The last few years have seen a considerable increase in the popularity and visibility of women’s sport in New Zealand.
This is in no small part a consequence of the Government’s funding of a Women in Sport policy, which has directed Sport NZ, the national public funder of sport, to channel resources towards women and girls in sport and active play. This is a welcome development and a far cry from historical funding deficiencies in this area.
These changes and the ensuing popularity and currency of women’s sport cannot be taken for granted. Women’s sport is still in a precarious position, in part due to the nature of funding.
Our reliance on public funding means that a change in the political landscape can lead to a redirection of investment in the relatively short timeframe of a three-year election cycle.
Sport in New Zealand is also heavily reliant on problematic sources such as gambling and alcohol revenues. Revenue from gaming or pokies funded sport to the tune of $255 million in 2018, the most recent year available (Sport NZ, 2018). Even if it’s "just a bit of fun" to play the pokies, they are the most harmful form of gambling in New Zealand. People who are vulnerable and in lower-socioeconomic groupings are most affected by this harm, including women and children (Ministry of Health, 2022).
Alcohol sponsorship and sales also contribute to funding of sport in New Zealand, with raising concerns about targeting young people and alcohol-related family violence (Alcohol Healthwatch, 2022).
New and less harmful funding sources need to be explored for sustainable support for women’s and girls’ sport.
The historic institutional and structural features that have created limited access for women and girls to sport and its benefits are also concerning. Internationally, researchers interested in women and sport have argued for over 50 years that women’s sport is unfairly treated in three main areas: media, sponsorship and governance.
In trying to persuade the wider sport industry to address this situation, researchers have been asked to provide large amounts of evidence to support our claims, so we have.
A quick Google Scholar search reveals that in the last ten years (2012-2022), the following number of academic articles were written about these inequities in sport for women and girls: sport and media, 18,700; sponsorship, 18,100 and governance, 28,000.
These figures suggest three things: one, the sport industry has been slow to accept the evidence; two, that researchers are not very good at making our work accessible to the sport industry; and three, most importantly, the mediatisation, sponsorship and governance of and for women’s sport needs to change.
Here are some highlights from those 60,000-plus articles that show where change needs to happen.
Overall, women and girls are already more than "good enough" to be treated fairly in sport. It’s the responsibility of the organisations who make profit, and gain social prestige, through sport to recognise the social, commercial, political, and governance value that women and girls have in abundance.
It is not women’s and girls’ responsibility to "make the case" to be interesting, marketable, or at the governance table. We are all those things, and more.
First, the media: put women’s sport where it belongs – under "sport", not tucked away under a remote and impossible to find "women’s sport" link. If there is a story about women’s football, it belongs right next to one about men’s football.
Second, sponsors: men’s professional sports have become financially viable because of years of investment and support. High performance women’s sport is exciting, powerful, athletic and competitive. Women’s sports can offer similar market opportunities if the same drive and passion dedicated to men’s sports are evident in the creation of that market.
Third, sport organisations: women are often far better qualified than many men when they apply for governance roles (Knoppers et al., 2011). Governance skills are the key requirement for appointing a director, not whether they have played the sport for a province or are a friend of someone on the board. Make room for women on boards. It might mean a long-standing director has to stand down, but that can be a feature of good governance.
It’s time to recognise and build on women’s and girls’ value and social currency in sport, both of which were clearly evident at the 2021 Rugby World Cup.
Everyone from any gender and every walk of life should be able to see people who they relate to featured in the media, representing professional sport and having their say at the boardroom table.
Last year was a good one for much of women’s sport in New Zealand — let’s keep that momentum for 2023 and beyond.
Associate professor Sally Shaw teaches sport management at the University of Otago. Among her research interests is the critical examination of gender and sexuality issues in sports organisations.
