Building Leadership Capacity of Women in Sport in South East Asia
The “Building Leadership Capacity of Women in Sport in South East Asia” project aims to empower women and increase their capacity in sport through leadership and mentoring programs in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. It has been a three year project between Gymnastics Australia, South East Asia Gymnastics and Victoria University.
The Australia-ASEAN Council-funded project – with the aim of the Council to generate opportunities for Australian business, education, science and innovation, and the arts in South East Asia - aims to increase the leadership capacity of women in sport. This project promotes Australia as a leader in seeking opportunities to strengthen relationships with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and as a driving force to empower women as leaders in sport.
Prior to this project, a bilateral relationship in gymnastics did not exist between Australia and South East Asia (SEAG). A relationship between Australia and SEAG is vital to enable the transfer of knowledge and the delivery of best practice governance in gymnastics, while developing and mentoring women as leaders in the sport.
Sport has a strong male bias at the leadership level in South East Asia. Sports such as gymnastics can provide women with roles to be strong role models, offer an expanded sense of possibility, and encourage them to acquire leadership skills and experience as peer educators, coaches, officials, board members and managers. Gymnastics is also an effective platform for providing women with leadership experience that can be applied in other situations such as civic leadership, employment, advocacy, and general empowerment.