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Editorial
Give them a sporting chance (15 August)
(Opinion) In Britain last month 10-year-old Minnie Cruttwell asked her government why she has to change to an all girls football team at age 11 when she’s “just as good as boys.” In Australia last week 33-year-old Liz Ellis, captain of Australia’s national netball team, asked her government to push for greater coverage, support and professionalism in women’s sport. Both seem like pretty reasonable questions, so why has debate around the two issues degenerated into a hysterical – and, might I add, reductive and predictable - slanging match?
Minnie Cruttwell’s letter to culture secretary Tessa Jowell resulted in a Commons select committee inquiry into women’s football in the UK. The committee’s report, tabled in July, recommends the Football Association change its rules so that mixed teams are allowed beyond the current cut-off age of 11. Perhaps more importantly, the report demands that the FA take an active lead in removing existing cultural and practical barriers which impede the growth of women’s football.
Following the publishing of the report, Guardian Weekly deputy editor Natalie Bennett wrote a column positioning sport as “the last great male bastion,” and one that needs to be breached due to its “social and economic importance.” Her central premise was that women could - in time - compete against men in any sport, given the appropriate levels of financial, media and social support. She invited readers to respond, and respond they did: more than 130 entries, mostly devoted to the inherent and insurmountable biological differences between the sexes.
Instead of trying to prove that women will never be able to compete against men in tennis or golf, let alone heavyweight boxing, we should be asking why in fact they would want to. For a start, male athletes consistently earn more than their female counterparts and receive vastly greater media coverage. And thanks to powerful old boys’ networks, particularly in sports like rugby union and cricket, ex-players are provided with job opportunities and leadership positions they might never have had access to otherwise.
One of the key purposes of Australia’s senate inquiry into women in sport and recreation this month is to investigate ways of improving the status and funding of women's sport. In her submission, Liz Ellis asked the government to consider a mandated minimum coverage of women’s sport by the media, along the same lines as the Australian Broadcasting Authority's minimum local content legislation. Football Federation Australia, the Women in Sport Media Group and the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation all made similar recommendations.
Age writer Greg Baum dismissed the idea of a mandatory quota as nonsense in his piece Count me out: women must earn coverage (August 5). “In athletic endeavours, men will generally outrate women where comparisons are possible … [The] level of media coverage [is] a judgement on standard, not gender,” he claims. Interestingly, Baum’s argument follows the same logic as those raised against minimum local content legislation. Why should we put bad shows on air just because they’re locally made, when quality international programs are readily available? Because knowing there is a protected outlet for local television encourages more funding, more exposure and, ultimately, more and better local programs to be made.
By the same token, wouldn’t increased funding and airtime for women’s sport raise its overall quality? New Zealand’s national netball side, the Silver Ferns, is a good example. Thanks to strong financial support and infrastructure, big-name sponsorship, canny marketing, prime time coverage and, of course, the team’s own ability, the Silver Ferns have become household names. Depending on whose reports you read, netball is the second or third most watched sport in NZ. Either way it’s impressive, and proof that women’s sport is more than capable of attracting viewers of both sexes.
Ellis is well aware of the exalted position her rivals hold across the Tasman, and hopes it can be used as an example for Australia to follow. As she noted in her senate submission, “When girls write to me saying they want to be a professional netball player, my inclination is to write back and say I want to be one, too.”
By Clare Marshall
Links:
Home page for Australian senate inquiry into women in sport
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/ecita_ctte/womeninsport/tor.htm
Greg Baum’s opinion piece, The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/count-me-out-women-must-earn-coverage/2006/08/04/1154198332013.html
Liz Ellis opinion piece on Silver Ferns, Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/cmon-sport-let-women-reach-their-goal/2006/06/13/1149964529998.html
House of Commons report on women’s football
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmcumeds/1357/135702.htm
Natalie Bennett’s opinion piece, Guardian
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/natalie_bennett/2006/07/give_wayne_rooneys_sister_her.html.printer.friendly
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