Women+Equality+in+Sport+-+Fair+or+Unfair?

Name: Alex Boase ID Number: N8310254 Tutor: Katie Page
 * Women Equality in Sport – Fair or Unfair? **

This Australian artefact is located outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia. It was constructed on the 22nd of November, 2004 (Louis Luamen, Sculptor, 2004) and represents the Australian Olympic sprinter Shirley Strickland. She made her debut after World War II in the 1948 London Olympic Games and took home silver in the 4X100m relay and bronze in both the 100m sprint and 80m hurdles (The Sunday Times, 2004). Four years later she received a gold medal for the 80m hurdles and a bronze in the 100m sprint (The Sunday Times, 2004). However, in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Strickland successfully defended her 80m hurdles title and took out gold in the 4X100m relay. Strickland was the first women to ever win back-to-back gold medals at the Olympic Games. John Howard stated “Strickland was a role model for the nation” eleven days after her passing (The Sunday Times 2004).

PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE

This artefact represents the triumph women have had in sport since World War II. It also demonstrates that women have the right to compete in any sport as equals to men, and if women sports are continually downgraded by the media and not televised as frequently as men’s sports, then up and coming female sports stars are less likely to go forward in their sporting career. A study was completed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2010 to see the difference in sport participation comparing males to females from ages 15 and over. The results for this survey are as follows; 29% of males and 24% of females were involved in some kind of organised sport or physical activity (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010). It can be seen from this survey that low female participation rates start from an early age and continue this trend throughout the older generations.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Andrea Kremer is a female American sports journalist that has produced and directed highlight programmes, reported on the NFL and Olympics, hosted panel-discussion shows and has won Emmy awards for her feature stories (Paul Farhi, 2009). Despite her history in television sideline jobs, she has never been the primary commentator or done play-by-play on a big league game (Farhi, 2009). It seems that this trend continues through all Kremer’s female sports commentator colleagues (Farhi, 2009). Not only do females not get to be the primary commentator on the large majority of sports, but they also have fewer photos taken of them while playing sports (Dianne Jones, 2010). Jones (2010) indicates that in the 2008 Olympic Games, females had far fewer photographs taken of them as opposed to males. Jones (2010) also found that frequent photographs captured females as passive subjects rather than active competitors in their sports. Both Farhi (2009) and Jones (2010) demonstrate that women are not treated as equals to men whether it is in the commentating booth or out on the playing field. One sport that has boomed recently in Australia, more so women, is soccer (Edoardo Rosso, 2008).

Rosso (2008) explains that female soccer players in Adelaide, Australia, have improved dramatically over the last ten years. In female competitions, 66 teams have been added inAdelaide alone. The age groups range from under 11’s all the way through to over 40’s. The problem is that spatial differences have aroused from different regions inAdelaide (Rosso, 2008). Players in ‘higher class areas’ are benefitting from better facilities and equipment etc. then others in different regions, and as a result, a higher quality of sport is being demonstrated by these privileged areas. As a result the players from these areas are more likely to be picked for the national team. Although there has been an increase in the number of female sporting teams in Adelaide (Rosso, 2008), and indeed throughout Australia, there has been no increase in the amount of female soccer matches being televised on ‘free to air’ television or ‘pay TV’.

The latest ‘all sport’ free to air digital television station One, owned by Channel 10, televises sports from all over the world including Pro Bull riding and the women’s basketball, just to name a couple. On Sunday the 23rd of October, 2011, One televised twenty-one male sports throughout the day, and only one female sport – the WNBA Action which only went for half an hour (Brisbane TV Guide, 2011). Fourteen male sporting shows were televised the following day and no female sports were televised at all (Brisbane TV Guide, 2011). Not only on these two days are male sports dominating the televised sporting world, but this trend continues every day of the week (Brisbane TV Guide, 2011)

Women have been trying to break-through into the major sporting realm for many years (McDonagh & Pappano, 2008). Ice-Hockey, Soccer, Wrestling, Baseball and American Football (just to name a few), are all sports that women have been trying desperately to achieve higher standards in to be ‘noticed’ by the media companies (McDonagh & Pappano, 2008). McDonagh & Pappano, (2008), think that this is sexist and unacceptable behaviour, considering that it has been proven that females are built to be endurance athletes, yet there ultra-marathon races and tennis matches are shortened because they are women.

