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Austria's 1st Women's Sports Symposium: Initial spark for gender equality

The speakers at the 1st Austrian Women's Sports Symposium "Advantage Ladies" called for more "gender equality" in Austrian sport on Friday with exciting panel discussions and eye-opening keynotes. After a brilliant sports policy kick-off with Vice-Chancellor and Sports Minister Werner Kogler, Women's Minister Susanne Raab and Micky Lawler, the US President of the women's professional tennis organisation WTA, the day's programme at the Design Center in Linz also included perspectives on media coverage and sports practice. Another exciting aspect was the topic of genes and talent, highlighted by Prof. Dr Markus Hengstschläger: "Genes are sometimes somewhat overrated. In Austria in particular, people too often talk about genes when they need an excuse," said the geneticist and author. "When it comes to talent, it always depends on what you do with your potential. When it comes to talent, we don't need to worry too much about the genetic difference between men and women, but instead talk about whether men and women are equally supported in their talents."

The 1st Austrian Women's Sports Symposium, which is to be held annually in future as part of the Linz World Class Women's Tennis Tournament, was jointly initiated by Sport Austria, the Austrian Tennis Association (ÖTV) and Upper Austria Ladies Linz. "Visible. Strengthened. Positioned" - that was the motto in front of around 200 visitors. Athlete Verena Mayr, table tennis ace Liu Jia and wheelchair tennis player Christina Pesendorfer were represented as active sportswomen at the final fifth panel. Christina Pesendorfer will be playing a show doubles match on centre court as part of the Linz WTA tournament on Inclusion Day on Saturday (tomorrow) at around 4pm.

From a sports policy perspective, former Federal Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat, President of the Austrian Paralympic Committee (ÖPC), criticised: "Honorary positions are still very much dominated by men. This is because women are also put off by the structures in sports clubs. These power structures are barriers for women to get involved. The second point is that women in management positions face the challenge of multiple responsibilities - which is why they don't take the plunge. I believe it is essential to establish female leadership/ female leadership styles in male-dominated structures. We know from research that the culture would change fundamentally if a third of the positions were held by women. This is just as important in sport as it is in politics. We have to change this quickly, otherwise women will eventually find it too stupid to assert themselves. Unfortunately, it's all still taking far too long. I'm still impatient. There's still so much to do. If it were based on performance and success, for example, our women's footballers would have to earn twice as much as the men."

Study author Maria Pernegger presented her study entitled "Gender balance in sports reporting?" at lunchtime under the motto "We want more - women's sport in media competition" - her conclusion: "Sports reporting in domestic mass media focuses heavily on male athletes (88%), while female athletes are significantly underrepresented with only 12%. Our study shows that we are still a long way from a culture of equal reporting, particularly in sport. This situation is not only unfair, it also has many negative consequences for female athletes, especially financial disadvantages. Sport is closely intertwined with the media and the economy. If imbalances are to be corrected, they must all pull together and make their contribution."

In the afternoon, the focus was on sports practice. The keynote speakers from this area included Marion Maruska (ÖTV Sports Coordinator and Billie Jean King Cupcaptain) and Irene Fuhrmann, the coach of the Austrian national women's football team. Marion Maruska said: "As ÖTV and co-organiser of the Women's Sports Symposium, I am delighted to be able to present our 'Ladies in Tennis' initiative here. Through various measures such as workshops, a mentoring programme, webinars and taster sessions, we are trying to get women interested in tennis in the long term, show their potential and inspire other sports in the process."

Fuhrmann, Austria's "Coach:inside Personality of the Year 2022", emphasised: "It was a very successful day, a big compliment to all those responsible for the 1st Austrian Women's Sports Symposium. I myself draw a lot of positive energy from the event and I am hopeful that we will continue to improve the framework conditions for women's sport. It was clear that the same challenges are still being faced at many different levels. I recognised myself in many of the statements; it is clearly a matter of further raising the awareness of male decision-makers and getting more women into leadership positions. As we know that women tend to doubt themselves, it sometimes takes gentle pressure for them to have the confidence to take on these positions."