Social inclusion and sport: culturally diverse women's perspectives.

Cortis, Natasha

Introduction

Gender differences in patterns of sport and recreation participation are unsurprising. Women perform more domestic work and care throughout the lifecourse, and have less time and money for leisure than men (Bittman & Wajcman 2000). In Australia, smaller proportions of women than men participate in sport and recreation overall, and women choose activities they can time flexibly around household schedules, like walking or attending fitness classes rather than organised team sport (ABS 2006). More intriguing questions arise about how and why patterns of participation vary among women, according to age, the presence of children, health and financial status, ethnicity and culture; and which threads of experience different groups of women share. This article contributes new insights into one set of such questions, exploring how a significant group of Australian women, those from culturally diverse backgrounds, experience sport and recreation, the barriers they face, and how these can be overcome.

National statistics attest to pervasive inequalities in Australian women's sport. In terms of cultural diversity, women born outside the main English speaking countries (one in five women in Australia) are among the least likely to have participated in a sport or recreation activity in the last year (ABS 2006; ABS 2007). In 2002, the most recent year for which disaggregated birthplace data is available, less than half of women born in South and Central Asia, Southern and Eastern Europe, and North Africa and the Middle East participated in a sport or physical recreation activity, compared with over 60 percent of those born in Australia, North-West Europe (including the United Kingdom) and Oceania (including New Zealand). Women born in North Africa or the Middle East had the lowest rates of participation (19.5 percent); lower than both their male counterparts (42.7 percent) and women born elsewhere (ABS, 2006).

Cultural and gendered patterns of sport participation reflect underlying inequalities in access to community opportunities and infrastructure: inequalities which social policies and programs aim to eliminate. Yet so far, the social outcomes of sport have been only weak themes in either Australian sport or social policy. In contrast, overseas policy and research has progressed to straddle fields of sport promotion and social policy, treating sport as a space for, and subject of, targeted social action, and a way to alter broader patterns of inequality and marginalisation to overcome social disadvantage (Frey and Eitzon, 1991). In this frame, sport and recreation are considered sites for social inclusion, providing opportunities to construct self-identities and institutions; to extend social networks and strengthen social capital; to model and inculcate ethical behaviour; and to reduce isolation and antisocial behaviour and improve social cohesion (Collins & Kay 2003; Morris et al. 2003; Jackson et al. 2005).

For cultural minorities, sport can be seen to have 'levelling' potential, in building and retaining community networks (especially following the dislocation of migration); promoting, celebrating and affirming difference; dispelling stereotypes; and enhancing cultural pride and intercultural relations (Driscoll & Wood 1999; Hanlon & Coleman 2006; Taylor 2001). The logic is that values and behavioural norms modelled in multicultural sporting contexts will be transmitted into other areas of social life, and general feelings of belonging will improve as a result of being involved (Walseth & Fasting 2004). For culturally diverse women, sport and recreation activities are also celebrated for their potential to offer experiences of belonging, support and reciprocity, and sites of 'refuge' from traditional domestic roles and responsibilities, and restrictive family expectations (Walseth, 2006).

Although research and policy discourses are evolving to celebrate the inclusionary potential of sport, the converse dynamic is also possible: sport and recreation risk perpetuating inequalities, if activities reinforce segregation, or are blind to (and suppress) difference. Premising participation on conformity to dominant cultural norms can, for example, impede the expression of diversity and individual identity formation, and exclude groups from community infrastructure and opportunities, with implications for minority access to social, cultural and economic resources and physical health and wellbeing (Taylor 2004; Coalter 2007).

Inclusion and diversity in Australian sport policy

Over the last few decades, elite performance has been paramount in Australian sport policy, overshadowing issues of participation, equity and access (Green and Houlihan, 2005). Responding to Australia's poor performance at the 1976 Olympics, federal governments bolstered support for elite sport in the 1980s, establishing the Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Institute of Sport, and a Federal sports portfolio. Throughout the 1990s, criticism of the focus on elite performance grew, and, fuelled by public health concerns about inactivity and obesity, resources were increasingly directed toward promoting mass participation in sport as a way to promote physical activity (Stewart et al, 2004; Sport 2000 Taskforce). Over the last decade, community level participation has been entwined with a public health agenda and promoted through large-scale federal programs, like the 'Active Australia' initiative and the Active After-school Communities program.

