Equal time for female athletes

RE: Female athletes in the sports section

I read a sentence, a caption to be precise, on the front of the Spectator Sports section this morning. Most mornings that section goes, untouched by more than a cursory glance, immediately into the recycling box. But this morning I stopped for a moment. Three women were pictured, below the fold, but I noticed and read the captions under the photos before moving on to the GO section.

I would suggest that someone in the sports department make a statistical analysis of the ratio of men to women appearing on the front page of the sports section; the population is, remember, approximately 50 per cent female.

I know that the first response is likely: there are not so many women in professional or semi- professional sports in the city. And I would agree that may be so. Why would women bother with sports when so little attention is paid? I also know that many women follow men’s sports activity with great interest. They don’t have much option!

More importantly, there are women involved in high levels of sport in the area, just not in the men’s leagues of football, hockey, baseball and basketball. Women participate in all manner of racquet sports, skating sports, equestrian sports, gymnastics, shooting and so forth, but are reported so infrequently that is astounding, once I begin to notice it.

It is sad to see the world with nearly half of it left out. Joann MacLachlan, Hamilton