Page 2409 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 August 2017
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One thing I particularly like is that Canberra Region Rugby League is conducting a female engagement survey on how to best engage, respect and include females in all aspects of rugby league in Canberra. They are asking women what they can do to make rugby league more attractive to women. This is a very good initiative in simply asking the question, and they did it very openly. It is an online survey in which anybody can participate. It had a strong response on that day. They had only launched it 24 hours earlier and they had already had hundreds of responses. Clearly there was a bit of pent-up energy and a desire for people to participate in that sort of survey. I am sure it is not the only initiative they need to take, but I want to acknowledge that and put it out there for other sports to reflect on. Simply asking the question can be a great way to both get information and help break down some barriers.
There are still significant barriers to women and girls participating in sport, both in Australia generally but, of course, here in Canberra. There are simply fewer opportunities for women to participate in sports than men—the women’s competitions are smaller and there are fewer pathways for women to pursue professional careers in sport. There are many reasons for this, but it is something we need to acknowledge as we seek to get a greater level of female participation.
Certainly at a professional level women are still paid much less than men and have less media exposure. This means women still have to work other jobs in addition to pursuing a professional sporting career. There is also the issue of media exposure, and Ms Orr spoke about some of the successes. In the last season or two we have really seen it take off for a couple of sports, but we have also seen a reduction in some areas. I have spoken in this place before about my disappointment at the cuts to the exposure of both the W-League soccer in Australia and the WNBL. That is a real problem for those sports because they need the cycle of exposure, therefore sponsorship, therefore young women seeing peers or role models playing the sport on television and wanting to be involved. These things are a vicious cycle, and the exposure of sports is a very important part of it. That is something that we are going to continue to build on. You can probably name a leading sportsman for just about every sport you can imagine. It is less so for many women’s sports.
At a grassroots level there are challenges we need to continue to work on—things like having the appropriate facilities, be that good lighting for security, the opportunity for childminding and how that might work, and appropriate change rooms. These will not be an issue for all women, but for some women these will be barriers to participating in the sport of their choice or, in fact, participating in any sport. We need to ensure that the culture in our sporting clubs is inclusive of women. I am sure there are plenty of stories that can be told around this, but some sporting clubs have a bit of a blokey culture. Certainly research has identified the fear of being judged or ridiculed as a key barrier for young women wishing to be physically active. Again, there are plenty of anecdotal stories about the transition through the teenage years and young women for a range of reasons no longer wanting to participate in sport.
A whole bunch of challenges are out there. The fact that Ms Orr has moved this motion today is a good opportunity to reflect on some of these. I am encouraged by
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