Did you know that?
- It will take 286 years, at the current rate of progress, to achieve full gender equality.
- One in three women – a staggering 736 million worldwide – experiences some form of physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. Nearly 21% of professional women athletes have experienced sexual abuse as a child in sport – almost double the rate of male athletes.
- Women athletes were the targets of 87% of all abusive Twitter posts during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be the most gender-equal of all time. For the first time, there will be 50:50 parity among men and women competing and broadcast airtime will give equal time during prime time for men’s and women’s events.
UN Women has partnered with the International Olympic Committee to promote safe and equal opportunities for women and girls to benefit from sport, physical activity and physical education, and preventing gender-based violence. The One Win Leads to Another programme, that uses sport as a tool to prevent violence against girls and women, was established as a legacy programme from the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
Some 3,236 girls from around 44 socially vulnerable communities in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires have directly benefited from this programme. More than 500 professionals have been equipped with skills on sport and gender equality. The programme also resulted in:
- a 37% increase in girls self-identifying as leaders;
- a 49% increase in girls creating and using a personal budget; and
- a 59% increase in girls knowing how to report violence and abuse against them.
Sport is an unrivalled asset to help us to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls and to ensure women’s full and equal participation in leadership and decision-making.
As you cheer on your favourite athletes during the Olympic Games, we invite you to extend your support to make gender equality a reality both on and off the field.
Donate now!