The Current Situation for Women in Sport

December 2008
Janice Crosswhite OAM, President, Australian Womensport and Recreation Association

Using the Senate Report figures (2006 Senate Report  About Time.  Women in Sport and Recreation in Australia) and AWRA’s National Survey in 2007 it is established that approximately 38% of women participate in sport and physical activity and although physical education and sport is compulsory in primary and most of secondary school, approximately 40% of girls drop out by the age of 16.

Women continue to struggle to achieve senior management and leadership positions in many businesses and industries and this is consistently replicated in the sports industry in Australia.  Statistics indicate that the number of women on National Sporting Organisations (NSO) boards is at a low level, with a national average of one woman to seven men on boards in 2005.  Consistent with this is the low number of women in executive positions, where women hold only 13% of executive officer positions in the top 40 funded NSOs.  Yet there is increasing feminization of the sports industry where at middle and lower levels of employment just over 50% of the workforce is female.

Coaching and officials figures are slightly better.  According to the Australian Sports Commission as at May 19, 2006 there were 46,743 male coaches and 25,102 female coaches, with a significant difference between male and female numbers becoming more pronounced as the level of accreditation increases.   The situation in Australia with respect to gender imbalance within registered officials is slightly more encouraging than the coaching area: as at May 19, 2006 there were 3025 accredited male officials and 1950 female accredited officials.

Career paths to world class sport are far less obvious for women.  Women’s elite teams can be perceived as having less value or they are a stepping stone for coaches to men’s elite teams.  The vicious circle of poor media coverage, so less sponsorship or financial support, continues to hold back national competitions and leagues, which are the key to developing pathways to elite Australian and international sport.

Media coverage of women’s sport in Australia is appalling despite the increased quality of the performances of women athletes.  Television coverage is approximately 1% for women’s sport.  ABC TV is the highlight.  If it was not for the national broadcaster there would be hardly any free to air viewing of women’s sport.  Where do our young girls see sporting role models?  They don’t, with Australian research showing that only 8% of teenage girls claim to have a sport role model.