While the prevailing participation agenda primarily targets the mainstream, Australia's sport policies have also come to embody some aspirations to improve access for minorities, including for culturally diverse women. Articulated a decade ago, the Australian Sports Commission's equal opportunity agenda pointed to a range of possible access-enhancing strategies, including targeted childcare, expanded opportunities to participate in culturally appropriate sport activities, and cross-cultural training across the sport industry (ASC 1999a, 1999b). More recently, Australia's Senate restated the importance of these for promoting women's participation, adding reviews of uniform policies and improved media coverage to an emerging list of strategies for promoting diversity (Parliament of Australia, 2006).

Yet unlike the strong participation and elite development programs introduced for Indigenous Australians, uptake of recommendations for culturally diverse women has been slow. While Australia's Women's Sport Leadership Grants include a program stream for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women, when compared with diversity and participation policies in some other countries, Australia lags. In the United Kingdom for example, sport is positioned boldly within an inclusionary agenda, reflected in numerous public statements; a sports equity organisation (Sporting Equals); and new managerial frameworks linking funding to compliance with diversity standards (Sport England 2004; Commission for Racial Equality 2000; Central Council of Physical Recreation 2002; Spracklen et al. 2006; Bailey 2006; DCMS 1999).

In contrast, Australian initiatives aimed at promoting diversity in sport have been largely aspirational and have taken a lower profile, lacking the legitimacy and co-ordination that a national social inclusion agenda, diversity compliance framework, or sports equity agency would provide. Programs addressing the needs of culturally diverse women have been small in scale, and focused on single local or ethnic communities or sport and recreation activities (Cortis et al. 2006). Initiatives have prioritised targeted information provision, and introductory community-based activities in some local areas, with efforts constrained by short term, highly fragmented funding. Further, a lack of systematic, rigorous and routine evaluation has inhibited the growth and dissemination of a best practice evidence base (Cortis et al. 2006; Jackson et al. 2005). The culturally diverse women's experiences and perspectives captured in this research highlight the need to embed inclusionary goals and strategies more firmly in sport policy. Challenging the influential cultures in the upper echelons of Australian sporting organisations, culturally diverse women implicate the spatial organisation of sport and recreation activities as sources of marginalisation, pointing to new strategies through which to close persistent gaps in participation in Australian women's sport.

Stakeholder perspectives

Because effective policies and programs must recognise and respond to real perceptions and experiences, this research, commissioned by the Australian Government Office for Women, sought to explore how two key groups view inclusion and diversity in sport and recreation: representatives of stakeholder organisations, and culturally diverse women themselves.

Firstly, fifteen stakeholder interviews were conducted to identify how the organisational cultures, priorities and diversity agendas among the nation's peak sporting organisations might shape culturally diverse women's participation, through both their governance structures and roles as direct providers (Cortis and Muir, 2007). These interviews also provided insight into how policy makers and advocates from state governments and women's and cultural groups might seek to affect change in culturally diverse women's participation, by influencing policy and running programs.

While interviewees from the policy and advocacy sector described practical ways their organisations acted out commitments to diversity and inclusion, they perceived vastly inadequate funding and the consequently small scale of funded initiatives to impede effective engagement. In contrast, interviewees from national sport organisations stridently defended the absence of diversity programs and equity structures in their organisations, articulating an overwhelming commitment to promote participation initiatives to the mainstream:

Across the board for our sport we try to promote it as a whole and not target individual groups ... We encourage participation from all backgrounds (National Sports Organisation 5)

Strong commitment to mainstream targeting allowed industry respondents to play down or outright reject notions that their organisations, and the sporting cultures they sought to govern, may impede minority participation, and to undermine the need for inclusionary programs. One interviewee, for example defended the idea of sport as a 'level playing field' on the basis that:

There's nothing laid down in statutes that [says] you can't join in. No one can discriminate on race or language in sport. If somebody wants to play they can play. (National Sports Organisation 3)

Within a policy context focused on mass participation, sport was thus perceived as inclusionary by default. Industry representatives saw little need to promote their activities to particular cultural groups, or to monitor participation trends by ethnic or cultural background. In fact, one respondent sought to absolve organisational responsibility for low rates of participation among culturally diverse women, commenting that:

The way sports operate I don't see any issues at all. I don't see impediments ... it's the cultures that cause barriers not the sport itself (National Sports Organisation 6).

