Gender-Based Sponsorship of Grassroots Events as an Agent of Corporate Social Responsibility: The...

Ann Pegoraro is the Associate Director of theInstitute for Sport Marketing (ISM) at Lauren-tian University. She received her doctorate fromthe University of Nebraska-Lincoln and cur-rently holds a faculty appointment as an assis-tant professor of marketing in the School ofCommerce in the Faculty of Management atLaurentian University. Dr Pegoraro has a strongresearch interest in sports consumers, includinghow different forms of media are used to estab-lish connections with consumers of sport at alllevels from amateur to professional. Her re-search has been published in several sport andmarketing journals.

Norm O’Reilly is Director and Associate Profes-sor at the School of Sports Administration andDirector of the Institute for Sport Marketingin the Faculty of Management at LaurentianUniversity. Norm has published two books, over30 articles in refereed management journalsand over 50 conference proceedings and casestudies in the areas of sport management, tech-nology management, marketing education andsocial marketing.

Nadege Levallet is the manager of the cen-tre of research and development at CollegeBoreal. Nadege has an MBA from the Universityof Ottawa and possesses vast practical ex-perience in marketing and management, gainedwhile working at various international private

companies, as well as public post-secondaryinstitutions.

ABSTRACT

As society is constantly changing its expecta-tions of corporations and their broader role,citizens are looking for demonstrations of goodcorporate citizenship and evidence of positivesocial change. Engaging in corporate socialresponsibility (CSR) can be a powerful market-ing tool that can build and shape a corpora-tion’s reputation and provide for differentiationin a crowded marketplace, thereby providing acompetitive edge. This paper identifies thepotential of the ‘marriage’ of sport and CSRto exert change starting with a grassroots event.The study utilises an in-depth, qualitativecase study approach to develop a conceptualframework that rationalises how a gender-basedgrassroots sponsorship can be adopted as amethod of cause-related CSR. Directions forfuture research and practice are provided.

Keywords: sponsorship, sport, gender,grassroots events, corporate socialresponsibility (CSR)

INTRODUCTIONSport has the power to unify citizens ofthe world, crossing cultural, social, ethnic

Gender-based sponsorship of grassrootsevents as an agent of corporate socialresponsibility: The case of a nationalwomen’s triathlon series

Ann Pegoraro,* Norm O’Reilly and Nadege LevalletReceived: 19th September, 2008*School of Commerce and Administration, Laurentian University, Ramsey Lake Road,Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6, Canada;Tel: �1 705 675 1151 � 2135; Fax: �1 705 673 6518; E-mail: [email protected]

140 � HENRY STEWART PUBLICATIONS 1754-1360 JOURNAL OF SPONSORSHIP VOL. 2 NO. 2. 140–151 FEBRUARY 2009

Journal of Sponsorship Volume 2 Number 2

opportunity for capitalizing on a mar-riage of the ubiquitous appeal of sportand the economic might of the cor-porate sector’.11

In an effort to articulate the potentialrole of gender-related grassroots sponsor-ship in an organisation’s social respon-sibility programme, this research takes atwo-phase approach. First, based on theliteratures of corporate social responsibility(CSR), sponsorship and gender issues insport, a conceptual framework is developedthat provides a rationale for gender-basedgrassroots sponsorship as an agent of CSR.Secondly, a case study involving the obser-vation and description of the ten women’s-only triathlon events that were part of the2005 National Women’s Triathlon Series(NWTS) was carried out to empiricallyassess the framework.

Corporate social responsibilityCSR is a concept that has attracted increas-ing worldwide attention in recent times.The advent of globalisation, with newdemands for corporate transparency andgood citizenship, has only heightened theinterest in CSR. Where governments onceassumed the role of providing improvedliving conditions for their citizens, societyis now turning to corporations to aid in thisprocess as the need has overwhelmed localgovernment’s ability to respond.12 In thiscontext, the focus has shifted the role ofbusiness in society and astute companies areinvesting in CSR to differentiate them-selves from their competition.

