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Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Stela Savin attends the eighth grade in Hînceşti, central Moldova, and her dream is to become a world boxing champion. She comes from a Roma family where she is the fifth of seven siblings. Her two older sisters had engaged in several sports themselves when they were younger but had to stop when they got married.
"I fell in love with sports as a kid. My brothers trained and I did not want to just look. I wanted to do the same."
After two years of training, Stela participated in regional boxing competitions and won a few medals. Her trainer and her family are big supporters.
"I am honouring our Roma traditions. I am never going to abandon them. However, I don't want to leave school and training and get married. I have a dream and I am going to do all I can to make it happen. I don't know why girls think they can't do the same as boys do?"
Traditionally, Roma girls in Moldova tend to get married and start families early in life. Many cut their education short and leave school to start a family. Often it is taken for granted that at a very young age they will marry the man their family has chosen for them. Stela respects her family and works hard, but in return she asked their support for her own life choices. Luckily, she got their full support.

A 2014 UN study indicates that Roma women and girls are one of the most disempowered groups in Moldova, at the intersection of gender discrimination, racism, class and other systems of discrimination and exclusion. Roma women and girls across the country still face inequality in social, economic and political life.

Stela's story was collected by Elena Sirbu (center), a journalist of Roma origins, in her new series on inspirational Roma women. Funded by UN Women in Moldova, the project seeks to collect and disseminate real life-stories of Roma women and girls from different walks of life, with a strong will to follow their dreams. Elena travels around the country to record their stories and collect them in a special newsletter and blog.

"UN Women has supported Roma women in Moldova since 2011. The UN Joint Program , with the support of the Government of Sweden, encouraged Roma women to participate to the vote in 2015 and helped the first Roma women to be elected to local councils," says Ulziisuren Jamsran, UN Women Country Representative. "By collecting stories of strong Roma women and girls across the country, we aim to make Roma women more visible on Moldovan media, breaking traditional stereotypes. For women to count, they need to be visible - and especially their rights need to come to the forefront."

Credit for all photos: UN Women Moldova/Diana Savina

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Photo essay Life for Stela Savin a Roma girl challenging gender stereotypes in Moldova

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Stela Savin attends the eighth grade in Hînceşti, central Moldova, and her dream is to become a world boxing champion. She comes from a Roma family where she is the fifth of seven siblings.

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83% of sports pay the same for males and females, but football still has the largest pay gap.

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83% of sports pay the same for males and females, but football still has the largest pay gap.

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83 per cent of sports now pay men and women the same amount in prize money, research has revealed.

A study conducted by the BBC into 68 different sports shows that the pay gap has narrowed vastly in recent years, with rewards in women's sports on the rise.

However, football retained a huge disparity between prize money for men and women, particularly in the difference between the Premier League and the Women's Super League.

Of the 68 governing bodies contacted, 55 responded to researchers and of those, 44 sports pay prize money. Two of those sports (synchronised swimming and nordic combined) see men and women compete alongside each other, and of the remaining 42, 35 pay prize money in equal measures - making up 83 per cent.

The last time this study was carried out, back in 2014, just 70 per cent of sports boasted equality in terms of prize money. As recently as 1973, not one sport rewarded men and women equally.

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83 per cent of sports now give men and women equal prize money - but football retains largest pay gap

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83 per cent of sports now pay men and women the same amount in prize money, research has revealed. A study conducted by the BBC into 68 different sports shows that the pay gap has narrowed vastly in recent years, with rewards in women's sports on the rise.

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WE often talk about the impact a male ally can have in the quest for gender equality in sport. How often have we lauded statements from Andy Murray, straight off the cuff, challenging a sexist comment or statement? For me, that is the perfect male ally.

We now have another in the shape of father Simon Kemp, who recently challenged a sports retailer on their marketing of Scotland 's football shirt and highlighted that everyday sexism that still exists.

I hope most sports have a male ally. For women playing football in England, they have a whole team behind them. Lewes United, who you may recall made media headlines a few season ago announcing they were putting their male and female players on equal pay, have hit the headlines again.

Lewes Utd are now challenging the FA to look at the level of prize money issued to women in comparison with men and suggesting that a radical increase in the women's FA Cup prize fund is required. Highlighting the current inequality, they used the analogy of explaining to your children why men are paid more than women for doing the same job. The club's board deserve credit for this - let's be honest, you don't give your son more pocket money than your daughter based on their gender.

Also, for the first two months of this football season, both their male and female teams took to the field showing their support for the amazing #WhatIf campaign, displaying the hashtag on the front of their tops. This campaign has made a significant impact in sport in general and several organisations pledged their support prior to the launch to make some of the #WhatIf pledges become reality. I look forward to the benefits that women in sport will reap from this.

Some quick facts: the total FA Cup prize fund for men's teams is

£30.25 million. The equivalent for women's teams is £250,000. The women's total is less than 1% of the men's. The amount paid to the losing men's teams in the first two rounds of the FA Cup is £291,600 - more than the total prize money paid to all of the winning teams in the women's FA Cup.

It is food for thought and time for change.

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Equal pay must extend to prize money in sport

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WE often talk about the impact a male ally can have in the quest for gender equality in sport. How often have we lauded statements from Andy Murray, straight off the cuff, challenging a sexist comment or statement? For me, that is the perfect male ally.

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Trying to show a perspective of how people see women within sports and how they were brought up to think that women should throw differently to a guy

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Brunel University introduces sports hijab to boost participation

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Brunel University introduces sports hijab to boost participation

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Brunel University in London is hoping to encourage more Muslim women to participate in sport by launching its own sports hijab.

The university created the hijabs, which are adorned with their emblem, as a way of boosting low female sports participation statistics.

After noticing a gap, particularly in the BAME community, Brunel took action.

"I genuinely think it's a lifesaver," business management student and gym-goer Faith Al Saad said.

A 2017 study by Sports England reported that just 18% of Muslim women participate in regular sport, against 30% of the UK's female population as a whole.

"It's really lightweight, really easy to wear, really comfortable - it feels like you're wearing nothing on your head, which is amazing, especially when doing sports," Al Aaad added.

Faith said she is "100% confident" that sport hijabs will encourage more Muslim women into sport.

"Muslim women were of course participating in sports on their own and in private, but they weren't really going out to competitions, or using sport as a social tool to get involved in activities," said student union president Ranjeet Rathore.

Some sportswear brands have previously introduced a sports hijab, but Brunel are directly supplying the hijabs to their students.

Brunel hopes other universities will follow its lead and introduce their own designs to further encourage participation.

Rathore added: "There are now other universities that want to partner with us, who want to take samples off us, who want to do their own hijab - which is great news."

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Brunel University introduces sports hijab to boost participation

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Brunel University in London is hoping to encourage more Muslim women to participate in sport by launching its own sports hijab. The university created the hijabs, which are adorned with their emblem, as a way of boosting low female sports participation statistics. After noticing a gap, particularly in the BAME community, Brunel took action.

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Prize money shows doing and undoing gender

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Prize money shows doing and undoing gender

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In 1972, not a single sport rewarded men and women equally. Tennis became the first, in 1973, after Billie Jean King and eight other female pros pressured the U.S. Open. In 2017, the BBC reported that 83% of sports have equal prize money.

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Football Association under pressure to increase women's FA Cup prize money 

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Football Association under pressure to increase women's FA Cup prize money 

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Undoing Gender:World Surf League to offer equal prize money to men and women 

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Undoing Gender:World Surf League to offer equal prize money to men and women 