Sports and women

On March 8, 2019, Bathco wanted to pay small tribute to the female athletes who are part of the Bathco Sport Team. In this way, the Cantabrian company joined the initiatives celebrated on International Women's Day in favor of equality, justice, peace, and development and met with the athletes from the Bathco Sport Team.

The members of R.S. Gimnástica, players from Bathco Rugby Club, triathletes from Bathco Triathlon Team, and runners from Bathco Running Team shared their experiences regarding the situation of women in sports.

We spoke with them about how the woman-and-sports binomial has changed. Just a few decades ago, women's presence in sports was rather scarce. Today, we see how the gap between men and women in terms of interest in sports practice has narrowed considerably. Not so much their visibility and equal opportunities, however.

If we focus on the visibility of women's sports, we observe that there is still a long way to go. From your personal experience, Juncal Sarabia, a member of the Bathco Triathlon Team, “Society is influenced by what comes out in the media, and precisely in the media, there is much more representation of men's sports than women's. When women's sports appear, they are often relegated to the physical aspects rather than the achievements they accomplish. If there were more female representation in the media and greater investment in it, we would be closer to equality.”

This invisibility is compounded by economic and institutional discrimination. Women's sports don't receive the same aid or support. This is a reality; they all agree that the lack of equipment and funding compared to men is still abysmal.

Perhaps the area where there has been the most evolution is at the social level. Esther García, midfielder for Gimnástica A few years ago, for example, we'd play and there would be comments from the stands every other minute. Now, it's rarer for that to happen. I believe people are starting to become aware that we are equal, that we can play just as well as men. The facts speak for themselves; the Spanish Women's National Team has had European and World champions. Today, it's clear that the final push is needed for us to be completely equal and treated equally, but discrimination still exists. Sandra Frías, player for Bathco Rugby Club, ensures that “equality has not yet been achieved. It is true that there are notable changes, but I believe that women's federations have fewer opportunities than men's, and this should change.”.

All of them have agreed that many advancements have been made in recent years, but there is still much to be done. To achieve this, the best way to build strength is to remain united with a single objective.

One of the goals of the Foundation (FUSODEBA), driven by Bathco, is the promotion and dissemination of the values of sport as an element that favors social integration and cohesion. This integration should also be pursued from the perspective of equal opportunities between men and women. For José López Cortes, president of the Foundation, “Giving visibility to women's sports, supporting it, and contributing financially is the way. In our teams, we have Spanish champions in different athletics disciplines, soccer players who have just achieved promotion to the second division B for their team, etc. Their achievements speak for themselves; they just need us to be there, for all actors in society to contribute to valuing their effort and sporting commitment.”.