Hopes cup will change stereotypes

WOMEN IN SPORT

THE impact of the Women’s Football World Cup in 2023 will be felt right around the country, a women in sport conference was told yesterday.

The conference took place digitally right across the country yesterday. About 40 people attended in Dunedin.

The conference also discussed analysis of the portrayal of women in sport and active recreation in media and social media.

The analysis is part of a twoyear project; so far, its first year of data is available. More than 40,000 subjects have been analysed already for the study.

Of the media coverage studied, 84% was of men while 15% was of women. Less than 1% of stories were nongenderdefined.

Of the coverage of men, 31% was about rugby, while 40% of the coverage of women related to netball.

For every opportunity for an article about either a man or a woman, it was six times more likely to be about a man than a woman.

When a nonathlete was interviewed in a sporting capacity, such as a coach, there was an 82% chance they would be a man.

Reporting on women peaked at 25% in January, when the ASB Classic tennis tournament was being played.

The coverage of women’s sport was very much dictated by success; 69% of women’s coverage was driven by success. There would be an opportunity to try to report before the success.

Coverage of women was seven times more likely than that of men to have comments about appearance; it was also twice as likely to focus on personal life and three times as likely to be about parental roles.

More women moving into coaching roles and attitudes shifting was shifting such figures.

Fifa chief women’s football officer Sarai Bareman said the the Women’s Football World Cup, to take place in 2023 in Australia and New Zealand, was a great event.

Men’s football had reached saturation level in commercial terms but women’s football still had plenty of growth; there was an uncluttered environment for sponsors.

New

Zealand

Football women’s development manager Holly Nixon said the successful event in France in 2019 had set it up to be a great event in 2023.

There were 176 countries which had a national women’s sporting team and many were not familiar to New Zealanders, she said.

The football tournament could change perceptions about the sport, as topclass athletes would be on show.

Participation levels could increase, and the goal was to improve the Football Ferns and get a team in the WLeague in Australia.

One of the key goals was to build and develop future leaders and give women confidence they could carry out the job, Ms Nixon said.