Today is International Women’s Day, a day where people across the globe come together to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
It is also an opportunity to recognise how far we have come towards gender equality and parity while still acknowledging the work that still needs to be done.
In Australia, we have been fortunate enough to witness and be part of a revolution in women’s sport over the last couple of years.
As a result of established competitions like the WBBL, WNRL, AFLW, WNBL, W-League and Super Netball, young women across the country now grow up knowing that they have the chance to play sport in our premier domestic competitions.
More importantly, given the increased visibility of women’s sport, the next generation of girls and boys will live in a world where the expectation is that men and women can both be sports stars and successful athletes.
As acknowledged though, there is still plenty of work to do. Many of the competitions I’ve mentioned above are not professional and in some circumstances women are still juggling commitments like family, study and a job just so they can pursue the sports that they love.
While women are becoming increasingly visible on the field and in other spaces like administration and the media, roles in coaching seem to be minimal.
Additionally, given the dramas of this year’s NRL off-season, we also need to think about how welcome women feel in our sporting families and the impact that anti-social off-field behaviour has on the way that fans interact with our various sports.
Despite this, there has been progress in the last year and I wanted to share some of my stand-out moments.
The past 12 months have been significant for women who play rugby league.
The NRL’s women’s competition kicked off in September with four inaugural teams: the Sydney Roosters, New Zealand Warriors, Brisbane Broncos and St George Illawarra Dragons.
The Brisbane Broncos won the inaugural NRLW grand final last year. (AAP Image/Craig Golding)
While there was some negativity about only starting small and in response to the news that neither the Cronulla Sharks or South Sydney Rabbitohs would have a team, when the competition began this negativity dissipated.
Fans were impressed and thoroughly enjoyed the standard of the competition. Even more impressive was the way the NRL treated the competition – basically everything done for the men’s game including stats, Fantasy Points and television coverage was also done for the women’s game. This meant the competition truly lived up to its motto of ‘Same Game, Our Way’.
Additionally, the inaugural Women’s State of Origin held at North Sydney Oval was an exceptional success, playing at prime time on Fox Sports and Channel Nine with over 9000 in attendance.
The score wasn’t important that night. What I remember most was the fans streaming onto the field at the end of the game to embrace their new heroes.
Rugby league was not the only sport to launch its women’s competition last year. We still have a very long way to go in rugby union, particularly when it comes to the 15-player version of the game, but last year was the first year where I saw Rugby Australia take its development seriously.
Rugby Australia launched the Super W competition, in January 2018 a new collective bargaining agreement was announced, which applies to the Wallaroos and Aussie Sevens team for the first time, including an agreement to pay the Wallaroos match payments for Tests.
In August, the Wallaroos played in a double-header alongside the Wallabies for the first time on Australian soil.
Then there have been the exceptional performances by the Matildas, the success of the Australian women’s cricket team and some world-leading individual performances from the likes of women like Jessica Fox, whose advocacy has played a significant role in the introduce the canoe slalom event (C1) being introduced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Additionally, from a whole of sport perspective, the Male Champions of Change in Sport group recently released their ‘Pathway to Pay Equality’ initiative which is a plan about working towards equal pay for elite female athletes.
So what would I like to see more of in the next year?
I would like to see increasing levels of commitment by our sports to appropriately remunerate female athletes and take the lead from sports like cricket, where the Australian women’s cricket team and the NSW Breakers are fully professional teams. Hopefully the ‘Pathway to Pay Equality’ initiative assists with that.
There’s also a possibility that we may see a woman be the main on-field referee for a rugby league game this year, with Belinda Sleeman being given that opportunity in a trial match a few weeks ago.
This would be a significant moment for the game and increases visibility of female officials and follows in the footsteps of other female officials like Claire Polosak (cricket) and Eleni Glouftis (AFL).
But the area I think we have the most work to do in is in relation to coaching. Whilst our female elite competitions have been introduced there are very few female coaches given the short seasons.
Each day – thanks to the extraordinary efforts to all women involved in sport whether as administrators, fans, referees, players or volunteers, as well as the men who support these women – we move closer to a more gender equal world, particularly when it comes to sport.
I look forward to reflecting back on this moment in time in the future and seeing how much additional progress has been made.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
He is clearly reading things that are not there, but fortunately for us, he says in black and white that he is not wanting to create a code war.
paulie
Guest
The fate of the womens games is really up to the governing body. I think football is so far ahead in Australia that it will grow regardless. How ever League,Union and AFL will be competing for the same athletes and with out an entrenched culture like netball has, It will depend on which code gives the players the best oppurtunity to be truly profession athletes. So for me i hope the NRL expands thier game by 2 more teams and gives it the attention it needs and derserves and doesnt allow it to fade away.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
What both the rugby league, rugby union women and need to do is to form an elite touch football competition for the summer. Touch football offers more intensive and concentrated skills development. PLaying more contact is more a ticket to early retirement and injuries. In the USA they play more only 14 NFL games but the offseason is very long. So copy the NFL model not the NRL model of professionalism. What the AFL women need to do is not to worry about playing more games because as AFL is 18 on 18 , you dont get much out of a game. They need to take a step out of the old school AFL players who concentrated on their skills and train for at least 10 months of the year. Of course to do that they need to be paid enough to be professional not a few thousand for two months like they are now but enough to be full time. Forget about the men and what they are doing, because they seem to have other priorities in the off season, there is no reason the women can become better if they train for longer periods.