Some scholars contend that CSR is indirect opposition to sound business prac-tice and serves to dilute the prime focusof business, which is wealth creation.13

Contrarily, advocates characterise CSR asessential for conducting business success-fully in the modern world, where CSR isan opportunity for corporations to shifttheir focus beyond narrow economic

and religious barriers. International leadersNelson Mandela and Kofi Annan, as wellas FIFA’s Joseph Blatter, have all sup-ported the notion of sport as an agentof positive change1 and millions of in-dividuals around the world participate insport on a regular basis to:

• improve their physical and mental con-dition or quality of life;

• escape the daily responsibilities thatcharacterise busy lives; and

• restore mind and body and improvesocial skills.2

Sport has become an important facetof modern society and, as such, it at-tracts sponsors, media and other economicinterests which, in turn, make sport asignificant player in national and interna-tional markets.3

Today, there exists a high level of interestin the grassroots aspects of sport business.4

The fact that grassroots events oftenstruggle to generate resources is also wellknown.5 Similar to other non-profit eventsand activities,6 sponsorship is a centralaspect in revenue-generating strategies forgrassroots events. The organisation andmarketing of events or properties designedfor specific target markets (eg women,youth, clubs etc) as part of an organisation’sbroader marketing programme is alsoreceiving attention.7 Coupled with theincreasing importance of sponsorship as asource of revenue,8 and the known attrac-tiveness to consumers of properties withaffinity to a cause,9 a targeted, cause-relatedgrassroots sponsorship becomes an interest-ing consideration for organisations. Con-currently, there is increasing pressure oncorporations to fulfil a broader role insociety.10 As noted by Smith and Wester-beek (2007):

‘the corporate trend toward socialresponsibility represents a significant

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Pegoraro, O’Reilly and Levallet

returns and take the wider social concerninto consideration.14 This debate hasgiven rise to many definitions of CSR.Davies (1973) defined CSR as:

‘the firm’s considerations of, andresponse to, issues beyond the narroweconomic, technical, and legal require-ments of the firm to accomplish social[and environmental] benefits alongwith the traditional economic gainswhich the firm seeks’.15

Kotler and Lee (2005) later defined CSRas:

‘a commitment to improve communitywell-being through discretionary busi-ness practices and contributions of cor-porate resources’.16

Hopkins (2007) recently proposed thefollowing expanded definition:

‘CSR is concerned with treating thestakeholders of the firm ethically or ina responsible manner. Ethically orresponsible means treating stakeholdersin a manner deemed acceptable incivilized societies. Social includeseconomic and environmental respon-sibility. Stakeholders exist both withina firm and outside. The wider aim ofsocial responsibility is to create higherand higher standards of living, whilepreserving the profitability of thecorporation, for peoples within andoutside the corporation.’17

While Davies’ (1973) definition18

provided a boundary for CSR as activitiesoutside the goal of creating economicgains, Kotler and Lee (2005) clarifiedthese activities as discretionary or optionalfor the corporation.19 Hopkins (2007)expands CSR to include the treatment ofstakeholders in a manner deemed

acceptable in civilized societies.20 Thenotion that CSR involves reflecting thevalues of society (eg gender equality)through the treatment of stakeholdersimplies that corporations should, throughtheir CSR activities, promote the equaltreatment of all stakeholders. In thisregard, it is the authors’ contention thatcorporate sponsorship of a grassroots,gender-based event can provide acorporation with an excellent opportunityfor discretionary CSR.

Kotler and Lee (2005) note thatcause-related marketing offers the bestopportunity to engage in sponsorship-based CSR,21 supporting King’s (2001)assessment that:

‘cause related marketing has emerged asa technique by which to understand,represent, and act upon the desires ofconsumers to be generous and civic-minded citizens, albeit in ways thatare ultimately profitable for corpora-tions’.22

Cause-related CSR activities involvecompanies and brands associating them-selves in a ‘living, altruistic partnership formutual benefit’,23 with a cause as a meansto build the reputation of a brand,increase profit, develop employee loyaltyto the company and add to theirreputation as good corporate citizens.Such an approach can provide a necessary‘filter’ for marketers, a way to attract theattention and loyalty of the consumer,who is increasingly adept at ignoringcommercial or advertisement messages.24

The key to realising the benefit of this‘filter’ is to build long-term relationshipswith the chosen cause as short-termrelationships are often viewed asopportunistic by consumers.25

SponsorshipSponsorship is defined by McCarville and


Gender-based sponsorship of grassroots events

• the sharp drop in participation rates foradolescent females and

• the tendency to participate in morefeminised sport, such as gymnastics andfigure skating.35