While representatives from national sport organisations placed low priority on promoting sport to particular groups (and as in the case above, did not perceive sport cultures to present barriers to participation), after interviewers probed, respondents identified several strategies with which they could, with some incentive, better engage women from diverse communities, including relaxing dress codes and partnering with cultural organisations. Yet these options necessarily took a backseat to more commercial priorities, particularly for activities where mainstream membership appeared strong, and where attempts to engage minorities were considered resource intensive and likely to have 'low return' for the organisation:

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)

However, perspectives celebrating Australia's sporting opportunities tended to surface early in the groups, then subsided as discussion broadened to cover the range of factors which may, potentially, hamper participation. Many of the barriers the women identified are likely to be shared with some Anglo-Australian women and some men, including a lack of access to transport; poor health or old age (or perceptions of being too old to participate); a lack of self-confidence or interpersonal networks; and a lack of money and time (although barriers relating to affordability and caring responsibilities may be more pronounced among culturally diverse women where migration has broken extended family care networks) (CCEH, 2006; Tsai and Coleman 1999; Miller and Brown, 2005 Taylor, 2001).

Other barriers, and those explored in the remainder of the article, seemed to relate specifically to the cultural diversity of these women, including cultural priorities; racist exclusion; language barriers; and the cultural appropriateness of sporting spaces, with the women highlighting how venues (including commercial gyms and pools) present barriers by failing to cater for diverse practices of female bodily expression. These perspectives highlight a need for sport policy and provision to depart from the focus on mass participation and mainstream targeting evident in national and state sporting organisations, to more effectively cater for the health and wellbeing needs and preferences of this large subgroup of Australian women.

Cultural priorities

One set of barriers the women identified relate to cultural priorities. While the women felt sport and recreation were generally accessible in Australia, both those who had grown up overseas and those born in Australia suggested that sport had lower priority in their cultures than in mainstream Australia. Women from Korea and Hong Kong, for example, described how studying or learning musical instruments rather than sport were encouraged for children and young people. Other women described how they had not even considered doing physical activity for recreation or leisure before coming to Australia, with some women from African backgrounds feeling they confronted the concept of 'sport and recreation' for the first time in Australia. With the exception of dance (part of ritual, ceremony and expression as well as leisure) physical activity had, prior to coming to Australia, been more a 'way of being' than a leisure activity for these women, a way of tending to the necessities of life. Sadia, a young woman from Sierra Leone, described how [back home]:

Exercise was part of our routine without realising it was exercise. What western countries call exercise, we didn't have that concept, it's just you did your daily routine, you walk everywhere you know, do really physical manual handling ... back home everybody walks to every place ... We don't think of it as exercise; to us it's just I have to get there, I will walk (Group 7)

The groups also discussed how they felt they were not socialized to do exercise for health and leisure, let alone play a sport. Reflecting a view also expressed by women from Indian, Japanese, Italian, Iraqi and Afghan backgrounds, Sadia continued:

Over there it's a thing of we should cook, we should clean. It was never 'Oh, exercise is actually good for your health' ... The girls are encouraged to be in the kitchen. Start learning how to be a woman; it's your role as a wife in the future, start practicing that. Kicking a ball outside, that has no benefit to you [it doesn't] tell you what to do with your husband ... (Group 7)

In negotiating new social norms in Australia, many of the younger women encountered tensions around family and gender roles, contributing in some cases, to reluctance to participate.

Racist exclusion

Even if sport and recreation were cultural and individual priorities, racism or discrimination could present barriers. In line with findings from previous studies (Taylor 2001, 2004), direct racist exclusion from sport and recreation was far from a universal experience among the women, but had profound effects on those involved. Iraqi women found racist hostility to compromise their safety and preclude them from undertaking physical activity in community spaces. One woman in regional Victoria explained:

I organised a walking group but especially when they talk about Islam on the media, we can't go outside, they call out 'terrorist' ... I don't feel safe walking down the street (Group 3)

Direct exclusion and stigmatisation was also identified with respect to more formalised sport and recreation activities and facilities. As Sadia described:

In school if I played basketball, the girls wouldn't pass the ball. Why? Because I'm black. That is the racism that happens ... You go to the gym and you're the only black person there and then everybody will just stop and stare, they won't do the exercises, just they focus on what you're doing...... It's almost as if this is not your place ... (Group 7)

