WOMEN PLAYING ‘MALE’ SPORTS

IN most parts of the sporting world, for better or worse, natural inequalities are present and do persist.

The only sport which comes to mind that defies this trend is that involving horses.

Winx has been crowned the world’s best racehorse and surprise, surprise, she is a mare. Another mare that was outstanding on the track was Black Caviar.

The exploding popularity of women’s sports – talking humans now – gives rise to talk and many people walking on eggshells.

I have heard a lot of people putting forth the proposition recently that Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning could and should be drafted into the Australian men’s cricket team to strengthen the batting order.

I must admit, I am not a cricketing buff so I cannot comment one way or the other, but I do know that they are outstanding players.

Nobody – aside from those who know anything about the sport – can see any reason why Stephanie Gilmore cannot surf and win against the men.

In some sports, “Girls rule!” Why not let them take on the boys?

Interestingly enough, the argument of equality in performance is never one that is put forward by female sportspeople themselves.

They are always happy training and competing to see what performance they can produce.

When discussing participation in sport throughout the world, the lack of opportunity and encouragement of women to play sport in some countries results in fewer women playing sport, resulting in a smaller talent pool and therefore less chance of women being successful.

To think women couldn’t reach male levels in sport is what people used to think about women in medicine or law and many other positions of responsibility.

I question, isn’t it just a matter of exposing them to male competition for their whole lives, as we do in the real world, and letting them prove themselves? We need to start this education early.

It is an extremely challenging argument.

Science tells us that until puberty, girls are often superior to boys in all sports.

It is a later on where this superiority flips. As maturity takes hold and bodies grow differently with the influence of hormones, and cultural norms about gender assert themselves, things change in sport.

A question could be raised here, “Is it more nurture than nature?” In some families I would agree, but in today’s society, I feel that the trend is changing fast. A question that is on many people’s minds of recent times is: Do we risk dismantling female sports altogether?

In my opinion, females should not need to compete in male sports to attract recognition.

Sporting competition is actually about proving and rewarding performance.

I hate to see that we are now trying to prove there are inequalities.

Normative measures of strength and speed show male physical superiority, which means that in most facets of most sports, if you put the best man on the field against the best woman, he will beat her.

One of the great achievements of women’s sports has been to open people’s eyes to the fact that speed, strength and power aren’t the only qualities worth valuing.

In my opinion, the women who are performing the best in the male sports of rugby union, Aussie rules and rugby league are those who have grown up in the sport.

Those who have had a family history – had brothers who played so they also played in the backyard.

Too often we are seeing women who have been encouraged to play a contact sport with new skills because of financial gain.

We then see those athletes injured more often than not. I feel that to be successful in these sports, the girls need to be coached from an early age.

I have stressed before in my weekly articles how important it is for athletes to learn the physical literacy of their sport.

To be able to kick, run, tackle and catch are the staple core elements that need to be solid from an early age to be confident in all competitive situations. For skills to be automatic they need to be instilled at an early age.

My opinion of the introduction of the women’s national leagues is that it has been done too quickly – the media jumped on the bandwagon early and I feel that interest has now waned. Is it because of the standard of play?

Not too sure because there are some outstanding players.

While women competing against men’s competitions for acceptance in their sport would be a positive win against gender discrimination, it will take some time to improve the overall standard of the games.

What do you think?