Although women’s participation has in-creased, the low involvement of femalesin sport has been associated with society’sideology of femininity, which asserts thata woman’s role is one of a wife andmother rather than an athletic sportfigure.36

Sponsorship originated from the idea ofusing market segmentation to targetsmaller homogeneous markets (charac-terised by high demand), rather than themarket as a whole, in order to define themost valuable group of consumers for aproduct or service to attain the greatestreturn on investment.37 A commonly usedbasis for segmentation is gender, aswomen make roughly 80 per cent ofconsumer decisions,38 due in part totheir increased involvement in the paidworkforce39 and their increasing income.40

A survey of Canadian women performedby Environics Research Group (2007)found the following details:

• Three in five women (61 per cent) inCanada are employed either full-time(42 per cent) or part-time (19 percent).

• Canadian women generally reportedhaving higher household income thanpersonal income, with half (51 per cent)having more than CAN$50,000 at theirdisposal.

• The majority of Canadian women areinvolved in making the day-to-dayfinancial decisions in the household,with over half (55 per cent) being theprimary decision maker and more thanone-third (37 per cent) being the shareddecision maker.

• More than half (58 per cent) saw them-

Copeland (1994) as a promotional strategythat:

‘involves an exchange of resources withan independent partner in hopes ofgaining a corresponding return for thesponsor’.26

Sponsorships provide money to fundvarious activities and events, wherebusinesses sponsor an event to sup-port their corporate and/or marketingobjectives.27 Clearly, sponsorship is not aphilanthropic activity,28 but rather animportant component of corporations’marketing mix.29 It differs from advertis-ing in that the medium and creativemessages are not tightly controlled by thesponsor and the sponsor’s image dependsgreatly on the image and success of thesponsored entity.30

Sport sponsorship may be defined asinvesting resources (eg money, people,product and equipment) in a sportproperty in exchange for a direct associa-tion with that property in order toachieve organisational and/or marketingobjectives and marketing goals.31 Re-search has shown that the sponsorship ofsport properties does impact the image ofthe sponsoring corporation, and allowssponsors to reach and access valuabletarget markets.32 Sport sponsorship ac-counts for about 70 per cent of the totalsponsorship industry33 and sponsorshipdollars are being invested in women’sgrassroots sport where they may helpsome corporations satisfy their socialresponsibility objectives while concur-rently reaching this target market.34

Gender issues in sport —Participation and sport sponsorshipA significant body of research supportsthat women are under-represented interms of participation rates in amateursport, where key themes include:



selves as a spender, while a similaramount (56 per cent) said their partnerwas a spender too.

• More than two in five (43 per cent)indicated that their overall spendingfor the year had increased, citing in-creased cost of living (18 per cent),more income/having more money tospend (12 per cent) and relocating ormoving to a new home (9 per cent) asthe top reasons for increased spendingby Canadian women.41

Another survey of Canadians reportedthat 75 per cent of the female respondents(n � 500) had indicated that, to attracttheir spending, a company must careabout the community, its employees andbe a good corporate citizen.42

Women’s sport is expanding, par-ticularly in sports like golf and tennis.Grassroots events targeted specificallytowards women are increasingly popular;however, female athletes and women’ssporting events tend to receive lowerfunding and reduced sponsorship feesbecause, in general, they receive lessmedia coverage.43 Sponsoring a women’ssporting event provides the opportunityto reach this increasingly attractivemarket, often at a lower cost (Shaw &Amis, 2001).44

Conceptual frameworkThe female consumer market is attractivefor sponsors,45 growth is expected insponsorship for women’s sport and spon-sors are increasing their investments ingrassroots events.46 As organisations andcitizens around the world continue torecognise the need for gender equality47

and the pressure on corporations to besocially responsible continues to in-crease, there is considerable potential forincreased sponsorship of gender-basedgrassroots events. Figure 1 shows theconceptual framework developed to help

better understand and rationalise how thisoccurs.

