wasn't super skinny or muscular like other climbers through
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her climbing journey.
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She learned to love her body and she felt powerful
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in it.
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She also learned to overcome her fear of being a
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woman in a male dominated sport by trusting herself and
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believing that she was capable of doing whatever she set
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her mind to it quote, when women in the sport
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watch themselves doing the same things that men are doing,
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they feel empowered, they feel that there was nothing in
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the world that they can't do just because they are
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females. End quote what is the importance of female role
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models in sports, quote, creating female role models in sports
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is as much about remodeling the current perceptions and empowering
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young females as it is about being fair and treating
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athletes equally.
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End quote in order to succeed in sports, young girls
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need to actually see the confidence, leadership and accomplishments in
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other women in order to envision themselves with those qualities
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and abilities, but also to realize that it is possible
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for them to to become successful.
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Many adolescent girls are bombarded with images of external beauty,
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but exposing these girls to successful, strong, confident, athletic female
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role models with healthy body shapes helps to create a
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positive image for girls to look up to, female role
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models can help to instil confidence, healthy living and the
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ability to work hard.
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And the movie Afghan cycles, not very many women rode
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bikes in Afghanistan, but once a group of girls started
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a team, more and more girls saw what they were
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doing and wanted to join before the women's Afghan cycling
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team was formed, girls didn't know it was possible to
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ride bikes, they didn't think they were capable of that
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society would allow it.
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One woman from the movie said that quote, when my
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mother sees me riding, she says I couldn't achieve my
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dream, but whenever I look at you I feel like
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my dream has come true end, quote many girls can't
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play sports due to their families beliefs or for major
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safety reasons, but when those girls have female role models
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that they can look up to, it gives them hope
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that one day all girls will get the chance to
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play sports equally.
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Women need other women to look up to because quote,
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it's hard to be what we cannot see, unquote sports
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empower women by teaching them to be leaders, to speak
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up to be strong and to be confident.
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It gives women an outlet for their voices and actions
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to be seen.
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It's important for women to have female role models to
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look up to because seeing is believing a young girl
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may not think she is able to participate in sports
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because of society stereotypes.
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But if she sees another woman playing that sport, then
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she will be able to see that she can do
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it too.
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More. Women need to engage in sports to show the
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world that they are not fragile or incapable of doing
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something that men do.
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There is clearly a long way to go before gender
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equality is reached when it comes to sports, but every
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time a girl chooses to participate in them, she is
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bettering herself and taking a step closer to gender equality.
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Thank you.