This is frequently a theme of HerStory, but this week more than most it felt like the overriding theme of many stories was ‘things that wouldn’t happen to men’s teams/athletes’. First up is the college in the U.S. with a co-ed wrestling team, but when a girl joined the (co-ed) team, the Athletic Director chose to forfeit (because there were no other students in that weight grade) than let her wrestle. Why have a co-ed sport if you’re going to ban girls from competing? Her coach was supportive but couldn’t change the mind of the director, who said, “co-ed participation could cause issues in other school sports and it might negatively impact the programme’s ability ‘to recruit alpha males'”. So for a director of an entire college sports programme, recruiting potential theoretical boys is more important than letting a real life already present girl play sport.
Then we have the Brisbane Lions AFLW team, who have four games in 15 days. Not only would this never happen to a men’s team, but it is clearly not prioritising player welfare, especially given the high injury rate with the AFLW being played over summer on hard grounds.
Research from Erik Denison and Richard Pringle came out this week stating more than half of female rugby players surveyed from southern England rugby clubs feel homophobic and sexist jokes deter many girls from playing the sport. This is disappointing but not surprising, as it aligns with similar research in this space. What was even more astonishing though, was an English rugby journalist who shared the tweet to his 30,000 followers claiming the research couldn’t be true because apparently he had never experienced it himself. It really is not surprising that he, a straight man, had not experienced homophobic and sexist abuse. It is surprising that he expected women to have openly shared with him when they had been on the receiving end of this abuse themselves, when women rarely report this, to anyone. It is extremely disappointing that he chose to close his mind rather than open it.
NZ Rugby have neither confirmed nor denied whether they will be publicly releasing the findings of a review into the culture of the Black Ferns or even if they will enact the recommendations. The review is focused on the mental health, welfare and wellbeing of the top women’s rugby team and the coaches that instil this culture. If NZR want parents to have confidence that rugby is a safe enviroment for their girls (young and older), then releasing the findings of this review and committing to enacting the recommendations is aboslutely vital. I understand waiting to see what comes out of a report before commenting, but it’s unclear to me why the CEO would be coy about taking action.
This weekend the Football Ferns were in action in the SheBelieves Cup in the U.S., which meant Wellington Phoenix women’s goalkeeper Lily Alfeld was called up – good for Lily, not so good for the Phoenix it turns out. The Phoenix have one reserve goal keeper, who stepped up into the starting line up. But the A-League rules state that the all teams must name a reserve keeper on the bench. The Phoenix don’t have a third keeper due to all the rules and restrictions they’re already adhering to. The A-League also have a rule that if a player is called up to the Matildas, a reserve keeper can be brought in on loan to cover that spot on the bench. However, this rule does not include the Ferns. Being an Australian based competition, this has largely made sense so far (although Lily played for Perth last year, so it could’ve happened before). But with the NZ-based Phoenix entering the competition, it looks like someone forgot to update the regs. So the Phoenix contacted the A-League to clarify and ask for an exemption to avoid the embarassing situation of a professional club naming an outfield player as a goalkeeper. The reaction from Football Australia? Nothing. They just didn’t reply. The FA ghosted the Phoenix women’s team. This might be somewhat understandable if it was an awkward first date, but this is from a supposedly professional organisation, who have staff dedicated to running competitions and answering queries on regulations. Wouldn’t happen to a men’s team.
On the same day this story broke about the Phoenix, a story came out of the U.S. with ex-footballer turned entrepreneur Abby Wambach calling for more women to be in charge of women’s sports (which would immediately address most of these situations). Wambach sits on Gatorade’s Women’s Advisory Board and is teaming up with the company to launch a new campaign dedicated to equal opportunities in sport called “Fuel Tomorrow” which includes funding for community programmes, access to sports facilities, and resources and training for coaches on equity and inclusion. Living by the mantra, “if you can see her, you can be her”, Wambach says Gatorade “didn’t just try to check a box with the Advisory Board”. As a first step they’re putting a $10 million initial investment in several national organisations plus 10 percent of Gatorade’s sponsorship funds will go toward developing women coaches. Love to see it!
I was interested to see reported this week that women competing in figure skating could wear pants since a rule change several years ago, but only one out of 30 athletes at the winter Olympics chose to. The main point for me is that women have a choice on what they wear. But it was also pointed out that “even a rule change may not necessarily change the cultural expectations if it’s a central part of the scoring”. So even though the national body changed the rule to give the appearance of women having a choice, what athletes wear is still part of the scoring, and nothing has been done to address the expectation that “people here – specifically judges – know what they find aesthetically pleasing is kind of wrapped up in a feminine image.” In other words, the rule change is entirely symbolic. So kudos to Sweden’s Josefin Taljegard who wore the pants this Olympics and looked stunning in her black and silver ensemble.
This week in herstory, in 2012 the 5th IOC World Conference on Women and Sport was held in Los Angeles, in 2019 Arrowtown Golf banned women from some of their tournaments while in Australia sports signed up to a gender pay equality scheme. In 2021 Gymnastics NZ had apologised for past abuses and the call was made to empower athletes to lead change, which we now know has taken over a year to do. And the Manawatū Rugby Union appointed their first female chief executive (and who are now advertising for a Women’s and Inclusion Lead – applications close 3 March).
For all the headlines on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the media this week, check out HerStory.
Alida Shanks 