Gender-based grassroots sponsorship, asa discretionary CSR activity, utilisescause-related marketing where a for-profitorganisation partners with a non-profitorganisation, creating a mutually benefi-cial relationship designed to increase salesof a particular corporate product and togenerate financial support for the non-profit organisation. In the conceptualframework, a corporation partners with agender-based event by providing fundingnecessary to run the event. In return, thecorporation receives the opportunity toshowcase its business and products. Unin-tended side benefits may also accrue toeach partner, such as reaching additionalmarket niches (eg opposite gender, otherage groups etc), increased awareness ofproducts and services and/or the potentialto move the grassroots event to a regionalor national level with the increasedresources from the sponsorship. Theresulting ‘marriage’ of corporate fundingand a grassroots event provides theopportunity for sport-based CSR.48

METHODQualitative exploratory research in theform of case studies was adapted to assessthe conceptual framework. As Yin (2003)noted,49 the case study empirically ex-plores some phenomenon in its true-lifeenvironment or context. Case study re-search is best suited to research which:

• is exploratory in nature;50

• addresses a ‘how’-type question aimedat understanding the nature andcomplexity of the processes underinvestigation;51 and

• interprets and comprehends the mean-ing of text and actions.52

Research based on case studies has



study investigated the proposed concep-tual framework by conducting interviewswith all seven race directors (RDs) in-volved with the NWTS series (n � 7),observing the triathlon events themselvesand collecting supplementary data fromthe NWTS event websites (there werenine events in the series run by sevenRDs).

Following introductions by TriathlonCanada, all seven RDs were contacted toset up interviews, and were subsequentlyinterviewed in January and February2005. Questions were scripted in order toaccess the respondent’s knowledge ofwomen’s sport, event series, event or-ganisation, their own event and sponsor-ship. The format involved the posing of ascripted question followed by an oppor-tunity for open discussion. Interviewswere conducted with each of the seven

recently been used in the sport manage-ment literature towards theory buildingrelated to social marketing53 and technol-ogy in marketing.54 For this research,in-depth interviews were selected as theyoffer the best opportunity to fully under-stand a topic with limited empirical-basedliterature.55

Triathlon — a multi-sport endurancerace that consists of three individual sportsperformed in succession (namely swim-ming, cycling and running), with thewinner being the individual who com-pletes the triathlon in the shortest time —is the context for this study. Women’s-only triathlon and triathlon series havebeen staged in the USA. For example,the Danskin Women’s Triathlon Serieswas the first in North America, startedin 2001, and growing to 21,000 to-tal participants in just four years.56 This

Figure 1Conceptualframework ofgender-basedgrassrootssponsorship andCSR



Organisation:

Potential sponsorGender-based

grassroots event

Gender (M or F) Market segment

Other gender

market

Event participants

High involvement

$

Promotional value

MessagingSponsor with

gender-specific

products and

markets

Focused onachieving profit or

non-profit objectivesthat do not involvesport participation

Focused onprofit or non-profit

objectives that involvesport participation

+ Unique set of socialresponsibilities

Marriage of event and sponsorship =

sport corporate social responsibility

Unintended spin-off benefits:

Access to consumer market segment and

evolution of grassroots event to a national

level event

Event spectators

High involvement

National-level event

RDs. Interviewees are identified as RD1–RD7. It should be noted that RD3organised three different events while allthe other RDs ran a single event. Allinterviews were conducted via telephone,tape-recorded and transcribed. To ensureconsistency, all interviews were conductedby the same interviewer using the sameset of questions.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Background informationThe nine events took place in nine citiesacross five provinces (Hampton, NB;Kincardine, Milton, Grimsby and Oran-geville, ON; Regina and Saskatoon, SK;Strathmore, AB and North Vancouver,BC). The events referred to as ‘Ontarioevents’ include the Grimsby, Milton andOrangeville events, which are run bythe same organising committee.57 Theevents studied vary in size (from 30 to800 participants) and geographic diversity(from urban centres such as Vancouver torural towns like Hampton).

All RDs were professionals who rantheir event on a volunteer, part-time basisand none had previous training or formalknowledge of event management but allwere active in the triathlon community.Notably, the Hampton RD worked inproject management. Finally, even thoughthe events were run under the umbrella ofthe NWTS, all had kept their uniquenames, such as Just Tri It (Hampton) orDivas Only Triathlon (Vancouver).

The sponsor-sponsee relationshipFor most events, with the exception ofthe Ontario events which used an externalsport marketing agency, the search forsponsors was centred on the RD’s per-sonal network. As one RD explained,‘basically what I have done is sell myself’.Some RDs felt that unless a relationship

already existed between the RD or theevent and a potential sponsor, the chanceof establishing first contact through asponsorship letter was limited (RD5 andRD6). As a result, most sponsors werelocal businesses which operated in thecommunity where the event was takingplace. Most RDs reported having farmore in-kind sponsors than cash-onlysponsors.

