England Netball, Commonwealth gold medallist and two-time SPOTY award winners, have had a year to remember. In one year, they have achieved more than England football has done in years.
I watched both moments live, I cried when they won the final, that last moment still gives me chills every time I think about it. Those who don’t watch netball will never understand how amazing this moment was,
I was ecstatic when they won both SPOTY awards, I was certain that the “golden boys”, football, would win it. Unfortunately, the elation of Netball winning SPOTY soon wore off, I looked at my phone and I saw people slating netball, saying it wasn’t a sport and that football deserved to win because they “captured the nation’s hearts.”
People seem to forget that SPOTY celebrates sporting achievements, football made it to the semi-final, and don’t get me wrong that is huge for them, but they didn’t actually win anything.
England netball made history, they beat world number ones Australia, in a nail-biting match with an on-the-buzzer goal. They deserve an award for that, that is what SPOTY is for, to showcase those who have succeeded.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new to me, it’s 2019 and women’s sports are still not considered on the same level as men’s. They’re underpaid, undervalued and might as well be considered second class citizens in comparison to men.
Despite every sporting achievement that women make, they are still bombarded with old-fashioned views. One top-level cyclist was told to “go away and have a baby” by her coach. A CEO of a prominent tennis tournament said, “Lady players should get down on their knees and thank God Federer and Nadal were born because they have carried this sport.”
“Our Lionesses go back to being mothers, partners and daughters today.” A tweet that was made by England football welcoming them home after the world cup in 2015.
In 2016 the international cricket council flew both the men and women’s team out to India for the 20/20 world cup but chose to fly the men out in business class and the women in the economy.
All of this has happened in the last few years so we can’t even blame the older generation for the current sexism because of their “archaic views.’ The world of social media is what is keeping it going. It just adds fuel to this debate.
I can keep going on saying that the reason is just sexism as to why women are considered second class citizens in sport but it isn’t. It’s also our fault as viewers.
According to research by Women in Sport, in four of the five countries surveyed, women’s sport failed to achieve above 10% of all sports coverage. In the UK the coverage varied between 3-6 per cent, in comparison to 70-80% for men’s sports.
So why is this? It’s because media outlets will not show women’s sports until us viewers take an active interest, we need to be more supportive of women’s events and until that happens media outlets will not show more woman’s sports on their channel.
But will that ever happen? Being the pessimist I am, I definitely don’t think it will happen any time soon. I wish that all they had to do was show more coverage, but there is a still a sexist view towards female athletes participating in sports and that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Women United 
Leave a comment