In contrast to Sadia's experience of more direct exclusion and stigmatisation, a young Indian woman described a more subtle 'hesitation' on the part of white Australian women when she and an African friend joined a cricket club:

It's not that they totally discriminate against us but there was this thing, subtly, that they like to be among themselves, so we were at the periphery. (Group 7)

Language barriers

Overall, patterns of participation for these women appeared to be shaped less by direct racism than by other factors. All groups considered poor English language skills to be major barriers for CALD women, especially for new arrivals. Priority strategies were to ensure access to translated information about sport and recreation, such as the types of activities available, how to play or become involved in club or team activities. Indeed, language proficiency was perceived to shape women's opportunities to find out about, access and participate in sport and recreation activities, and poor English skills and a lack of translated information was considered to leave women uninformed and, consequently, socially isolated. Learning English profoundly changed migrant women's lives, improving awareness of resources available in the community, and opportunities to participate in health-enhancing activities.

Dress and female physicality

In contrast to previous studies (see Jackson et al. 2005) the women in the study overwhelmingly emphasised a need for physical spaces catering for diverse practices of female bodily expression, highlighting the importance of culturally appropriate sporting venues and facilities (including gyms and pools) for social inclusion. Indeed, the women's accounts highlight the gendered and racialised coding of physical spaces as well as cultures of sport and recreation, which constrain their participation, or cause them to alter their sport and recreation choices. In part, the problem of spatial coding and difference manifest in terms of tensions between cultural and sporting dress. Issues of dress arose repeatedly in the focus groups, reflecting findings from other studies about the importance of modesty and flexible dress requirements to women's participation, especially for Muslim women (Keogh, 2002). Importantly, Muslim women's perspectives differed widely. Some Muslim women did not adopt the tradition, but those choosing to cover their heads, necks and/or bodies to non-relative men (in line with guidance in the Qu'ran) did find dress requirements of sporting organisations or venues precluded participation. Moreover, some Hindu, Christian and non-religious women shared values of bodily privacy, preferring modest dress, and to participate in physical activity outside the gaze of males. A Hindu woman, for example, described how outdoor sports popular in Australia were not encouraged for Indian women, because of cultural practices around revealing the body:

... some parts of the body are considered sacred or private or something, so I think that's why some of these outdoor activities where there is a lot of revealing is not encouraged either (Group 7)

For many of the women, dress and culturally inappropriate spaces directly restricted participation. In contrast to the view expressed by a representative of a national sports organisation (and outlined above) that 'it's the cultures that cause the barriers, not the sport itself' (NSO6), Naja considered that 'it's actually sports themselves', that sporting dress codes directly limited the kinds of sports she did:

Like netball, they wear those tiny skirts! I was never allowed to do that because the skirts were too short and they wouldn't let you wear long clothes, and like golf it's actually written into the rules that your pants ... can't go below the knees..., which is the opposite than for us. Like it's actually sports themselves sometimes, like that limits your choice to do the sport. (Group 9)

While she recognised uniforms had imposed barriers, Naja's determination to participate had seen her, throughout her schooling, adapt her dress in ways that would fulfil both cultural norms and the norms of sporting activities, by, for example, wearing tights or long sleeves underneath uniforms. Other women also forged opportunities to participate, for example, by wearing less revealing swimming costumes, seeking out appropriate facilities, playing in family spaces only, or avoiding outdoor activities where privacy could not be guaranteed.

But while an option for sport and recreation providers is to allow (and place the onus on) individuals to modify sports attire (for example by wearing longer clothing), some women reported this could be physically uncomfortable and potentially stigmatising. Amira, an older Lebanese woman felt her swimming opportunities were limited, and although she could adapt her dress, she found it uncomfortable:

I'm covered too. I find it difficult. Not all the sports I can do, you see, just a few, because it's a bit hard, like at swimming we go and it's only for women. I go sometimes to [swimming time] for everyone [men and women] but I have to wear a long one [gestures] and cover my head. It's not comfortable. (Group 4)

Wearing modest attire was not a preferred option when it came to swimming, with one Iraqi woman in regional Victoria, for example, explaining through a translator that this was 'no good...we cover up all the time. .. [we] want to feel free' (group 3). On the basis that covering up could attract unwanted attention or stigma, Sadia felt women from her community preferred women's only swimming facilities or private time:

