Transgender athletes not biggest
Since Laurel Hubbard’s naming in the New Zealand Olympic team this week, there’s been a flurry of discussion about the inclusion (or exclusion) of transgender women in women’s sport and the need to protect women’s rights.
It’s fantastic to see how women’s rights and women’s sport are all of a sudden coming to the fore. Now that you are so interested in women’s sport let’s talk about the big threats facing women in sport. It’s not the inclusion of transgender women.
The biggest threat is those who say no to equal pay or to giving women opportunities in the sporting world both on and off the field. It’s sports bodies who will not meet the government mandated 40 per cent gender quota on their boards by the end of the year – like New Zealand Rugby.
It’s sports bodies that continue selecting male athletes who violently abuse women or those who shut women down when they try to speak up about their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse in sport.
It those who do not call out the use of sexist or homophobic slurs and allowing rape culture to continue to permeate in sport.
It’s those who have allowed abuse to occur against girls and women in sport for decades. It’s those who make girls and women wear uniforms that are not fit for purpose.
It’s sponsors and advertisers who say no to equal investment for women, and those who don’t recognise the contributions of girls as well as boys.
The gender pay gap in sport is huge. Within domestic cricket it’s between 88 and 100 per cent. These women are doing the same job, in the same conditions, on the same day as their male counterparts. Women, like Black Fern Chelsea Alley, recently posted about how they are struggling to balance three jobs with a rugby career. She doesn’t have the luxury to give 100 per cent to her sport. She can’t afford it. Unlike her male counterparts.
Then there’s visibility. According to Sport New Zealand, coverage of women in sport makes up approximately 15 per cent of all sports coverage. That’s a slight improvement from 10 years ago when it was 11. While this number is world leading, it’s still poor considering half our population are women. Research from Dot Loves Data released on International Women’s Day found men’s rugby gets more coverage than all of women’s sport combined.
Social media is also taking a toll on women in sport. Eighty per cent of elite female athletes report social media is the number one source of pressure for them to conform to traditional ideas around feminine body image. Seventythree per cent say having that pressure to have a specific ‘‘physical appearance’’ is damaging to their overall health, including engaging in disordered eating practices and interruptions to their menstrual cycle. Fifty nine per cent say social media was a source of performance related pressure,
Speak up for equal pay. Actively sponsor and support your favourite team. Recognise the contribution of girls and women on and off the field.
more so than they reportedly experienced from their coaches.
Then there’s the harassment of women in sport. Of athletes receiving sexist and racist remarks online, female sports journalists receiving threats of rape and death for doing their jobs, and women in positions of power, including now Sport New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle having to up security following death threats.
In my case, I’ve received semiregular
threatening misogynistic messages, been groped, had my appearance commented on, been kissed against my will, and had men – without my consent – wave their penises in my face. It’s happened both in a workplace setting and at sporting events.
Sports media has traditionally not been a safe space for women. Last month Sky Sport faced allegations of serious sexual harassment and an independent investigator has been brought in to oversee the process. In the final show for Radio Sport in 2020 – in which the male presenters spent more time talking about pigeon racing than they did women – one woman who did go on air reported how another presenter ‘‘stalked her’’.
Stuff’s award-winning sports journalist Dana Johannsen also wrote of her time with Radio Sport.
‘‘In one of my first weeks on the job a well-known host flung a young producer over his shoulder and unclipped her bra in the middle of the office,’’ she said.
‘‘No-one said a word. Or if they did, it couldn’t be heard over the guffaws. There was a suffocating blokieness about the place.’’
Many of those who are jumping to the defence of women and women’s rights in the past few weeks are also self-selecting what women’s rights they want to protect.
National MP Mark Mitchell, who recently accepted a petition from Save Women’s Sport Australasia that called for more consultation on Sport New Zealand’s transgender inclusion guidelines, voted against laws that directly impacted women’s rights in the past. He voted against the marriage equality bill, and the domestic violence leave act, choosing to put businesses ahead of women’s rights.
In the United States, the lawmakers who say they want to protect women’s rights and are passing legislation to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sport, are the same lawmakers who have voted against women’s reproductive rights.
Women’s rights are important. They are important in sport and society, and it’s positive to see many of us talking about them. But how about using that energy for good and being an ally for women in sport?
Speak up for equal pay. Actively sponsor and support your favourite team. Recognise the contribution of girls and women on and off the field. Encourage women to stand for boards and leadership positions. Call out sexism, rape culture and misogyny, and actively listen when women share their stories in relation to this. Read and share stories about women in sport. Encourage your daughters to pick up a rugby ball or cricket bat. Change your club or school sports uniforms so girls and women feel comfortable.
You can make a difference. Use that dedication to women’s rights in sport for good. Be a champion and help eliminate the threats facing women and girls.