A study completed on French adults, (Anne Vuillemin, Ste´phanie Boini, Sandrine Bertrais, Sabrina Tessier, Jean-Michel Oppert, Serge Hercberg, Francis Guillemin & Serge Brianc, 2005), found that recreational physical activity is one part of becoming a healthy, fit and active human. Thirty minutes of physical exercise each day and a healthy eating diet is recommended (Sandrine Bertrais et. al., 2005; & Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, 1998) to stay in shape. If this is the case, all Australian adults should abide by this plan, depending on their cultural background and their current level of fitness. As a result, more children would compete in organised sports, and possibly increase the numbers of organised local sports clubs for both males and females and therefore increase the number of professional teams inAustralia. This would have a direct impact on the number of female sports televised inAustralia. It can be seen that it all starts at a ‘grass-root’ level.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009), the most highly played sports in 2009 for males were outdoor soccer then swimming and for females were swimming then netball. These three sports may be the most played inAustralia, but none of them get the most air time. Netball is televised on the free to air television station, One. One televises most of the Australian Netball League matches throughout the Australian netball season. The largest attendance for a netball match in Australia is 14,339, in 2004 when Australia played New Zealand (austadiums, 2011). Although One televises the Netball matches, is not televised as frequently as men’s sports in Australia (as is demonstrated above), and one key factor to this low televising problem is money.

The most highly watched sport in Australia is the men’s Australian Football League, or AFL (Austadiums, 2011). Channel 7 and Channel 10 broadcast the AFL matches every weekend throughout the AFL season and as a result of this, high ratings for these channels are acquired and a large profit from advertising is made. One or two television commercials are played every time one of the playing AFL teams kicks a goal. In the 2011 AFL grand finale, 30 goals were kicked throughout the match. This means that channel Seven played at least 30 television advertisements between restarts after kicking a goal. Despite this, there were 99,537 people at the MCG attending the grand final and an average of 2.63 million viewersAustralia wide. Therefore, there were approximately 2.73 million people watching this AFL grand final Australia wide. As a result of the large viewing numbers, more money was made for channel 7, so they’re more likely to televise more of these AFL matches.

CULTURAL THEORY

Women started voting equally with men in Australia in 1902, but only in New South Wales (Australian Electoral History, 2011). Since then men and women have been on equal terms since 1908 with just about everything, some exceptions are (mania years ago), amount of time spent working for the income for the household and amount of time spent participating in sport. In 1900 women across the globe were allowed to participate in the Olympic Games (Ausport, 2001) and in 1912 Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie were the first female competitors who were deemed skilful enough for the Australian Olympic team.

In 2009, Kelli Underwood was put on the channel 10 AFL commentating team for a two year training program (Jon Wood, 2011). In 2011, Herald Sun (an Australian newspaper company) developed an online poll on whether she should stay in the commentating box, or relegated to the sideline. 4606 votes were counted and 77.42% of voters said she should be relegated (Wood, 2011). In another poll that is conducted annually by the Herald Sun, called ‘Herald Suns Footy Fan Survey’, Underwood was “dubbed the most annoying commentator in 2010”. Underwood was relegated to the side-line by channel 10 in early 2011 because ratings were falling while she was on the commentating team.

From 1984 - 1992 it became obvious that Australian women were dominating Australian males in there selected sports (Kristine Toohey, 1997). This statement does not mean that Australian females could beat any Australian male in their sporting expertise; it is simply indicating that Australian females win more gold medals and more world titles then Australian males in their respective sports. This, theoretically, should demonstrate that women are more than capable of not only playing their selected field of sport, but able to commentate on it as well.

Toohey, (1997), discussed the air time differences between males and females at the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics. Toohey, (1997), believes that, through extensive research, the major football codes and cricket have constructed and reconstructed male dominance by connecting males to valued attributes such as strength, aggressiveness and power. As a result of this, they have received high levels of air time for many years and dominate any Australian co-sex sporting team, i.e. Olympics. Women comprised only nineteen per cent (19%) of the Australian Olympic team from 1948 through to 1992 but have won forty-two per cent (42%) of gold medals and still do not get the same relative air-time as males (Toohey, 1997).

Veronique Billat, Laura Capranica, Elke Cumps, Singe Hanghoj, Romain Meeusen, Carlo Minganti & Maria Francesca Piacentini, (2005), expanded on the work of Toohey (1997) and presented statistics on females in sport throughout the world and how the television coverage on female sports from the 1996 Olympics through to the 2004 Olympics, (but focussing mainly on the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia), has not changed significantly. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) noticed, in the 1992 Olympic games, how male dominated the Olympic Games were becoming (Billat, V. et al, 2005). As a result, the IOC increased the number of female sports in the Olympic Games and encouraged all countries to try and increase their number of female participants (Billat, V. et al, 2005). In the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the female participation rates were 34% and 38% respectively (Billat, V. et al, 2005). It can be seen that from 1992 to 2000, the participation rates increased 19%, this means that the female participation rates doubled across the eight years (Toohey, 1997; Billat, V. et al, 2005). Yet the media coverage on all women’s sports in Australia and throughout the world has not had such a dramatic increase. This suggests that people would rather watch a male sport then a female sport (ABS, 2011).