Most of the women can't go to a public place because they feel conscious of when they have to have their own special swimmers made for them which is different to other people, with the t-shirt, fully covered in a way that allows them to swim. Other people stare, they can't understand that concept. So...they... have private time when they go as a group and have their own swimming session, which I think is great. (Group 7)

Self-consciousness and body image

As well as religiously based customs around dress and covering, a further dimension of exclusion relates to notions of beauty, body image, and skill, compounding the need for activities and facilities to accommodate visual privacy and diversity of physical expression. While some felt self-conscious about a perceived lack of skill, for others, sport raised insecurities around beauty and body image. Pacific Islander and some African women described pressures to be slim, and felt more conscious of their body image in Australia and subsequently less comfortable about participating in sport, especially in water sports. Arihi, a Tongan woman in her early thirties, described her discomfort in swimwear:

It's just uncomfortable. You go outside, and see all those skinny things around you, you just don't feel comfortable (Group 11). Sadia perceived that African women also felt pressure to participate more in physical activities in Australia in the hope of pursuing western notions of beauty. Yet facilities made these women feel uncomfortable or did not cater for their needs for privacy from men:

Over there it's celebrated to be curvy, not like a stick figure. Curvy. That's what we believe is the typical woman is beautiful. It's flaunted, that's what we have. And then here they're told what you have is considered fat. Then it's a problem [of finding somewhere to exercise]...you go mainstream and then you feel out of place, or it's mostly men. (Group 7)

Facilities

Overwhelmingly, the women's practices and preferences around dress and privacy, and their self-consciousness about skill, beauty and body image point to a common need for policies and programs to accommodate diverse bodily expression in public spaces, and to improve ways sport and recreation venues and facilities recognise and allow for difference. Muslim women in regional Victoria aspired for access to space for sport and recreation, on the basis that activities could offer opportunities to strengthen identity and forge a sense of belonging. One Iraqi woman described (through a translator):

We would like to have any big hall and we will do any activity ... we just want to do [physical activities] with [people in the] community and to see each other to achieve something for ourself and feel important. (Group 3)

While these women have access to women only swimming time at a local pool, this did not fully meet their needs, in terms of timing (given their caring and domestic responsibilities), and in terms of standards of privacy, with one woman commenting, for example, that the 'curtains at the pool aren't secret enough' (Group 2). Similarly, in South Australia, Naja was deterred from attending a women's only gym because the facility lacked a fully appropriate design and fit out. While she was happy to find a female only gym, the change rooms didn't offer an appropriate level of privacy:

It's really good because it's all women so you feel really comfortable, you know you don't have to wear hijab, you can wear clothes that keep you cool during the workout but the change rooms are still an issue for me. We change in the toilets, and then it's like aren't we supposed to be changing in the change rooms? It's totally open it's just benches and lockers. There's nowhere for you to actually go into and change. And they should do that. Then they would attract every single type of woman. (Group 9)

Indeed, Naja felt change rooms were more important for her than other women, who she saw could dress for the gym before they arrived:

I noticed a lot of the women come already dressed in their gym clothes. Like us Somali women we dress differently to that, we don't consider that the type of clothes we can leave the house in. So we have to change basically down to underwear, that's why it's really awkward in the change rooms and we have to use the toilets ... It would be good if they had change rooms like most of the shops have separate change rooms (Group 9)

In highlighting their unrecognised and unmet needs for culturally appropriate sporting spaces, these women's perspectives problematise national policies that promote mass participation, and peak sporting organisation's dependence on mainstream targeting as legitimate strategies for pursuing social inclusion. The women highlight how culturally inappropriate dress codes and a lack of privacy not only turn some women away from organised team sports, these also make it difficult or uncomfortable for them to participate in physical activities in public as well as commercial facilities.

