however care must equally be applied to ensure that girls and women s participation in separate environments or in specific sports does not reinforce social divisions or generate unhelpful resistance from other members of society hayhurst et al these considerations also point to the importance of adopting decentralised approaches that are sensitive to local cultural norms and engage all family and community members kay and spaaij including boys and men even in initiatives that may be specifically targeted at girls and women addressing this embedded and structured inequality is therefore a priority in itself for young females in particular leadership experiences gained through sportbased initiatives may make distinctive contributions to their empowerment in other social economic and political spheres lindsey et al