In their solicitation of sponsors, RDsappeared to lack basic information thatwould facilitate sponsorship decisions. Forexample, all seven RDs admitted theycould only estimate spectator attendanceat their event(s). According to a few ofthe RDs, it was generally accepted thatone participant would attract an averageof two spectators, mostly from her family.Limited data were available on the par-ticipants themselves. No formal or com-plete survey was conducted to find outwho the participants were. With the ex-ception of one event, there seemed to belimited or no discussion about objectiveswith potential sponsors and the impact ofthe sponsor’s association with the eventwas rarely addressed. RD7 was the onlyevent manager who indicated that theevent’s goals and mandates were specifiedprior to the race.

The interviewees reported that for mostevents they did dedicate some time andeffort to identifying the benefits for thesponsors. One RD noted an increasein visibility as the main benefit, whileanother RD chose to personalise herapproach depending on the target spon-sor. RD7 used data on participants toidentify major benefits to the event’s big-gest sponsor, specifically the high rate offirst-time women triathletes, and believedthat this provided a good opportunity forthe sponsors to gain exposure.

‘First timers getting into the sport, youcan tell them any, really, anything. So



The benefits of a national series tolocal eventsAll interviewees agreed that a nationalseries with a series sponsor would in-crease their respective event’s credibility,visibility and legitimacy to local sponsors.It was also noted that having a commonwebsite for the NWTS could be helpful(RD2 and RD6). As it currently stood,one event did not have an event website,others used a page on a partner or-ganisation’s website and the remaining sixevents had dedicated event websites. Nolinks to the other events in the series wereprovided.

In summary, the event organisers feltthat having a national, standardised imagewould help not only in the solicitation oflocal sponsors, but would also contributeto an increase in participation levels. RD1cited the Reebok series in the USA as anexample of a successful series:

‘Look at the Reebok series in theStates; they have like 3,000 womenthat compete in the Washington one,that’s crazy’ (RD1).

DISCUSSION ANDRECOMMENDATIONSBased on the case study results, speci-fic recommendations are provided forsponsees, for sponsors and for futureresearch.

SponseesIn order to foster long-term sponsorshiprelationships, grassroots events must beaware of what sponsors desire (eg buildingbrand equity, increasing profit, developingemployee loyalty, enhancing reputation asgood corporate citizens etc) when engag-ing in CSR-related sponsorship. Severalkey success factors are noted for organisersof grassroots events. First, the number ofpotential sponsors for grassroots events is

P is a great product and introducing250 women to a new P . . . just gettingexposure . . . for these sponsors [com-pared] to new competitors is very im-portant. Gains, increase awareness andexposure to first-time and new femaletriathletes and athletes’ (RD7).

Promotion of the sponsor’s brand wasthe main benefit that all RDs agreedthey offered to their sponsors. For ex-ample, logos were inserted on T-shirts,flyers, websites and banners, while spon-sor products and services were includedin participant bags or used during therace. Some of the larger events alsooffered expositions for sponsors and ven-dors to promote their products or serv-ices. The Vancouver event restricted itsexposition to sponsors only, while otherevents were open to all vendors. In thelatter case, no preferential treatment forsponsors was reported.

While most events had a web-site dedicated to their event whichprovided comprehensive information onthe race, few listed their sponsors andonly one website provided informa-tion on how to sponsor the event.Thank you letters were sent post-raceby most event organisers, however,little was done regarding the evalua-tion of the event-sponsor partnership.Only one event had a formalisedpost-race follow-up with the eventsponsors:

‘We do post year wrap-up and we doa follow-up making sure our sponsorsknow that we delivered what we saidwe were going to deliver and that wasin our contract, and went throughthings that they delivered what theysaid they were going to deliver . . . Wehave a lot of belief in our sponsors andwe hold them accountable for theirsponsorship agreement’ (RD7).



limited to the number of organisa-tions which have an interest in reach-ing members of that geographic area.In attracting, developing, servicing andretaining sponsors, event organisers aredirected to follow a systematic ap-proach to build a long-term partnership.Secondly, the nature of the target marketsof grassroots events requires specialisedpromotional strategies to reach thesegroups. Very targeted and cost-efficienttactics (eg event websites and one-to-onelocal networking) are recommended asa way to communicate the potentialbenefits. Thirdly, based on the success ofthe Vancouver event, formal post-racesponsorship evaluation is recommended asan important strategy towards buildinglong-term partnerships. An evaluation willprovide a review of the sponsor’s objec-tives, what the sponsor delivered, whatthe event delivered, and the sponsor’sexpectations in terms of return oninvestment vis a vis actual results, as wellas areas of improvement for the followingyear.

