‘We need to make up for all the lost time’
Lack of funding for women’s sport ‘elephant in the room’
Womenzsports, a new “hype champion” for women in sport, is trying to close the funding gap by offering much-needed cash to female athletes.
Funding inequality is a reality for many women in sport, including the Dunedin Thunder ice hockey team. But on International Women’s Day today, the theme is: ‘Invest in women: Accelerate progress’.
Dunedin Thunder are among the recipients. Funds will be used for regular ice time, as they haven’t had regular pre-season training because of the cost barrier, and because they have to “fight” for ice time with both the men’s league – which gets priority – and other sports.
Then there’s the cost of playing, team manager Rosie Harris says. The women each pay $1600 for their season – the same as the men – but get only eight games a season compared with 18. She said, however, the men’s team was incredibly supportive.
“It is a fight some women’s representatives have been having. They want more games. But it raises the price even more,” Harris said.
Harris said while the sport was growing, the $1600 cost was out of reach for many. There was also a drop-off of younger girls who transitioned from under-15 mixed grade into under-18 mixed senior grades where body checking (physical contact) was permitted. This is not part of most women’s leagues.
“To make it equal, you have to be unequal at the start. We need a bit more support from the start to be able to get us to the point where we can compete on the same level as the men,” Harris said.
“And it has to happen a lot faster … as we’ve started later. For women, that extra bit of money makes you able to reach the same heights as the men without having to fight as many barriers.”
Womenzsports research, involving 150 women from community to elite sport, found disparity in funding between men’s and women’s sports.
Up to 79% of research respondents said there were limited funds available that specifically targeted women’s sport, 75% said potential sponsors weren’t aware of their sport or the fact that women play that sport, 46% said funds and resources were allocated to men’s sport rather than women’s, and 30% believed male athletes received funding that wasn’t available to women.
Womenzsports co-founder Dani Marshall said this was the first step to discovering the dollar-amount disparity between men’s and women’s sport.
“We know there’s a problem. There are historical reasons why men’s sports are as successful as they are today. To be able to see women’s sports succeed anywhere near where men’s sports are succeeding today, we need to put in that investment now to make up for all the lost time.”
Having conversations about equity and funding could be difficult, Marshall said.
“It can be uncomfortable to talk about where there are opportunities to do better. I don’t think any woman athlete or women’s team would be surprised by the results of our data, because it’s the elephant in the room that no-one talks about.
“But there are so many ways people can invest in women’s sports right now. It doesn’t have to be financially. You can buy a ticket to a game, you can share about that game with your friends. Talk about it. Raise awareness. Talk about women athletes. Share their accomplishments. Get involved with your local club. It’s about small impacts.”