The evidence is clear – without women, sport – all sport – will suffer.
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Sports Tally 2015 report has just been released. While there’s a lot of interesting information in its many pages, most important was the paragraph on its final page.
The AIS has committed to ensuring that women make an influence to Australian sport on a national level, by “growing the number of women on national sporting organisation boards.” Sure, it may be at the end of the 39 pages, but it has made it, as an important aspect of the 2015 AIS tally.
Read more: Why one woman changed her mind about female quotas for boards.
The report says, “As part of its mandatory governance standard, the ASC affirmed the need for sports to proactively grow the number of women on their national boards.”
While some sports have made solid progress in this area, more needs to be done.
The AIS sports tally 2015 says that, “the ASC Australia’s Winning Edge sports have less than 20 per cent female representation on their boards: archery (17 per cent), boxing (14 per cent) and Australian Paralympic Committee (10 per cent).”
For more: Happy news for Aussie Olympic legend.
It’s clear that there isn’t enough women in sporting leadership roles in Australia – and the athletes themselves know it. Earlier this month Kim Crow, an Olympic medallist and anti-doping advocate spoke out about needing more women in sports leadership.
Crow was a hurdler, turned rower and has said that we need more women at the top – a place that she hopes to be in the future.
“It seems we have a lot of women starting to break through the leadership ranks in sport, but very few at the very top,” she told ABC News.
The 29-year-old won silver and bronze medals at the London Olympics in 2012 and is now chair of the Australian Olympic Committee’s Athlete’s Commission, which is a great step in her ambitions to be one of the top ranks one day.
Related Content: Only 2 women made this list of 50. And that’s not good enough.
“Ten years down the track, I’d love to have some sort of leadership role in sport, whether it’s in rowing or whether it’s in the Olympic movement,” she told ABC News.
We hope to see a lot of growth in the number of women on national sporting organisation boards in Australia in the next decade. It can and will put more sportswomen in the spotlight and give young women many more opportunities to become elite athletes and to represent our country – both on the field and off it.
In other sporting news this week…
– Great news for the women’s rugby league team, the Jillaroos this week. Harvey Norman have announced a three year naming rights partnership with the women’s team. They’ve been long time partners with the NRL, so to commit to a three year deal with the Jillaroos is fantastic news, and a positive step toward the future development of the women’s game.
– The Australian women’s polo team, the Aussie Stingers dominated their first two games in the FINA World League Intercontinental tournament in Auckland New Zealand. The Stingers beat Japan convincingly with a 17-6 final score. In their second game against New Zealand they came out on top with a 10-2 win. Keep up the good work.
– WNBL’s Most Valuable Player, and star of the Canberra Capitals, Abby Bishop is set to chase a deal in Europe. It was a huge loss for the caps when Bishop declined their offer to keep her on. Instead she will aim for a more lucrative deal in the European competition, where her peak ability will be pushed to it’s full potential. Good luck to Abby.
What sport have you been playing or watching this week?
Top Comments
Women (let alone men) aren't interested in watching women's sport. It is just a fact, not a sexist conspiracy that has anything to do with women on sport boards.