Women in sport is an issue that is gaining increasing importance and attention in the public debate. Many sports events with female athletes fascinate spectators, and diverse policy initiatives, position papers and programmes are currently dedicated to gender equality and equal opportunities. However, high-performance sport is still a male-dominated environment, for instance when it comes to the public perception, structural conditions, funding opportunities, as well as in research.

The term “gender data gap” describes the lack of or underrepresentation of women and girls as regards data collection. Scientific studies are distorted owing to the lack of data on women and girls. Findings that are based on a predominantly male sample cannot simply be applied to female athletes.

That is why the BISp is using its FeMaLe – Women and Girls in High-Performance Sport priority research field to raise more awareness of the concerns of women and girls in high-performance sport as well as its research projects to make an active, targeted contribution to closing gender-specific research gaps and overturning the underrepresentation of female athletes.

This research priority is part of the BISp’s Women in Sport Strategy and kicks off a series of measures aimed at gender-specific aspects and events. The BISp published its Women in Sport Strategy in 2023.

Strategy Paper:

• Strategy Paper - Women and Girls in Sport
• Action Plan (German only)

Selected Projects:

• Individualised Performance Development in Top-Level Sport through Integrated and Transdisciplinary Process Optimisation (Project webpage www.inprove.info - German only)
• Developing and Establishing Menstrual Cycle Tracking with Individualised Training Adaptation for Athletes in Various Track and Field Athletics Disciplines (German Athletics Association)
• Examination of Potential Performance and Regeneration Depending on the Menstrual Cycle of Elite Athletes in the Association of German Weightlifters
• Basal Temperature Measurement in Sport in the Diagnosis of the Integrity of the Menstrual Cycle (Basal Temperature Cycle)
• Women in High-Performance Sport (IAT project)

Topic-related publications:

• EU Action Plan
• 2022 DOSB Gender Equality Report
• Sport Satellite Account: Sport-Related Activities and Sport-Related Consumption – A Question of Gender? (report)

FEHLER BEIM EINBETTEN: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 3; columnNumber: 6; The end-tag for element type "div" must end with a '>' delimiter.