Specific recommendations for theNWTS are also identified, many of whichmay be of benefit to other event series.First, a series brand and image need to bedeveloped to provide credibility withlocal sponsors, involving:

• standardised series communications;• the use of a single image (eg logo,

colours, letterhead etc);• the adoption of a common series web

portal.

Standardising the NWTS image willcreate the perception that all eventsoperate under the same umbrella, even ifin reality they are still partially independ-ent. To attract series sponsors, it isessential that targeted organisations seethe benefits of sponsoring one eventseries that reaches out to a number of

communities in a variety of Canadianprovinces. Secondly, the series shouldstructure its sponsorship programme. Aseries sponsor with cash, product andleveraging plans is much better for all thantwo or three local sponsors in the samecategory.

SponsorsThe most important decision facingorganisations considering sponsorshiptoday is determining if the decision tosponsor will yield the expected return oninvestment (ROI).58 With the potentialROI in mind, sponsors consider a numberof factors when making a sponsorshipdecision including the competence of theevent organisers, the history and growthof the event, the target market fit of theaudience, and the opportunities forpromotion.59 For sponsors withcommunity-based targets, results suggestthat the option to sponsor specific nicheevents such as a women’s-only triathlonseries should be considered. Although thereach may be more limited thanmass-market techniques, the ability tobuild a deep affinity with a specific marketsegment may be more attractive andfinancially beneficial in the long run. Theability of a sponsorship of this type toprovide product trial opportunities shouldalso be considered by both cash sponsorswith products and in-kind sponsors.Furthermore, with women influencing 80per cent of purchases today,60 partneringwith a women’s-only event may be abeneficial undertaking for any corporationregardless of its core product offering. Thekey for the sponsor is creating a long-termrelationship so that consumers will believethat their involvement is sincere and notan opportunistic move to reach the femalemarket segment. Starting at the grassrootslevel with smaller events should providethe credibility that many consumers aredemanding of corporate sponsors.



the support of Pamela Fralick, Former Chairof the Women’s Committees of both theInternational Triathlon Union and TriathlonCanada, and the seven organisers of the ninewomen’s-only triathlon series events held inCanada in 2005.

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Future researchAs this study was exploratory in nature, itprovides an interesting base for fur-ther research into the areas of CSRand grassroots sporting events, CSRand women-only events, and CSR andcause-related marketing. Specifically, fu-ture studies could be undertaken tovalidate the conceptual model presentedherein, which may include quantita-tive large sample research on sponsors,sponsees, participants and the generalpopulation. Future research could includein-depth interviews with sponsorship ex-perts and organisers of other women-onlyevents in other sports and at the local,regional and national levels. Research intothe unintended benefits of sport CSRshould also be undertaken, includingsurveys of participants, fans, organisers andsponsors, to ascertain the breadth andextent of these benefits.

CONCLUSIONAs consumers and citizens alike arechanging their views of corporations,continually asking questions about therole of commercial organisations insociety and looking for demonstrations ofgood corporate citizenship and evidenceof positive social change,61 engaging ingender-based grassroots sponsorship canbe a powerful marketing tool that canbuild and shape a corporation’s reputation,support social change and provide fordifferentiation in a crowded marketplace,thereby giving a corporation a competi-tive edge.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the significantsupport of Marlene Lagoa of the Ted RogersSchool of Business at Ryerson University inthe data collection phase of this research.The authors would also like to acknowledge



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(36) Gilbert, E. D. (2001) ‘Towards a richerunderstanding of girls’ sportexperiences’, Women in Sport and



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Danskin, personal communication, 28thApril.

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above.(46) Shaw and Amis, ref. 28 above.(47) World Bank (2006) ‘Gender equality as

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(48) Smith and Westerbeek, ref. 1 above.



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