Tackling gender equality in sport
THE nation’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner has taken up an ambassadorial role with Football Australia to promote gender equality in sport.
Kate Jenkins, who will campaign in the lead-up to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia, in a drive known as Legacy 23, said that girls and women were disadvantaged in terms of participation in sport, and on pay in professional sport.
“It’s tangibly noticeable that there has been a much greater focus on women in sport … but there is still very much a long way to go,” Ms Jenkins said.
Ms Jenkins, who has three stepchildren and two children, Milly, 13, and Brady, 16, who played football from a young age, said more pathways were needed in community sport.
“The statistics tell us that girls do drop out of sport at 12 to 14 years of age,” she said. “There has been much less opportunity for Milly, compared to her brother Brady, just in sheer numbers.
“Brady was able to participate in development squads, there were six teams in his age group, and for Milly you’re lucky to get one girls’ team and she did, until this year, play in the boys’ team.”
She said an independent report into gymnastics had highlighted “high rates” of sex discrimination and harassment against women.