You need to get to know Australian soccer champ, Caitlin Munoz.

She has represented Australia over 60 times. She is a goal-scoring machine. She is an Australian sporting legend. But you probably don’t know her name.

There’s a good chance that if Caitlin Munoz was a man, and had achieved all that she has in soccer she would be a household name – not just in her home town of Canberra but across Australia.

“I started playing soccer because of my dad. I used to watch him play and in more recent years coach soccer. Playing soccer as a kid just came naturally,” says Caitlin.

Caitlin’s soccer skills were recognised early. She represented Australia in the Under 19 World Cup in 2002. She was selected for the senior Australian side, the Matildas, in 2005. She has played for the Matildas over 60 times, including in the women’s Asian Cup in 2006 and 2008. The 31-year-old also played for Australia in the World Cup in 2007. Australia made it to the quarter finals stage in that World Cup, further than any Australian men’s team ever.

Caitlin has been part of the Canberra United team that won the National W-League title in 2011-12 and 2014-15. She was also voted the Players’ Player for 2014-15. Within Canberra, Caitlin won the Premier League Player of the Year in both 2013 and 2014. She also won the golden boot award for the most goals in 2010, 2011 and jointly in 2012.

Despite all this, her name seems to be unknown to the majority of Australians. Is this the inevitable result of limited media coverage of women’s sport?

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If Caitlin had been a man, she would not only be a household name in Australia but she would be on a very substantial salary to play for Australia and for Canberra United – the salary cap for teams in the women’s W-League are over 15 times less than for the men’s A-League. She would have received numerous offers to play with cashed-up overseas clubs and would have been courted by businesses wanting to be associated with her.

As she approached the end of her playing career, she would have been offered opportunities to be a soccer commentator on television or radio or as a handsomely paid soccer coach. But because she is a woman, none of this has happened or is likely to happen.

“It is frustrating,” says Caitlin, “but I love the game so much I would do it all again despite the limited recognition or financial reward.”

The elite soccer player works in child care – an incredibly important job, but partly because it is a female dominated profession, it is poorly paid. So poorly paid that Caitlin has to work a second job at the Tradies Club in Dickson, ACT. And at the same time, she has over recent years had to train for around 20 hours per week for soccer.

“I don’t think the situation for women in most sports will change until media coverage of women’s sport gets to the same level as men’s sport,” says Caitlin.

The recent funding cuts to the ABC, including plans to reduce coverage of women’s sport, will not help.

But is it just the fault of the media? Could the problem be that not enough women watch women’s sport either?

While the portion of women participating in and watching sport has increased significantly over the last 50 years, sports consulting firm Repucom finds that globally, 69 per cent of men report an interest in watching sport on television compared to only 46 per cent of women. Repucom reports that the gap is wider in Australia at 73 per cent for men compared to 39 per cent for women (similar to the USA). Perhaps surprisingly, the gap is narrower in countries such as Brazil, the UAE, India and Indonesia – the World’s largest Muslim country.

Related content: This week has been crippling for Australian women’s sport.

The sports that are most popular amongst women in Australia are Tennis, AFL, Cricket and Rugby League – the last three of which have very little television coverage of the women’s version of these sports. In other words, Australian women are watching the men’s version of these sports.

What will it take for the gap between the number of women and men watching sport, particularly women’s sport, to narrow further in Australia?

The Road to Damascus conversion of The Reluctant Soccer Mum that occurred as a result of her watching the recent Iran-Iraq soccer match may be instructive.

Perhaps it is a cause that can be taken up by online media sites that are targeted at women?

This post has been simultaneously published on www.yabba.guru, a new Australian sports website which gives equal weight to coverage of men’s and women’s sport. For more coverage across netball, cricket, soccer, hockey, softball, athletics and more check out Yabba.Guru.

And in other sporting news this week…

– Australian women are taking a big step up at the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the upcoming cricket season. Former Southern Stars players, Lisa Sthalekar and Mel Jones were hired as TV Commentators. They will have a big media presence at the world’s biggest Twenty20 competition. It will be a huge break for their career in the media.

– Melissa Hauschildt became the first ever Australian woman to win the Melbourne Ironman this week. It was only the second full Ironman race that she’d ever competed in and she completed it in 8 hours, 52 minutes and 50 seconds, which is an automatic qualifying time for the benchmark in to the Hawaii Ironman in October. Well done and good luck to her.

– Wendy Tuck will be the first Australia female skipper to sail in a clipper in a Round the World yacht race. Tuck, 50 will be leading a crew for almost a year. It’s a 40, 000 nautical mile event with 16 races in total and eight legs. The race is for amateur sailors, with a professional skipper and 23 crew members at most.

What sport have you been playing or watching this week?