Inequality on Many Levels

Most women would know the names of the suffragettes who fought hard votes for women, the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Davison who threw herself in front of the King’s horse during the 1913 Epsom Derby and died for the cause.

There have been female pioneers across so many levels of society who have broken down barriers and given other women the belief that women can hold senior positions and match their male counterparts in many walks of life.

When it comes to sport women have made great strides in the past thirty to forty years, far greater strides than in many other spheres of life. Yet how many of today’s athletes would know why women such as Alice Milliat, Dame Rachel Heyhoe-Flint, Karin Lindberg and Nawal El Moutawakel are part of global sporting history.

The Olympic Games has now become an event in which men and women compete side by side, and all sports, with the exception of Synchronised swimming must be contested by both men and women. Yet initially women had not been allowed to take part in athletics at the Olympic Games. That changed in 1926 when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met in Lisbon and the International Amateur Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Johannes Sigfrid Edstrom promoted the admission of women’s athletics however in “a restricted number of athletic events at the Games.”

At the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, women were allowed to compete in races up to 800 metres, however there was still strong opposition to their participating.

The following year, IOC President Henri de Baillet-Latour read a message from Denmark’s Ivar Nyholm which revealed a meeting of Scandinavian countries had been held and the outcome was that “a resolution was passed urging a complete suppression of all women’s events from the Games.”

Prior to being accepted in limited events into the Olympic Games Women decided to take control of their own destiny. Just as they were doing in other areas of life the women set up a women’s sport movement, and organised their own multi-sport event in 1921. This event was a five day competition held in Monaco and was organised by Frenchwoman Alice Milliat. The event was a huge success. They were repeated in 1922 and were bigger and better than the year before.

Milliat has been described as being “the soul of the women’s sports movement, a living example of modern woman accustomed to all sports disciplines and fulfilling the role which falls to women in this vibrant 20th century.” She is quoted as saying that sport “developed personalities, gives confidence and courage and generates a resourceful spirit.” Yet at the time her promotion fell on deaf ears. Yet the games she and her movement created were believed to have been the stimulus for the IOC to allow women to participate in some events at the Olympic Games. At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, women were allowed to compete in Athletic events but were restricted to the jumping events, javelin and no race longer than 200m.

Male chauvinism was alive and this did not please many. Respected writer and sports journalist Paul Gallico wrote “it is a lady’s business to look beautiful and there are hardly any sports in which she seems able to do it.”

The restriction on the distance they could run stood until the 1960 Olympic Games, when they were finally allowed to run in the 800m event. The 1500m was not contested until the 1972 Games, while the Marathon was first part of the women’s program in 1984, along with the Heptathlon. So it was a very slow process, but fortunately many determined women fought long and hard for equality and what we see today is the result of their labours.

So who were Karin Lindberg and Nawal El Moutawakel? Ms Lindberg was the first female Olympic torch bearer. Nawal El Moutawakel broke down more barriers in becoming the first woman from the Islamic world to win a gold medal at an Olympic Games when she won the 400m Hurdles in Los Angeles in 1984 representing Morocco. Another woman who had an Olympic first was 400m runner Enriqueta Basilio from Mexico who was the first to light the cauldron at the 1968 Games.

Dame Rachel Heyhoe-Flint was a dual international representing England and Great Britain at Hockey and also cricket. Some would say that cricket was the last bastion of male chauvinism, so there should be no surprise of the struggles encountered by women in this sport.

Only in 1976 were women permitted to play a match at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, a venue considered the home of the game!

This only happened thanks to the persistence of Dame Rachael who was the captain of the England team at the time. She, like many women who fight for what they believe is right suffered countless unjust abuse. It was fitting therefore that it was she who led England onto the field for a one day international against Australia at Lords when approval was finally achieved. Incredibly it would be over twenty years before women were allowed to apply for membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). When that day did come in 1999, Dame Rachel was quite rightly one of ten women to become Honorary members of the MCC.

