Formerly the director of the department of management and strategic planning in Brazil’s Ministry of Sport, Cassia Damiani was responsible for creating policies that lessen gender inequalities. In addition, she was charged with increasing the number of women in sports administration positions and decreasing gender violence and workplace discrimination. “We need more women to direct policies in sport,” she says. “The message of gender equality can’t stop with the university elite. We have to find a way to reach those individuals who do not have access to formal education.” 

In 2013, Cassia began drafting legislation that would guarantee physical education as part of the national school curriculum, including equal sports distribution for boys and girls. Despite having support from the Minister of Sport at the time, for what Cassia called the “Brazilian Title IX,” she was removed from her position in the sports ministry in July 2016 during the government reshuffle. Since then, Cassia has taken a position as a professor of physical education and physiotherapy at the Federal University of Ceara.