Leisure time, sport and gender equality

Female role still has many difficulties in establishing itself on the social scene - in some countries more than elsewhere, for example in Italy - in these cases sport can represent a metaphor for society and re-propose discrimination. On the other hand, sport is for many people an important channel of social mobility. The American sociological studies on the vast presence of black athletes in sport, remain illuminating in this perspective. It highlights how sport has been from the beginning one of the few areas in which there have been more carrier opportunities, competition was lower and whites people preferred to pursue careers considered of greater prestige. Sport has therefore represented an important emancipation channel for all people who are in some way marginal, coming from poor families and from the third world. A similar dynamic can be applied in approaching female universe, which can find in sport a channel of affirmation on the social scene.