The difference culturally appropriate facilities and programs can make is reflected in the perspective of Amira, a Lebanese-Australian aged in her 60s. She articulates the inclusionary potential of small adaptations to the operations of sport facilities: women only swimming times. For Amira, gender segregated opportunities for swimming, managed by a non-government organisation with strong inclusionary ethos, allowed her to exercise in comfort, and to mix with other cultures, breaking the stereotype that culturally diverse groups want to restrict access to facilities for themselves and keep others out:

We love mixing with other cultures. We have in the pool Lebanese, Turkish, Syrian, Iraqi, Australian, Italian, Greek [women]. We're all like we come from one family...We enjoy it a lot, the swimming time. With all women we have no problem. When you do exercise you have to wear something comfortable, you have to take the veil off and uncover, and if men are around you don't feel comfortable. If you do the exercise when men are around, you have to wear the hijab, otherwise you do a sin against your religion...when the pool is opened to everyone (men and women), I have to wear a longer costume, you know, and I don't feel comfortable. I can't do everything I want because the hijab is on me ... when you cover you have to a little bit isolate yourself. Not from other culture. No, we love to mix with everyone. That's our religion, to mix with all religion, with all nationalities. (Group 4)

For Amira and other women, gender segregated opportunities for swimming allowed women to exercise in comfort, and to mix with women from other cultures, breaking the stereotype that culturally diverse groups want to restrict access to facilities for themselves and keep others out. For Amira, women-only swimming time at certain times of the day meant women from many different backgrounds could mix. For her, the social and inclusionary benefits of physical activity, mixing with women from other nationalities, were reasons to stay active. Indeed, greater access to gender segregated opportunities would enable these women to participate in formal, organised, group activities, providing them with the social as well as health benefits of sport and recreation.

Conclusions

Reinforcing national policies aimed at promoting mass participation, stakeholder interviewees drawn from the sporting industry expressed commitment to mainstream targeting, allowing them to play down notions that their organisations and the sporting cultures they sought to govern may impede minority participation. In contrast, the women's accounts of barriers underline the need to better fuse social inclusion, sport and public health agendas with more active strategies to engage culturally diverse women. The women articulated a range of personal, social and institutional barriers to participation, implicating culturally inappropriate venues and facilities as major sources of social exclusion. Although participants in some areas had access to women only gyms or swimming pools at certain times, these were not necessarily seen to provide sufficiently appropriate spaces for some culturally diverse women.

Promoting culturally diverse women's participation in Australian sport and recreation raises particular, but not insurmountable challenges, namely, how to embed priorities of social inclusion in sport policy and cultures, and to integrate inclusionary structures and ethos with organisational strategies focused squarely on the mainstream. Approaches in the United Kingdom suggest some promising ways forward, including more effectively integrating sport within a broad inclusionary agenda, establishing an agency charged with overseeing equity in sport nationally, and using diversity standards and reporting as prerequisites for funding.

While national policy leadership and a coherent equity framework for Australian sport is imperative, sport and recreation organisations and facilities should consider a series of 'micro' reforms that would promote participation and expand their membership base. Peak bodies, providers, councils and facility managers could, for example, encourage small, relatively inexpensive physical adaptations to improve levels of privacy in sporting facilities (especially commercial gyms and swimming pools). As the women outlined, putting doors on showers or changing rooms and blinds over windows and offering women only venues or times will go some way to promoting access and inclusion. Providers may wish to partner with community based cultural organizations, to ensure appropriateness and viability, and governments should consider targeting initiatives to support this. Government agencies of course need to lead the way in changing sport and recreation cultures, by more firmly embedding social perspectives and social goals in sport policy and management, and overcoming the historical bias in favour of elite development. Indeed, a broad, historic program of change--led by the continued integration of traditionally separate domains of sport, public health and social inclusion--is essential to closing gaps between men and women's participation in sport and recreation, and reducing gaps between different groups of women.

Acknowledgement

This article draws on work undertaken for the Australian Government Office for Women with Kristy Muir and Pooja Sawrikar at the Social Policy Research Centre. Sheila Shaver provided helpful comments on an earlier draft. The opinions expressed, and any limitations or omissions, arre of course those of the author.

References

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2007) Australia Basic Community Profile 2006, Census Community Profile Series, Cat No 2001.0 ABS, Canberra.

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2006) Migrants and Participation in Sport and Physical Activity, National Centre for Culture and Recreation Statistics, ABS, Canberra.

ASC (Australian Sports Commission) (1999a) How to Include Women and Girls in Sport, Recreation and Physical Activity: Strategies and Good Practice, Participation Division, ASC, Canberra.

ASC (Australian Sports Commission) (1999b) Active Women: National Policy on Women and Girls in Sport, Recreation and Physical Activity, 1999-2002, Participation Division, ASC, Canberra.

Bailey, R. (2005) 'Evaluating the relationship between physical education, sport and social inclusion', Educational Review, 57(1):71-90.

