UK sportswomen lament ‘abysmal’ coverage of women in sport

It seems like women are getting tired of being considered second class athletes, first the WCSC letter to USA Rugby asking for gender equity…the UK is struggling with their own issues… We can’t ignore that these issues are worldwide and affect all female athletes.

from theguardian:

A group of leading British sportswomen has called for the “abysmal” media coverage of women’s sports to be addressed after the uproar over the male-only shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Speaking at the launch of an event aimed at boosting the profile of women in sport, the 11-time Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompsonsaid: “We have a huge number of home Olympic and Paralympic medallists who are women. But the media coverage is abysmal, the funding is abysmal and not enough girls are getting involved.”

She said that far more needed to be done, adding: “It’s a really positive thing to admit that we haven’t cracked the women in sports issue.”

Last month, the BBC’s failure to include any women on its shortlist for the award provoked criticism from a group of MPs who accused it of “ignoring women’s achievements”.

More than a dozen female athletes met MPs in parliament on Wednesday to promote Us Girls – a lottery-funded programme which aims to give young women from disadvantaged areas sporting opportunities and the chance to meet female sports stars.

Barbara Keeley, the Labour MP for Worsley and Eccles South, said that young women needed more role models.

“In the runup to the Olympics the number of women doing sport is falling,” she said. “This is a real concern. Sport affects your fitness, health and how you feel about yourself.”

Tracey Crouch, the Conservative MP for Chatham and Aylesford – and an FA-qualified coach who manages her local girls’ football team – will on Thursday ask David Cameron how he plans to promote women’s sports. “It’s about boosting women’s profiles because that’s the reason the shortlist failed,” she said.

Figures released last week by Sport England, which aims to get more people involved in sport, show the number of women participating in sport at least three times a week has decreased over the past year, while male participation has increased.

Jennie Price, Sport England’s chief executive, said more thought needed to be given to how sport was reported in the media. “Sport is seen through a male lens and coverage is given to mainstream male sports like football,” she said. “But these aren’t always the ones that women are interested in.”

The England and Great Britain international hockey player Beth Storrysaid: “It’s definitely not an even playing field when it comes to publicity. Women in the US receive so much more coverage. We need to get more girls involved. Playing has changed my life and given me such confidence.”

Her sentiments were echoed by Kylie Grimes, a Great Britain wheelchair rugby athlete. “There’s lots of girls out there who would like to get involved but are intimidated or think its not for them,” she said. “A lot rests on the profile of sports being played [and] hopefully the Olympics will improve this.”

Katie-Jemima Yeats-Brown, a 16-year-old Olympic judo hopeful from Tonbridge, said the BBC controversy had served only to strengthen her resolve: “I was disappointed by the shortlist, but it just motivates me even more because now I have something to prove.”