SUE ANSTISS: Sadly, in this incredibly capitalist society, a lot of what we’re facing is incumbent of what has happened over the last 150 years or so. It’s about overturning those inequalities. But, right here and now in the women’s sports landscape, you could look at the two world cups that took place this year: the Netball World Cup and the Football World Cup. Both demonstrated inequality in terms of pay, equal prize money, contracts, conditioning support, facilities and kit – all of those areas lack investment. There’s also still a lesser media coverage – it has massively increased but it’s still not enough. We have to look at these issues all the way down to girls in school playgrounds having access to sports, through to clubs and teams as teenagers – the inequality exists in every single part of a woman’s sporting journey. What’s really exciting is that, in the last two or three years, we are finally seeing proof of something we’ve always known – people are in fact interested in women’s sport. And they do want to watch it. We’re seeing massive crowds and huge viewing figures, as well as new people coming into women’s sport, including sponsors. Things are shifting, but it’s how that permeates across the whole landscape. FEED: What are some of the biggest issues faced by women in the sporting landscape?
POWERHOUSE Anstiss is tackling the inequality head on, from access in school to high-level sport
“THERE’S ALSO STILL A LESSER MEDIA COVERAGE – IT HAS MASSIVELY INCREASED BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH”
FEED: Plenty of projects in the broadcast-tech landscape are encouraging women into technical and engineering roles. Are there similar programmes in place in the sports space?
SUE ANSTISS: Lots of national governing bodies, sports leagues and teams are doing work. The FA has done a huge amount, as well as England Rugby. The work with the Women’s Sport Collective is all about encouraging women when they’re at university – as well as before – to see that sport is this amazing, lucrative, fantastic and fascinating sector to work in. It’s also about showing them that, even if they haven’t played sport at any level or had access to it,
they can still find a multitude of careers within it. Like with the broadcast sector, the more we can get women and girls to see that, within sports, you can find journalism, broadcasting, punditry, camera operation, producing – the list goes on – the better. There is a place for them. That message can shift the balance, meaning not only would more women be calling the inequality out, but it would hopefully lead to a better gender balance in those decision-making positions.
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