Bittman, M. & J. Wajcman (2000) 'The Rush Hour: The Character of Leisure Time and Gender Equity', Social Forces 79 (1): 165-189.

CCEH (Centre for Culture Ethnicity and Health) (2006) Engaging Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities in Physical Activity: A Discussion Paper, Centre for Culture Ethnicity and Health, Melbourne.

Central Council of Physical Recreation, 2002 "Everybody Wins: Sport and Social Inclusion". Viewed online at http://www.sportdevelopment.org.uk/ Everybodywins.pdf 12 March 2009.

Coalter, F. (2007) 'Sports Clubs, Social Capital and Social Regeneration: 'ill-defined interventions with hard to follow outcomes'?' Sport in Society 10(4): 537-559.

Collins, M. and Kay, T. (2003) Sport and Social Exclusion, Routledge, London.

Commission for Racial Equality (2000) Achieving racial equality: A standard for sport, The Stationery Office, London.

Cortis, N. and K. Muir (2007) Participation in sport and recreation by culturally and linguistically diverse women- stakeholder consultation report, report for the Australian Government Office for Women, SPRC report 5/07, University of New South Wales.

Cortis, N., P. Sawrikar, & K. Muir (2008) Participation in sport and recreation by culturally and linguistically diverse women--Final Report, report for the Australian Government Office for Women, SPRC, University of New South Wales.

Cortis, N., P. Sawrikar, & K. Muir (2007) Participation in sport and recreation by culturally and linguistically diverse women--Discussion paper report for the Australian Government Office for Women, SPRC Report 4/07, University of New South Wales.

DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) (1999) Policy Action Team 10: report to the Social Exclusion Unit--arts and sport. London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

Driscoll, K. & L. Wood (1999) Sporting Capital. Changes and challenges for rural communities in Victoria. Melbourne: Centre for Applied Social Research RMIT.

Frey, J. & D. Eitzen (1991) 'Sport and Society', Annual Review of Sociology 17:503:22.

Green, M. & B. Houlihan (2005) Elite Sport Development: Policy Learning and Political Priorities, Routledge, New York.

Hanlon, C. & D. Coleman (2006), 'Recruitment and retention of culturally diverse people by sport and active recreation clubs', Managing Leisure, 11 (1): pp. 77-95.

Jackson, N., F. Howes, S. Gupta, J. Doyle & E. Waiters (2005) Interventions implemented through sporting organisations for increasing participation in sport (Review), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, Issue 2, Art no. CD004812.

Keogh, V. (2002) Multicultural Sport: Sustaining a Level Playing Field, Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues, Melbourne

Miller, Y. & W. Brown (2005), 'Determinants of Active Leisure for Women with Young Children--an 'Ethic of Care' Prevails', Leisure Sciences, 27 (5): pp. 405-20.

Morris, L., J. Sallybanks & K. Willis (2003) Sport, Physical Activity and Antisocial Behaviour in Youth, Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice No. 249, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.

Parliament of Australia (2006) About time! Women in sport and recreation in Australia, Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee Report, Canberra.

Sport England (2004) The Equality Standard: A Framework for Sport viewed online at http://www.sportengland.org/the_equality_standard.pdf, 12 March 2009.

Sport 2000 Taskforce (1999) Shaping Up: A Review of Commonwealth Involvement in Sport and Recreation in Australia, Report to the Federal Government, viewed online at http://fulltext.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/1999/ feddep/ShapeUp.pdf, 12 March 2009.

Stewart, W., M. Nicholson, A. Smith & H. Westerbeek (2004) Australian Sport: Better by Design? The Evolution of Australian Sport Policy, London, Routledge.

Taylor, T. (2004) 'The rhetoric of cultural diversity in Australian netball', Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 28(4): 453-76.

Taylor, T. (2001) 'Cultural diversity and leisure: experiences of women in Australia', Society and Leisure, 24(2): 535-55.

Tsai, E. & D. Coleman (1999) 'Leisure constraints of Chinese immigrants: an exploratory study', Society and Leisure, 22(1): 243-64.

Walseth, K. (2006) 'Sport and Belonging', International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 41 (3-4):447-464.

Walseth, K. & K. Fasting (2004) 'Sport as a means of integrating minority women', Sport in Society, 7(1): 109-29.