Where did all the women go?

Today's Outlook

As it stands, almost six months on from the pandemic shutting down sports in the UK, elite women's sports are slowly beginning to return.

The new FA Women's Super League and Championship season began on the 5th September after the 2019/20 season was ended prematurely in May.

In women's cricket, a one-off competition - the Rachel Heyhoe Flint trophy - began at the end of August to give teams some competitive action after most of the cricket season was written off.

Rugby and netball have experienced more difficulty in returning. Both sports involve passing a ball from hand to hand, whilst rugby is a heavily contact-based sport and elite netball is played indoors - all which pose problems when it comes to coronavirus transmission.

The Gallagher Premiership men's domestic rugby competition has been able to resume the 2019/20 season with stringent health and safety measures, including regular coronavirus testing. However, the women's Premiership are still only in the training phase, although international games are scheduled in October for both the men's and women's England teams.

For the Vitality Netball Superleague franchises, they will have to wait until February 2021 before their competition resumes, after talks regarding a shortened Autumn competition to increase the exposure of the sport fell through.

On the face of it, women's sports may now be able to see the light at the end of tunnel.

Elite competitions are slowly returning with either play resuming or return dates set in football, cricket and netball, and as it stands no elite teams have had to fold due to financial issues caused by the pandemic.

However, the worst may still be to come when the Government Job Retention scheme ends in October, with the prospect of little or no match day income and a reduced appetite for sponsorship deals for the foreseeable future.

The semi-professional netball franchises, for example, will have gone nearly 12 months with no competitive games by the time the season returns in February 2021, meaning no match day income and no exposure for their sponsors for almost a year.

To varying degrees, this is something that sports teams - both male and female - have had to come terms with.

However, the more lucrative men's sports have been better placed to survive and continue- whilst the DCMS found that women's sport has been 'consistently underfunded' by governing bodies.

And whilst the top women's competitions and clubs look like they'll survive financially for now, the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic may be more complicated.

And it's these deeper impacts that make the effect on women's sports 'disproportionate' in comparison to the men's game.

The complete lack of visibility over the lockdown threatens to undo the progress in recent years, and is a threat to participation levels, fanbases and the value of sponsorship opportunities - which could potentially exacerbate any financial issues.

Women's sports need more in terms of resources from governing bodies to help them grow and prosper. Not just in terms of funding, but also in support staff and infrastructure.

Better gender representation in the media and on governing bodies would make a huge difference, says Adam Zoltie.

Women's sport accounts for just 7% of sports media coverage in the UK

WOMEN IN SPORT

"I 100% think rugby would be better and more equal if there was a more equal spread of not just male and female but also from all different ethnic backgrounds.

It's well documented that the World Rugby board has one female... I have no doubt that if there were more women in rugby at the higher level then more stuff would get done."

Finally, simply the way that women’s sport and women’s competitions are labelled and seen in society can make them seem inferior.

In men's football for example, the elite European club competition is known as titled the 'UEFA Champions League'. The women's version it's known as the 'UEFA Women's Champions League'.

"In the Olympics... there's no differentiator, there's not the 100 metre final and the women's hundred metre final." says Jordan Guard.

"I think it's really important that we jump on the bandwagon of the Olympic games and copy what they're doing because they're more equal playing fields."

In Joanna's experience, part of the problem stems from attitudes in the school playground.

And Jordan says education is the key.

"It comes down to what we're taught in school... if there's girls who want to play football with the boys at break time and they can't, or they don't feel comfortable, then we need to look at, why is that?

That's where attitudes are learnt, that's where behaviours are learned... so we need to teach kids that it doesn't matter if you're black or white or male or female, you can do this."

For women in sport, feeling marginalised is nothing new. But hopefully this time, those in the industry will learn from their mistakes and address the gender inequalities highlighted by the pandemic.

And according to Jordan, the tide is beginning to turn.

As Rosie explained, there are undeniable commercial differences between men's and women's sports.

Women understand this means there is less money in their game for now. But what sportswomen do want is to be treated as equals by society and the governing bodies that are supposed to look out for the interests of their sport as a whole.

Until this happens, women in sport will continue to fight for what they deserve.