On 8 March 2019, Bathco paid tribute to the sportswomen on the Bathco Sport Team. Getting together with the sportswomen on the Bathco Sport Team was the Cantabrian company’s way of taking part in the activities held on International Women’s Day to promote equality, justice, peace and development.
The members of the R.S. Gimnástica football team, Bathco Rugby Club players, triathletes on the Bathco Triathletes Team, and runners on the Bathco Running Team shared their thoughts on the situation of women in sports.
We talked with them about how the pairing of women and sport has changed. It’s been just a few decades since women’s presence in sport was quite limited. Today we see how the gap between men and women in terms of interest in playing sports has closed significantly. The same is not true of their visibility and equal access to opportunities.
If we focus on the visibility of women’s sports, we see that there is still much left to be done. Speaking from her personal experience, Juncal Sarabia, a member of the Bathco Triathlon Team, tells us how “Society is influenced by what is shown in the media, and the reality is that men’s sports are represented much more than women’s. When a woman appears, often the physical aspect is covered more than her achievements. If the media showed more women and there was greater investment in women’s sports, we would be closer to equality”.
To this invisibility, we can add economic and institutional discrimination. Women’s sports do not receive the same subsidies or support. This is a reality, everyone agrees that the lack of material and of subsidies compared to what men receive is still abysmal.
Perhaps where it has progressed the most is socially. Esther García, a midfielder on the Gimnástica team, remarks how “A few years ago, for example, we would be playing and hear comments from the stands all the time. Now that’s much less commonplace. I think people are starting to become aware that we are equals, that we can play just as well as the men. I’m referring to the evidence, there have been female champions in Europe and in the Spanish Selection. Today, it’s clear that we just need that last little push to reach equality and for us to be treated the same, but discrimination continues to exist”. Sandra Frías, Bathco Rugby Club player, ensures that “equality has not been achieved yet. It is true that there are notable changes but I think that women’s federations have less possibilities than men’s federations and this should change”.
All of them concurred that whilst there has been great progress in recent years, there is still much left to be done. The best way to work for change is to stay united behind a single goal.
One of the objectives of the Foundation (FUSODEBA) led by Bathco is the promotion and dissemination of the values of sport as an element that fosters integration and social cohesion. That integration should also be pursued from the standpoint of equal opportunities for men and women. For José López Cortes, chairman of the Foundation, “Raising the visibility of women’s sports, supporting it and contributing economically is the path to follow. On our teams, we have Spanish champions in various track and field events, football players who have just risen to the second division B of their teams, etc.Their achievements speak for themselves, they just need us to be there, for all members of society to contribute to giving them recognition for their hard work and athletic commitment”.
