Hot Seat

Llanelli MP Griffith on closing the gap between men’s and women’s sports

MANY of us associate the summer months with long evenings enjoying sport on our televisions. Whether it is Wimbledon or the cricket, spectator sports are a staple of British summers – given that we can’t always rely on the weather.

This summer we have seen record numbers of fans following the Women’s Football World Cup in France. At its peak, 7.6 million people watched England beat Norway to reach the semi-finals – the largest ever UK TV audience for a women’s football game. By the time you read this they will have played the USA in the semi-finals.

Of course, there is still a long way to go to achieve parity between men’s and women’s sports. There is a need for greater sponsorship, because too many sportswomen end up having to self-fund much of their careers – something obviously back.

We also need to see greater coverage of women’s sport – not just global events like the world cup. And we need to change the culture that sees too many women in sport experiencing unacceptable prejudice or harassment, with a recent survey showing that over half of British elite sportswomen have suffered discrimination because of their gender and more than a third have received sexist comments from fans on social media.

It has been heartening to see good coverage of which hold can them the women’s world cup, because young girls need to see the same type of role models that boys see when watching men’s games. As with all negative gender stereotypes, they can set in when children are very young. Many of us will remember PE lessons when girls just played netball or hockey, and only the boys took part in rugby and football. It is so important that girls have good opportunities to get involved in a wide range of sports from a young age. After all, we may well have the stars of future world cups playing on the schoolyards and playing fields of our town.