We should be so twerky? Great new award tarnished by rotten old sexism
There
is a groundswell behind equality at the moment, but when footballer Ada Hegerberg, first winner of the women’s Ballon d’Or, was asked by the male presenter at the ceremony if she could twerk, it showed why we can’t take our feet off the gas.
It’s so disappointing this kind of thing continues to happen and the women’s side of sport is trivialised.
The comment reduced her achievement into the realms of “Give us a twirl”.
Sport has always been a maledominated
domain and, globally, only 11% of the coaching workforce is female.
In all the years that I was learning to coach and going to international conferences, women were outnumbered by between 10 and 12 to one.
Even on the women’s tennis tour almost all of the coaches are men and it’s difficult to make your voice heard or your presence felt and it’s hard to be taken seriously.
I know I’ve been fortunate because my kids are male and have been very successful, but would it have been the same for me if my kids had been female and very successful?
There are many times in my career where I’ve had doors closed in my face.
I found it impossible to get the powers that be to believe in me when I was the national coach that we could produce worldclass players.
Tennis is a global sport but very much a minority one in Scotland and I will never know whether it was just that tennis wasn’t a priority sport here, or that they lacked ambition – or if it was because I was female.
My kids were always used to having a female leading and making things happen – and that was me. But they have also seen the obstacles I’ve faced.
When Andy broke through, I was painted as the pushy, over-competitive mother who never smiles.
They portrayed me as something I absolutely am not.
I am competitive, but I almost found myself apologising for being their mum.
When I was catapulted into the spotlight, suddenly people were having a pop at me for supporting my sons – but they weren’t there when I was the only person standing on the sidelines, cheering them on.
Serena and Venus Williams’ dad didn’t get that kind of criticism or Rafa Nadal’s uncle.
I was an unusual dynamic of being a mother of sons, whereas if I had been a father of sons or a mother of daughters, I doubt I’d have got the same attention.
Reading about this persona, created predominately by male journalists, accompanied by pictures of me baring my teeth and waving my fists, was the hardest thing – and it was sexism.
Andy speaks out when he sees something wrong, as he did over the Ballon d’Or incident.
It makes much greater impact when a guy at the top of his sport speaks out in favour of women than it does when a woman in the same position does. That’s the nature of sport.
But I’m very, very proud he thinks like that. He has two daughters of his own now, so sees the situation more clearly.
As a family, we rail against unfairness. I’ve had to adopt blinkers and a thick skin over the years, but I have learned that when you bring like-minded women together you can make great things happen – and we must keep pushing for the same opportunities as men.