This week there is plenty attention on the first ever women’s Super Rugby Aotearoa match between the Blues and the Chiefs, and so there should be after 27 years of men’s Super rugby! The game is at Eden Park if you’re in Auckland or Sky Sport 1 for the rest of us, kick off is at 4.35pm Saturday 1 May.
There’s an interesting story about female gymnasts in Germany who are choosing full body leotards to reduce the sexualisation they face. There are more stories of sexual misconduct by men using positions of power, this week it’s in Aotearoa at a school and a law firm, (as well as a policeman and a security guard not following proper process) and in the UK by an actor and a football coach. Also this week, Sport NZ and Isentia announced a new report on media coverage of women’s sport which told us in Aotearoa, women’s sport makes up just 15% of all sports news, up four points since Prof. Toni Bruce’s report in 2011. The interesting nuggets that jumped out to me are:
- It’s great media coverage of women’s sport is being measured.
- The report didn’t note the impact of the Olympics, as media coverage of women’s sport usually spikes around this time.
- It highlighted the top five sports that had the majority of coverage of women’s sport, but didn’t note until later in the report that four of those five sports only make up 1.5% of the total media coverage for both men and women, and that three of those five sports recently had a review of bullying by a coach towards female athletes.
Read all the headlines on women’s sport plus stories on D&I from 30 April here.
Alida Shanks 