It is fair to say that across the globe there have been many female pioneers fighting for Women’s sport, and if they can see where the sport is today they should be immensely proud.

Yet one wonders how they would feel about the inequality now raising its head in Women’s sport. We are seeing a fledgling competition, the Women’s AFL being given unbelievable levels of media coverage, some would say a level of coverage that is disproportionate to not only the standard of the competition but also the number of games and the level of the competition.

Netball in Australia has had to fight hard to gain media coverage, and that coverage has only come thanks to success on the international stage. The Matildas who are Australia’s shining light when it comes to football, were neglected for far too long and some would say that the FFA left their investment in this group of talented players too late; They were peaking at the last World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Again it has only been on the back of their success that suddenly they are afforded coverage. The fact that one of the team happens to have a brother who played AFL of course makes some media outlets more than happy to have a chat to Sam Kerr and always seem to cross-reference the link, despite her achievements outweighing her brother’s.

How hard has Women’s rugby had to fight for any form of media coverage? Ironically it was one of the Wallaroos who played a key part in convincing the IOC to re-introduce rugby to the Olympic Games, albeit in the Sevens format. Once again the coverage that has been garnered since has been very much on the back of the Seven’s team winning the Gold medal in the Women’s event in Rio in 2016. Then there were the Southern Stars, now simply known as the Australia’s women’s cricket team; the nickname dropped in 2017 as it was no longer deemed appropriate for such a successful national team, after all their male counterparts did not have a nickname. They have played in every T20 World Cup final and lost only once. They have been ODI Champions in six of the 11 tournaments played. They are again a beacon of success when it comes to their sport. Yet coverage has been a long time coming.

So why has this one sport been allowed to leapfrog to the front of the pack when it comes to publicity and coverage. They don’t play internationally, the athletes have yet to achieve at the highest level; although to be fair many have, but in different sports!

The main reason is that it never had a female side to the game. The Government wants to see gender equality in all sports across Australia, so the Government has given substantial funding to this competition to make it a success. Where the competition will go once that funding runs out and the AFL is left to carry the financial burden we will have to wait and see.

Not surprisingly some from other sports are feeling a little miffed that a seven-week league can be given so much coverage. They have a valid point, but equally so do a number of other sports and athletes around the country who have striven hard to be the best, and compete on a global scale only to see parochialism take priority over their achievements and successes.

Nearly all of the women mentioned fought for gender equality, but now maybe various sporting bodies need to start lobbying for “sport equality.”

The sad fact is if we delve into the archives of many of the newspapers around the country there was a time when they gave all sport coverage and also had a strong focus on local tournaments and athletes. Now most of the focus is national or international, the writers have a leaning to one sport, and therefore begrudge time spent covering anything else. The editors clearly fail to fact-check stories as far too many are published with incorrect information, many of these actually coming from the news services!

The editors will defend their coverage and say that their readers do not want to read or hear about female athletes. It is a hackneyed argument. One they have used for not covering a myriad of sports over the last few decades while their circulations dwindle.

Yet if their broadened their editorial to cover more sports they may actually pull in new readers. If they covered more sport involving women they may find that it is no longer just men who flick the paper over and read from the back to the front. The appetite for some sports is not what it used to be.

Sadly we have seen an element of tokenism in sport’s coverage. Where certain events have been given coverage because it ticks a box and says that the media outlet is indeed covering sports from both genders. We have also seen tokenism in terms of those covering sport. Yet as is always the case the cream rises to the top as Isa Guha and Alison Mitchell have shown with their cricket commentary. There are of course other women who have also stepped up and earned their place in what was a man’s world and shown that they deserve to be there on merit.

Maybe therein lies the problem?

One thing is for sure women should start celebrating the strides they have made, the success of their teams and their athletes. Be proud and be loud about acknowledging those athletes and teams. Rest assured many true sports lovers do not see gender, they see outstanding athletes and outstanding performances. That is after all what sport is all about irrespective of gender.