Social inclusion and sport: culturally diverse women's perspectives

Australian Journal of Social Issues, Autumn, 2009 by Natasha Cortis

The problem is I can go to a private school and get kids who don't play and convince them to play for $100 per kid. If I wanted to find a CALD female it would cost me more, I'd have to see 100 times more kids to get one. There's limited resources and pressure to grow participation. It costs more money to recruit CALD, disabled, Indigenous groups. It takes more time. There's less return. I might have to see a thousand to get 10 in. (National Sports Organisation 4)

Driven by calculations of cost efficiency over an ethos of equity, promoting participation of culturally diverse women or other groups are unlikely priorities in Australia's peak sporting organisations. In the absence of strongly inclusionary policy initiatives,, the onus to conform to existing practices and cultures falls onto individuals, leaving diversity goals to arise largely spontaneously, according to chance rather than conscious co-ordination, policy or planning (Taylor 2001, 2004).

CALD women's perspectives

To compare and contrast with findings from the stakeholder interviews, twelve focus groups were conducted in urban and regional settings across three states, to elucidate the meanings and motivations women from various cultural backgrounds attach to sport and recreation, the range of barriers they face, and their views about how these can be overcome (Cortis et al 2008). The ninety-four women who participated each identified as being culturally diverse, on the basis of speaking a language other than English at home, being born outside the main English speaking countries or being part of a migrant family, or practicing a minority religion. Together, they were born in thirty five different countries, including Australia, and between them, spoke at least twenty-five languages other than English.

While most participants (55) were aged in their twenties and thirties, they ranged from their late teens (8 participants) into their seventies, and included 14 participants aged 60 and over, to capture perspectives of older women for whom physical activity is particularly important. Around half lived in households with children, with nineteen participants living in sole parent families, and almost half had government benefits as their main source of income. Recruited through a mix of community media as well as health, cultural, educational and sport and recreation organisations, participants included women who identified as participants in sport or recreation activity (albeit in different ways and to varying degrees), and those who did not, reflecting a range of sport and recreation experiences.

In each focus group, women considered sport and recreation activities to be encouraged and even expected in Australia, and to be generally accessible compared with other countries they had lived in (regardless of whether they actually chose to participate). As an Indian-Japanese participant described, for example:

It seems like from a young age you're encouraged, like the beach, the surfing. That's the image we have when we come here, all the surfing, the hiking, the soccer, the football, it's everywhere. (Group 6)