Empowering girls in rural areas with sports: Example of Eziler village

Sport is both a power that improves our quality of life and provides benefits to health, and it is a means of empowerment in the lives of disadvantaged individuals. It is important for girls to be able to do sports, to evaluate the difficulties experienced by the athletes and to produce appropriate solutions for their problems, especially in villages, in smaller-scale settlements where sports opportunities are limited outside the city centers. This thesis focuses on the empowering effect of sports on girls living in villages. The main subject of the thesis is the reasons that prevent the athletic girls living in Denizli Güney town Eziler village from getting stronger through sports, the factors that facilitate their empowerment through sports, the empowering effects of sports and strong female perception of female athlete girls. A qualitative research method and in-depth interviewing techniques were utilized and interviewed with 10 female athletes aged 14-17, residing in Eziler village and playing field hockey and cricket for at least 5 years. Maxqda 2022 and thematic analysis was used in the analysis of the research data. As a result of the research findings, the obstacles to the empowerment of girls living in villages through sports are mostly family and environment. Physical education teachers are the most important actors that encourage sports and affect their development and empowerment. It has been observed that sports have positively changed the lives of girls and at the same time, sports contribute to the psychological, social, physical, cultural and economic empowerment of the sports girls living in the village. As a result, this research is important in terms of showing that sports are an important tool in women's empowerment.