Sport

Recognise, Reward, Repay: Professionalism in Women’s Sport

August 18th 2014 was a huge day for women’s rugby with the England team lifting the World Cup after four unsuccessful finals in a row. A long awaited title was added to their existing one from 1994. However, this was not just a World Cup win for women’s rugby, but a show of the huge growth in support that the sport has seen in the past few years. The 20,000 capacity Stade Jean-Bouin stadium in Paris was sold out for the three matches it staged on the day.

This win, and the growing support for women’s rugby has ultimately put into question the future of women’s sport as a profession. Currently, choices for women in the area of professional sports are sparse. A quick look at the top earning sportswomen, according to Forbes in 2011, seven out of the ten women earning professionally are in tennis, the rest being in golf, figure skating and motorsport. The future, however, has been looking bright for women’s sports in recent years. Women’s cricket recently received professional contracts after their successful Ashes campaign. In 2013, the England footballers secured a wage increase from £16,000 to £20,000 a year with an allowance of 24 hours a week worked in another form of employment. And as of August 25th, England 7s women became professional in the run up to rugby’s Olympic inauguration in Rio 2016.

According to Forbes in 2011, seven out of the ten women earning professionally are in tennis, the rest being in golf, figure skating and motorsport.

But it is not enough. The lack of professionalism in women’s sport and the low pay, where it does exist, means that the sport is unable to grow as quickly as desired. Coupling this with the recent economic climate and the ‘make or break’ attitude of governing bodies, the next few years are crucial for the future of particular women’s sports. The women’s 15s rugby team is going to be expected to defend a world title, while still not being professional. If they fail to do so, it would suggest that women’s rugby is not worth investing in or making professional.

The argument against professionalisation of women’s sport is often that the revenue in terms of tickets and merchandise is not enough to support the wages of the players. While this maybe true, to focus on this fact and not acknowledge the immeasurably hard job these women have by consistently performing well at their sports is insulting and will result in England and Great Britain repeatedly losing out to other nations.

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One way of boosting the support and paving a way to professionalism is through media coverage, something that is seriously lacking for most female sports. Out of 14 possible programs that are available to watch on Sky Sports 1 on 25th August, 100% are about men. The story is similar on Sky Sports 2, where all nine programmes after 7am are about men’s cricket. And this story isn’t unusual. The media coverage of women’s sports in relation to men’s is shockingly low with women’s sports barely touching the main sporting channels as favour is given to the men. This focused coverage of male sports is teaching both young and old viewers that only male sports are worth watching and worth taking seriously.

Focused coverage of male sports is teaching both young and old viewers that only male sports are worth watching and worth taking seriously.

Ultimately this is instrumental in shaping viewers’ perceptions of which sports are valuable and which are not. Women and girls are being fed the message that female sports are not worthy of primetime TV slots. If females do not think that sports played by their own genders are worth watching, then why would males think they are, and more importantly, why would sporting governing bodies believe they are worth funding and pumping money into? 

Overall, despite the huge obstacles faced by sportswomen they still manage to perform extremely well on the sporting stage, bringing home World Cup titles and holding down full-time jobs all the while. It is time that the governing bodies of these sports recognise the work put in by these women, reward them with professional contracts and repay them with more media coverage.

Lucy Ryall

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21-year-old Ameri-Czech student of Politics & Economics at the University of Nottingham. Sports Editor @impactmagazine. FFC worshipper. European.

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