Girls, international development and the politics of sport: Introduction.

In one of the first contemporary essays to explore the use of sport for adolescent girls’ development, Brady (1998) noted that the increased attention given to sport for girls and women – for example at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and at the first International Conference on Women in Sport in Brighton – signalled a potential for more careful consideration of what role sport could play in the lives of women and girls around the world. In particular, Brady (1998) asked what role sport could play with respect to some key issues in the lives of girls (for example early marriage, childbearing and sexual knowledge/activity), as this information would assist policy-makers who sought to help girls feel more control over their lives. Here, she advocated for a way to utilize sport to teach girls lessons on sexual health and sexual rights and to potentially reach girls who may be outside of formal educational systems.