Today, with the exception of Afghan women who have been banned from playing sport under the new Taliban government, equality for women in sport is historically the best it has ever been.
The state government’s Office for Women in Sport and Recreation (OWSR), established in 2017, delivers a wide range of policies and programs that level the playing field for women and girls.
Initiatives include improving facilities and access, supporting leadership positions and careers in sport, backing research to help break down barriers to participation, such as promoting a more flexible uniform policy, training the next generation of women broadcasters, and recognising media coverage of women’s sport.
Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Steve Dimopoulos, said every Victorian should be able to participate in the sport they love.
“That’s why we’ve invested almost $200 million in professional women’s sport since 2018 to help level the playing field from grassroots through to leadership roles,” he said.
“Our investment is a massive boost to support the continued growth of women in sport, and we’ll keep backing women and girls across the state, delivering the sporting infrastructure and programs local communities need to create the next generation of sporting greats.”
Since 2018, more than $70 million has been invested in the Female Friendly Facilities Fund, resulting in more than 230 projects that benefit female participation.
More than $18 million has been committed to pursuit gender equality in sport through policies such as the Fair Access Policy Roadmap, an initiative to ensure women and girls have equal access to community sports infrastructure across the state, and programs like Change Our Game, working to level the playing field for women and girls in sport and active recreation.
Yet despite the recent advancement of women in sport and landmarks in gender equality, discrimination remains rife both on and off the field, in which the Australian media plays a big role.
Media coverage of women in high-performance sport has progressively improved in recent years; still, women’s sport seldom tops 10 per cent of overall sports coverage on any one day in Australia and four per cent globally.
Recent Deakin University research reveals a link between poor media coverage of women’s sport and low female participation rates at grassroots level. This finding is no surprise to Sale City Football-Netball Club A Grade netball coach and committee member, Jae Evans.
“Due to the lack of media coverage, female sport is suffering,” Evans said.
“Media coverage has the chance to improve the overall quality and health of sport; by increasing the visibility of female sports, it can directly increase the sport’s popularity, therefore increasing participation levels.”
Former Women’s National Premier League player and Sale United Football Club’s head men’s coach, Anouk Meereboer, says women need role models.
“One of the things Tom Breakspear [Sale United Football Club president] and I are doing at the moment is the Change Makers Program, and that’s all about women’s participation in sport,” Meereboer said.
“Part of that is focused on how much you are promoting women, how much do you post about women on Facebook, how many articles are you writing about your females.
“Coverage is definitely needed; you need those female role models in sport. Not only to improve participation rates of women in sport also in other sporting roles like coaching and umpiring.”
A recent study found that women’s sport was severely underrepresented in television news and online media coverage, revealing 95 per cent of TV coverage focused on men’s sports in 2019.
Coverage devoted to women’s sport in the study’s sample of daily online newsletters was 8.7 per cent, eight of the 93 newsletters analysed led with a story about women’s sports, and social posts from publishers on Twitter were 10.2 per cent.
When the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final between Australia and India was played in front of a record-breaking crowd at the MCG on International Women’s Day 2020, less than one-third (31.5 per cent) of Australian sport media coverage that day was devoted to women’s sport.
Despite Australian female athletes outperforming their male counterparts at the Olympics in three of the past four Games, 2008, 2012, and 2020, according to Repucom and the Australian Sports Commission, Australia recorded no increase in broadcast hours dedicated to women’s sports after the Beijing and London Olympics; television and print coverage of female sports news actually decreased after both the 2008 and 2012 games.
Gippsland is not exempt from this trend of unequal coverage of women in sport.
“TRFM radio during football season has a radio program ‘Balls and All’ based on football in Gippsland; while it does a fantastic job at discussing and promoting football in the area, it only briefly mentions netball for the smallest segment with little to no detail,” Evans said.
The Sale City A Grade coach also called out a gender bias in the Gippsland Times’ coverage of sports, saying it is “predominantly football or cricket.”
“It was great to see additional media coverage of netball in the Gippsland Times last year; we had an extremely successful season, which was promoted in the paper throughout the season with great articles and photos, and previously this has not been represented in the media, so this is an area we are keen to continue,” Evans said.
For former Women’s National Premier League player Madelaine Breakspear and Sale United Football Club’s head women’s coach, she has seen the disparity of media coverage at both grassroots and professional levels.
“It’s obviously lacking a lot,” Breakspear said.
“[Here] it is a typical country town when you open up the paper, and it’s just all footy, but you notice the same in the Herald Sun, you open the paper, and it’s just all footy, all men’s footy. You might get a little bit on AFLW, and there might be half a page on the A League, and there’s nothing on the A League Women; so it’s not only just locally.”
On December 27, 2022, a preview of the Australian Open mixed doubles was the only women’s sports story that could be found when opening the Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph mobile news app.
“We need people to be invested in women’s sport; you can’t be what you can’t see,” Breakspear said.
Media coverage, or the lack thereof, is not the sole issue at hand.
The focus and tone of media coverage on female athletes and sports are frequently significantly different from that on male athletes and sports, with a greater emphasis on physical attractiveness, femininity, and sexuality rather than athletic talents.
“I feel women are judged quite a lot when it comes to sport,” Breakspear said.
“All the comments online on female games, female sporting athlete posts, and the way they are reported on in the media is either very sexualised or about how they look; they’re either really masculine or really sexy like you can’t just look at them like they’re an athlete.”
Despite the challenges faced on and off the field, women’s sport and female athletes are now indelibly ingrained in Australian society.
Emma McKeon is the greatest Australian Olympian of all time.
Sam Kerr was named Australia’s most influential athlete by ESPN in 2022.
The Matildas are now Australia’s fourth favourite national sporting team.
Cathy Freeman, Lauren Jackson, Ellyse Parry, Ariarne Titmus, Betty Cuthbert, Dawn Fraser, and Margaret Court are among Australia’s most recognised athletes.
The Australian women’s cricket team is currently on a 15-game winning streak in ODI cricket, and a 28-game undefeated streak in T20 internationals; they have not lost a Test in almost a decade and have won 113 from 134 completed World Cup games since 2000, a win record of more than 84 per cent.
Not that they should have had to, but our nations leading female sporting stars sure have proven their right to be acknowledged, celebrated and respected in the same way as their male counterparts.
It is time for everyone, from grassroots sporting clubs to leading news organisations and everyone in between, to change deep-seated societal patriarchal assumptions and foster an equitable environment for women in sport.
