In recognition of International Women’s Day, CBC SPORTS today reinforced its ongoing efforts in support of the future of Canadian women in sports by committing to gender-balanced coverage of sports and athlete stories in its original content. In addition to the weekly broadcast of ROAD TO THE OLYMPIC GAMES, this commitment will be reflected through digital streams, online articles at cbcsports.ca and the CBC Sports app, and social media content, and seen in on-air personalities, writers, producers and new hires. According to research provided by Canadian Women & Sport, only 4% of sports programming on Canada’s national networks feature women’s sport.*
The announcement comes following the launch of CBC Sports’ “I Commit” digital campaign, an initiative in partnership with Canadian Women & Sport that asks audiences to increase their support of girls in sport by making their own commitments to enact change, posting them to social media and challenging friends, colleagues and organizations to do the same. The campaign launched Sunday, March 1 and runs through Sunday March 8, International Women’s Day.
“We’re committed to providing audiences with equal opportunity to watch, read about, meet and hear from female sporting heroes, and as a result, allow more young women to visualize themselves achieving great things through sport,” said Chris Wilson, Executive Director, Sports and Olympics, CBC. “Empowering girls and women of all ages through our original programming aligns with CBC’s commitment to better reflect Canadian audiences and achieve gender parity across all areas. This priority has already become a decision-making lens for the events we acquire and which stories we cover, and will inform our hiring and professional development going forward.”
Entering adolescence, girls’ participation in sports drops by 22 %, and 84% of adult women don’t participate at all. Contributing factors include peer influence, lack of social support, encouragement, funding, positive role models and self-confidence.* The “I Commit” campaign is based on the notion that active girls have a far better chance of being physically healthy and mentally strong, confident young women, and future leaders, if they are participating in sports through adolescence. Audiences are encouraged to create their own “I Commit” videos and post them to social media using the hashtags #ICOMMIT and #IWD2020, tagging @CBCSports and challenging two friends to do the same. Audiences can commit to their own scope of participation in making valuable change; for example, watching more women’s sports on TV, attending more women’s sporting events, or simply getting involved in sport themselves.
CBC Sports’ “I Commit” webpage has everything audiences need to get involved, including: an explainer video from Andi Petrillo about the campaign and instructions on how to create an “I Commit” video; commitment videos from athletes like Andre De Grasse, Perdita Felicien, Phil Mackenzie, Kirsten Moore-Towers, and Kelly VanderBeek added daily through International Women’s Day; a social feed tracking commitments on social media; and news stories about female athletes. To join the movement, please visit: cbc.ca/sports/iwd.
*Source: WOMEN IN SPORT: FUELLING A LIFETIME OF PARTICIPATION, March 2016
