It feels weird to be writing about women’s sport when it has been such a full week, with violence in the Ukraine and hurt here in Aotearoa, as well as Covid and other things happening in our lives at the moment. I don’t plan to write about these things because that’s not why we’re here, but I do want to acknowledge them. To paraphrase one of my faves Brene Brown, don’t look away. Don’t look down. Don’t pretend not to see hurt. Look people in the eye, when they’re hurting or when you’re hurting. We need to know we’re not alone, that we are connected, especially when we’re hurting. And it’s ok to focus on other stuff. So here is some women’s sport to focus on for just a bit.
I spent the weekend watching women’s sport and it was awesome! The first match of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup was on Friday and I watched the nail biting finish between the White Ferns and the West Indies. The Wellington Phoenix women’s team played their last match for the season on Friday night, so I was flicking between the cricket and the football, with my Tribe app open checking for developments in whatever I wasn’t watching. A gallant effort by Gemma, Nat, and the whole team for being based in Australia for the whole campaign. And the first match for Super Rugby Aupiki kicked off on Saturday. The competition is proving to be a challenge with Covid in the camps, exacerbated, I’d suggest, by trying to squeeze a whole Super Rugby campaign into what was 4, then 3, and now just 2 weeks. Plus the Beijing Paralympics are also on. It’s a women’s sports fest and I love it.
This last week saw Dame Valerie Adams retire from shotput, after 22 years competing at the top. I loved LockerRoom’s Suzanne McFadden’s profile of Dame Valerie, the insight, the compassion, and the tenderness with which Suze wrote about Dame Valerie’s career, her family and her personal story. If you want a lovely distraction, then that story is it.
Last week Sport NZ launched a new campaign aimed at encouraging girls and young women to be more/keep being active. It’s a great video that focuses less on ponytails and ‘typical girls sports’ and more on a range of sports, active recreation and play activities, including many “non mainstream” activities like skateboarding, which is awesome. There is dedicated social media and Sport NZ have partnered with a couple of existing organisations who are providing free online sessions including dance and cardio workouts. Also, it was great to read that the production team from Saatchi and Saatchi were all women too.
I have worked in marketing in sport, so I understand the importance of a strong online campaign. However, I think an even more powerful campaign would be putting it into practice. I really hope there are more initiatives to be announced. Research shows body confidence is a big deal for teenage girls, so how about free or heavily discounted/accessible period panties and swimwear so girls can still play sport or swim carefree when they have their period? Or making sports bras a) comfortable, b) not make your breasts a funny shape, c) easy to put on, d) look good and not frightening and huge, e) actually support your breasts while moving, and f) free/heavily discounted to any girl who wants to play sport? Or supporting clubs and schools to provide sportswear that is a) not white, b) women’s cut, c) comfortable, d) not boys left overs, e) the right size (whatever size she wants to wear it), and f) free/heavily discounted. Or paying/subsidising affiliation fees for girls? Or the research showed the top three activities for girls were walking, workouts and running – Sport NZ have covered off the workouts, so how about the regional sports trusts create (cool, teen girl focused) maps (available online) with the best places to go walking in the rohe? And add some fun stuff on the path?
A theme that keeps coming up for me this week is how women are invisible in many aspects of sport. This week ABC’s Samantha Lewis wrote about the invisible women who laid all the groundwork for this week’s A-League pride round. There has been much visible support for recently out player Josh Cavallo, as there should be, both public and personal support, which is great. And this week Adelaide United held a ‘pride round’ to support rainbow communities, which is awesome. Except in all the commentary about the pride round was how this was the first time this had been done. This is the first time this had been done by a men’s team, but definitely not the first! Women’s football teams have been raising the profile of rainbow communities and highlighting the homophobia they frequently face, for years. But this week, those women were invisible, again.
Speaking of invisible women, Stuff have launched a seven-part series on women’s rugby, looking at key issues such as the lack of pathway for women coaches, and the women invisible in the history of rugby. It’s a mix of video and articles, and well worth checking out to understand the challenges in women’s rugby.
This week in herstory, in 1996 at the first IOC World Conference on Women and Sport, held in Lausanne, Switzerland, the International Olympic Committee made a resolution to have 10% of decision-making positions held by women in Olympic sports by 2000, increasing to 20% by 2005 (it didn’t happen). In March 2000, the 2nd IOC World Conference on Women and Sport was held in Paris, France and urged the IOC President to pressure sports organisations to meet the 10% minimum representation of women in decision-making positions by 31 December 2000, extend the period to June 2001 if needed, and ensure that the 20% goal for 2005 is maintained and attained. (Still didn’t happen). In March 2004, the 3rd World Conference on Women and Sport was held in Marrakech, Morocco and it was determined that not much progress had been made for the priority issues facing women in sport.
In March 2010, the women’s rugby NPC competition was cancelled due to financial struggles of NZ Rugby, even though the Black Ferns, 3x World Cup winners, had a World Cup that year and there was no discussion of curtailing the men’s NPC. And in March 2020, High Performance Sport NZ survey results show the sports system is failing top women coaches.
Make sure you check out the White Ferns in action this week, they play Bangladesh on Monday 7 March at 11am, India on Thursday 10 March at 2pm, and Australia on Sunday 13 March at 11am. Round 1 of Super Rugby Aupiki is on Thursday 10 March (yes, at the same time as the cricket so multiple screens needed!) at 3.35pm with the Hurricanes Poua v Blues and at 7pm the Chiefs Manawa take on Matatū.
For all the headlines on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the media this week, check out HerStory.
Alida Shanks 