Dave
Guest
Which one of Vietnam, Laos or Iran is considered an impressive victory?.....
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#Middie Ironically on this front - don't start by attacking the media - start first by asking the FFA why it's so hard to find information about it on line - - I was deliberately searching for info and it was really quite difficult. The other side of it - the discussion on sports radio 927 yesterday morning centred around possible Matildas home base to be built in Melbourne and they observed that it would provide a chance to get to know the ladies - - the reality is that if you're not being made available to the media then the media run with what IS available to them.
JimboJones
Guest
Dave , ya wont see anything positive about Girls sports from Mary C lick Bait . Unless its anti Male , or at least competing with male sports for the ( government ) dollar. Im looking into a crystal ball ..and I see your daughters playing against "girls" that were born as men ... And Mary will be telling you and me and any anyone else she can tell , that , Your girls should "accept" the new normal , the new , THE NEW , brand phukkinnew , normal . This stooge aint promoting womens sport , she's promoting the new world,,, She's a charlatan at best , and a charlatan at worst .
JimboJones
Guest
Hmmmm
Midfielder
Roar Guru
are you serious ....
Dave
Guest
Maybe if they beat a country that wasn’t considered war torn or third world it might be a tad more impressive
Onside
Guest
Netball may well be Dave. Certainly has massive participation numbers. The problem is that this site is dominated by males. Mary beavers away each week cranking out an article with the female perspective, but a women's pov on The Roar is virtually non existent. Most blokes don't follow netball . The only reason there are posts and opinions on womens rugby, cricket and AFL, is that those are the games most blokes have traditionally watched when played by men. Don't get disheartened. Think of Olympic female rowers , female athletes, medal winning womens hockey , womens football, etc etc. AFLW , cricket and womens rugby articles get the most responses from men ,because they are the games they know and follow in the male format. But hey, if outside of Mary you are looking for a woman's opinion, there's a message in the silence.
Nick
Roar Guru
Completely agree.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
MM I understand we have four national sides in womens Football and with China, Japan & South Korea all in the top 10 and regular matches .... There is something about both Football & Basketball its like almost magical a power of some kind that says Australian journalist should not comment to much ... must write mostly and mostly praise AFL & NRL...
David Holden
Roar Guru
I’d like to see Super Netball recognised as the premier women’s sport in Australia. It certainly is on many levels but seems to get a little lost in the race to promote other codes. Coming from the dad of two netball daughters.
Onside
Guest
Rugby ( League and Union) has always prided itself on it being a game for all shapes and sizes. Womens rugby has now resulted in the opportunity for many powerful, very fit, larger women, whose natural body shape preclude them from participating in other mainly non contact football codes, to play team sport. That's a good thing.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
#Middie I'd've thought you'd be telling us all about the U-16 junior Matildas and their just completed 3 match sweep of Iran, Vietnam and Laos. (we have a daughter of a friend who is starring in this line up - also features in the "Kick" series). It's a pretty decent cohort.
Maximus Insight
Guest
Serious dude what are you reading? The one mention of the AFLW in this article is in a list of all the womens' leagues It is round 6 this week in the AFLW and this is Mary's coverage thus far.... https://www.theroar.com.au/2019/01/30/what-do-you-mean-aflw-starts-this-weekend/ Apparently the AFL insufficiently promoted the AFLW so much and "And this makes (Mary) really angry." She then listed every gripe that actual supporters of the AFLW have had with the AFL from the last couple of seasons (regardless that its actual financial investment in women's football exceeds the NRL's many times over)......and has provided exactly zero coverage since presumably because she was so angry about the lack of adds... ...which is her prerogative of course but the fact you've somehow perceived Mary having a bias towards AFLW content perhaps says more about you than her.
Adam
Roar Guru
I'm not fully across the collaboration between all the leagues, but I think they need to ensure they do not cannabalise each other in the push for talent. I know there is certainly an aspect of that in regards to the two rugby codes. Players can certainly play a bit of both now as the seasons are relatively short. But there may come time when the seasons get longer that players will need to chose one code and one code only, like Elyse Perry. The pay aspect will come, but I imagine it's a balancing act of when to start charging higher prices at the gate to accommodate the costs of the players. I'm sure the comps have a 5-10 year plan in place and will work towards decent pay and I think it will mean that the comps won't be undermined by people who for some reason hold a grudge.
Midfielder
Roar Guru
Mary I do like your work.... however you seem to be falling for the three card trick ... your recent articles pay a lot of attention to AFL & RL... Football & Basketball competitions were we have men's and women's competition running for quick some time with major international games and many with major overseas clubs particularly in Basketball. Yes all women's sport should be celebrated but perhaps a tad more on the Womens World Cup in 3 months ... I am not trying to create a code war, its just that both the Football & Basketball leagues have been around for yonks... and play a reasonably long season and both import overseas top notch female players ... with many players in both leagues actually playing overseas when the Australian leagues finish... surely these two codes arguably along with cricket set the bar. Yet most articles are about new, short, local leagues ... maybe thats the Australian way ...
Homers Son
Guest
Point proven
Onside
Guest
Womens sport needs to work on getting women to watch womens sport.