ARTEFACT ANALYSIS

Shirley Strickland was an Olympic hero in 1948, 1952 and 1956, and has become one of the immortal Olympians of Australian sport. To represent the triumph of all females in Olympic level sporting history, a statue of Miss Strickland was constructed in late 2004 outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Victoria, Australia. This statue represents not only Strickland’s triumph, but the up-growing levels of female participation in sport across Australia. Although there have been many triumphant female Australian athletes throughout the last 99 years, Strickland was immortalised through the use of a statue as she passed away in 2004. She was a role model for all female Australian Olympians and will continue to inspire female Australian athletes for many generations to come.

I believe that the Shirley Strickland statue represents how far Australia has come in closing the gap of inequality between men and women in sport. This cultural artefact represents this long hard journey in making this gap a lot smaller. Although this is the case, there is one thing still left to do, that is; ensure female sports are televised as regularly as male sports throughout Australia to ensure the work of Australians such as Shirley Strickland was not in vain.


 * REFERENCES**

Ausport, (2001); Women in the Olympics – a brief history. //Australian Government//

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2010); Involvement in organised sport and physical activity, Australia; //Involvement in Organised Sport and Physical Activity; Australia// (cat. no. 6285.0).

Australian Electoral History (AEH), (2011); Australia’s major electoral developments timeline: 1900-present. //Australian Government//

Bertrais, S., Boini, S., Brianc, S., Guillemin F., Hercberg S., Oppert, J.M., Tessier, S., &Vuillemin, A., (2005); Leisure time physical activity and health-related quality of life; //Preventive Medicine 41;// 562- 569.

Billat, V., Capranica, L., Cumps, E., Hanghoj, S., Meeusen, R., Minganti, C., & Piacentini, M.F., (2005); Newspaper coverage of women's sports during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games: Belgium, Denmark, France, and Italy. Research quarterly for exercise and sport(0270-1367), 76(2) ,  p.212

Brisbane TV guide, (2011); [|http://www.yourtv.com.au/guide/morning/#filter-sports]

Farhi, P., (2009); For TV's female reporters, it's strictly a sideline job; //Washington Post//; Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre.

Jones, D., (2010), Women's sports coverage: online images of the 2008 Olympic Games; //Australian Journalism Review//, Vol. 32 Issue 2, p89-102, 14p.

Laumen, L., (2004); Strickland honoured with statue; //Web Article;// no. 18.

McDonagh, E., & Pappano, L., 2008; Playing with the boys: why separate is not equal in sports; Oxford University Press;//Sex discrimination in sports, Social aspects, Sports, Sex discrimination against women.//

Northrup, M., 2005; Women in Sports. Book links(1055-4742), 14(4) ,  p.10.

Ralph, J., 2011; Channel 10 flicks switch on Kelli Underwood, first female to call football on TV. //Herald Sun// //Newspaper //

Rosso, E., (2008); The Spatial Organisation of Women's Soccer in Adelaide: Another Tale of Spatial Inequality?; //Geographical Research//; Volume 46, Issue 4, pages 446–458.

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, 1998; The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, enjoy a variety of foods every day; //Department of Health and Aging.//

The Sunday Times (2004); Era of the flying housewife; //The (Perth) Sunday Times//; Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre.

Toohey, K., 1997 ; Australian Television, Gender and the Olympic Games. International review for the sociology of sport(1012-6902), 32(1) ,  p.19.


 * LEARNING ENGAGEMENT AND REFLECTING TASK**

Name: Amanda Giang

Student Number: n7388187

I really enjoyed reading your essay and I think you have done an amazing job on getting your point across. Your references were all up-to-date and spot on with what you were researching. I find the artefact interesting as it has a very different take on ‘being drunk’, but it does demonstrate very well that when people are under the influence of alcohol, many people cannot think straight. The facts about the Indigenous Australians were interesting to see as we hear a lot of funding and work being put into preventing them from drinking. Although this work is mainly in the Northern Territory, the statistics show that a very small percentage of the Indigenous Australians are taking this opportunity, and this therefore demonstrates that the majority of Indigenous Australians are still consuming too much alcohol. Well done.

Student Number: n8300011

The artefact you have chosen is one of great relevance to the rest of your essay. Reading through your essay has enabled me to see how bad Australia’s ‘sexual education’ really is. I agree with you when you say Australia needs a better sexual education to meet its first world status. I also agree with you when you said Australia needs to do something about it other wise we will quite possibly be impacting future generations with poor sexual health. I enjoyed reading your essay and you have done an excellent job, it is evident that you have put a lot of time and effort into your essay. Well done.