Women in Sport, Can We Change the Game?

This week at Belle we received results of a research study conducted by Harlequins Rugby Club. The headlines made pretty grim reading and elicited a bit of a groan from us:

• Boys are four times more likely to want to be a full-time athlete than girls
• Girls are twice as likely to want to be a social media influencer than a sports star
• Boys are twice as likely to watch sport on TV as girls
• Boys and girls are four times more likely to recognize male sports stars over females

OK, girls – not good right? But on a personal level, this news came to me a week after I travelled to Atlanta, USA to watch the US Olympic Marathon Trials and support some of my best friends who were running in the normal human half marathon the day after. I was high as a kite on sporty girl power.

 I’m an optimist, a glass half full kind of girl and as I read deeper into this research, I felt myself feeling more positive. The study was conducted ahead of Harlequins’ Women’s showpiece annual fixture, The Game Changer.  This is Harlequins’ annual celebration of women’s sport which shines a light on the achievements of its women’s team and the Club’s ambition to achieve parity between the men’s and women’s games.

 Stop press: this is great right? It’s great that this is happening. We need to celebrate and support things like this.

 This even will be hosted during Easter weekend on Saturday 11^th April (kick off 15.00). The Game Changer will see record crowds attend the Twickenham Stoop to watch Harlequins Women take on Wasps FC Ladies in the Tyrells Premier 15s.

Back to my weekend in Atlanta. I’m a Brit girl living in Ohio and I’m a keen amateur runner. Here, and for the past couple of years, pretty much all my heroes, girl crushes and favourite social media influencers are female runners, some elite, some not. If you asked me right now to reel off the names of 10 pro athletes, I could give you ten female runners without taking a breath.  Here let me show you – inhale: Shalane Flanagan, Molly Huddle, Des Linden, Paula Radcliffe, Charlotte Purdue, Kara Goucher, Jordan Hasay, Allie Kiefer, Sarah Hall, Sally Kipyego, exhale, done.

I have read four books written by some of these girls. I’ve spoken to two in person and I follow all of them on social media. They all run really fast but not just that, they are role models, some mothers themselves; one grew up in the UK village I did. They all make me proud to be a girl.

 I could tell you very little about the male athletes. Not through any disrespect – and be assured they are not lacking in support, but it was the girls I could aspire to. I love them because they are the very best at doing the thing I love doing. I wanted to watch them. I wanted to see what they wore, how they warmed up. Myself and my friend were on the sidelines shouting their names. If they looked over and smiled or waved it was a ray of sunshine on our faces.

 Interestingly as well, here in the USA, women’s soccer is a much bigger deal than I ever remembered it being in the UK. Girls play it at school, my friends daughters don shin pads at the weekends and play. As pro sport it’s a much bigger deal here. The more we play, the better we get, the stars emerge. We have to be in the game to change it.

I guess what I’m saying here is that whilst at first glance the Harlequins research looks bleak, it comes from people within the sport, at a high level, working hard to change it. Harlequins Women Club Captain and England International Rachael Burford commented, ‘As the saying goes; “you can’t be what you can’t see.”’  Well, on 11^th April, you will be able to see women playing rugby. If that’s in anyway as awesome for rugby fans as watching my girl runners was in Atlanta, then I say that’s game changing.