ŽENE I SPORT U CRNOJ GORI

• Main Authors: Cheryl Cooky, Marko Begović, Don Sabo, Carole Oglesby, Marj Snyder
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Montenegrin Sports Academy and Faculty for Sport and Physical Education 2011-08-01
• Series: Sport Mont
• Online Access: http://www.sportmont.ucg.ac.me/clanci/SportMont_Avg_2011_Cooky_28-33.pdf

This paper is part of a larger study that identifies who plays sport in Montenegro, and the factors (family, education, economic, religious, cultural stereotypes, and so on) that contribute to girls and women’s participation in sport or that limit girls and women’s participation in sport. This study is the first evidencebased research assessing the current status of girls and women’s sport participation in Montenegro, at all institutional levels. Using mixed-methodologies (quantitative assessment, survey data and qualitative focus group interviews) this study will determine the numbers of girls and women participating in sport, as compared to boys and men in similar demographic categories, and to examine why girls and women do or do not participate in sport and what are their experiences in sport. Initial findings from the demographic assessment of sport in Montenegro illustrate overall gender disparities in sport participation in the 7 most popular sports; the majority of athletes, coaches, managers and decision-makers, medical staff, referees and sport delegates were men. We found the greatest gender imbalance in soccer and basketball, which were overwhelmingly male-dominated, and the greatest gender parity in handball and volleyball- and in some cases there were more female participants than male participants in these sports. We also examined overall trends in gender and sport participation across the different geographical regions, which were similar. However, there were differences in the types of sports men and women played in the different regions, which may indicate that some sports were more popular, or accepted, or easier to access for women in the central part of the country while other sports were more popular, or accepted or easier to access for women in the northern and southern regions. The project is a collaborative partnership with US- and Montenegro based scholars, the International Olympic Committee, the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, the United Nations Development Program, the Office for Gender Equality of the Ministry for Human and Minority Right of Montenegro, and NGO Inovativnost. Reflections and insights on multi-institutional partnerships in the study gender and sport participation will be offered.