14 | The Cave Volume I Issue 1
Female Participation in Sports on Campus
By Dania Abraham
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he University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, like St. Augustine’s campus, offers 10 sports that allow students to develop their sporting abilities, as well to improve their physical and mental health. Included in this list are: basketball, cricket, football, hockey, netball, swimming, table tennis, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. All of these sports have male and female teams with their distinct coaches, competitions and training schedules. Students who desire to practice said sports competitively can do so with the UWI Blackbirds team whose main colours are black and yellow.
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owever, the male teams receive the lion’s share of public and financial support despite the measurable success of female athletes who represent the UWI Blackbirds.
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his trend is by no means unique to UWI Cave Hill but rather it colours modern and traditional attitudes to recreational and competitive sports. On the recreational front, the campus allows for each faculty, halls of residence and island associations to host a week of activities which usually comprises of a fun sports day or sports competition. In addition to this, the Games Committee usually hosts ‘UWILYMPICS:
Chancellor Sports’ in their week of activities. The activities for the various fun sports days typically include races such as ‘lime and spoon’, ‘wheelbarrow’, and a ‘three-legged race’. These events tend to attract both male and female attendees and participants often with the majority of persons present being female. However, in cases when the island associations, halls of residences and faculties host competitions that cater to specific sports, the lack of female participation is glaring.
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ccording to the recently sworn-in Games Committee Chairperson, Dionisio Carey, is that the female student body would like to see more femaledominated sports such as netball and volleyball offered for interassociation, inter-halls and interfaculty competitions. During his tenure, he plans to promote more of these sports in on-campus competitions. Carey also extended this to the exercise fitness program of Zumba to encourage more female participation. For the male-dominated sports such as football, basketball, and cricket, he intends to make provision for women-only teams who would then compete against each other (given that there is enough interest).
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he new GCC wants to make sports accessible to all women within the campus’ community
at every ability level whether they want to engage in recreational or competitive sports. Despite his willingness to facilitate this, he noted that the vast majority of women who are involved in sports on campus, are those who were involved before they came to UWI and competed with the club and/or national level. Through open dialogue with his women counterparts from the different halls of residence as well as the wider campus community, Carey hopes to conduct some field research to find out how those who had not previously practiced a sport, can be influenced to participate in the various sporting activities hosted on campus throughout the year. Additionally, he hinted at some women-centred incentives to attract the female demographic.
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or those young women who have decided to represent the University competitively in one or more of the 10 sports offered, support is limited. Carey underscores this point by stating that “females in sports at Cave Hill haven’t gotten the recognition that they deserve in years.” In terms of public support, the matches of the female UWI Blackbirds are not as well attended as matches played by their male counterparts. Financial support, though, can be more easily regulated to allow for female athletes to benefit. The financial support for female teams
