Landmark report reveals women’s sport on rise

Australian sporting organisations are world leaders in gender parity, but there is still a long way to go.

The Matildas scored a landmark pay deal with Football Federation Australia. Picture: Getty Images

Former Australian cricket captain Belinda Clark remembers receiving a bill after international tours.

“Up until 1998 there was some portion of your tour that was invoiced to you,” Clark said. “The sporting landscape is remarkably different today, a lot more open-minded and a lot fairer.”

But it’s no secret that some women still go into debt to fund their sporting dreams.

Some sportswomen can tell you stories of selling cars, putting careers on hold, racking up debt, to just play the game they love at an “elite” level.

Former sex discrimination commissioner and Male Champions of Change (sport) founder Elizabeth Broderick has her eye on closing that gender pay gap well and truly.

Broderick has overseen the formation of a national scorecard tracking the progress of gender equality across 18 clubs and sports.

“No one else in the world is doing this and with this scorecard Australia is now leading the way,” Broderick said. “It’s an extraordinary time for women in sport in Australia, and this report demonstrates that our sports leaders are committed to robust systems and strategies to build on this success and ensure it is sustainable.”

“When we talked about it as a group, pay equality for elite female athletes is at the pointy end of gender inequality, it is at the sharp end of generations of under investment in women and girls in sport. We decided we are up for changing that.

“It’s a bold challenge, so that will not only involve just the sporting organisations themselves, but the broadcasters, corporate sponsors, the government … all those things to help create change and progress.”

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The MCC Sport scorecard is showcased in the document “Pathway to Gender Equality in Sport including Pay Equality”, the first time globally that sector leaders have united to agree and report on a consistent set of measures and assessment criteria towards these goals.

The landmark report revealed that just 43.8 per cent of MCC sports have achieved equity in prizemoney for elite athletes and teams. There is a long way to go but having these sports agree to be accountable on the gender front is a huge positive sign said Broderick.

“Our first step in progress to pay equality is having a go at developing a framework and scorecard,” Broderick said. “We are the only country in the world where every major sport has come together and laid bare their figures around women in their games and clubs – whatever the figure is, it doesn’t really matter – but we are just starting today and we will report year on year. This is so people can monitor the progress of women in sport. That they can be up for change.”

The scorecard will be formally released at an International Women’s Day Forum being held before the T20 Women’s World Cup final at the MCG on Sunday – where it is hoped there will be the biggest crowd for a women’s sporting event.

The report’s goal is to make Australia a global leader in empowering women and girls through sport.

Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts, whose organisation has been at the forefront of progressing women’s salaries and participation, said having a scorecard encouraged accountability.

“We are hoping it becomes a habit to focus on the female and male aspects of sport, rather than just the male aspects,” Roberts said.

Women’s and girls’ participation in cricket continues its rapid rise, with registered female participation up 14 per cent and 873 new girls’ teams taking the field the previous summer season.

CA has opted to top up the prizemoney for the Australian women’s team for the T20 World Cup, to ensure parity with the men. They also have equal prizemoney for the Women’s Big Bash League and Big Bash League.

Clark, now Cricket Australia’s executive general manager of community cricket, said so much has changed from when she played.

“I think people in decision-making positions have realised the importance of engaging the entire community of sport,” Clark said.

McKinsey & Company gave their time to the MCC to help develop the scorecard and the report showcases many interesting statistics. It reveals that 47 per cent of registered participants at grassroots level are women. That 36 per cent of registered athletes at elite level are women.

The number of women in sports boardrooms and offices are gradually increasing, says the report, while 35.6 per cent of board directors are women (up from 31.8 per cent in 2018). A total of 38.2 per cent of key leadership positions such as chief executives and chief financial officers (up from 33.3 per cent in 2018).

But when it comes to investment, only 22.8 per cent of promotional and marketing spend is on women in sport or women’s competition. There is a lack of female coaches – only 17.1 per cent at elite level are women.

Sports are determined to do better in this area – Swimming Australia have commissioned research into women in coaching, to understand the barriers stopping them cutting through. Tennis Australia has injected funds to improve the ratio of female tennis coaches at all levels.

All up 39 per cent of total funded development pathway opportunities are for female athletes – with 35.4 per cent of investment in development pathways are allocated to female athletes. But there’s strong progress being made by some sports on the equality front.

In 2015, Collingwood Football Club was a sporting home to two men’s Australian Rules football teams. In 2020, it reports it is home to three sports and seven teams, four of which are female.

Late last year Football Federation Australia announced and Professional Footballers Australia agreed to a landmark collective bargaining agreement that closed the pay gap between Australia’s national teams, the Socceroos and Matildas.

Australia’s premier women footballers provided with increased annual salary from around $66,000 to $100,000 – the same amount as the top Socceroos.

Female participation continues to experience significant growth in soccer, they are targeting 50:50 gender parity by 2027.

Sarah Walsh, former Matilda and now head of participation at the FFA, was instrumental in the equal pay deal.

“I’m extremely proud to play a leading role in an organisation that truly believes in empowering women and girls through football,” she said. “The FFA is taking decisive action to promote gender equality, including equality of pay and conditions … the (landmark) CBA received global attention and positioned Australia as a leading nation for women’s rights in football.”

Walsh said the FFA now has a 50:50 gender split at board level and there is more good news at the grassroots. 0“We’ll release our 2019 Participation census next week, which will show women and girls’ participation continues to grow, with record numbers now playing the game,” Walsh said.