Why We Should Be Watching Our Female Sports Stars

Last week, Australia’s women’s Test cricket team - the Southern Stars - thrashed England, topping them by 161 runs.

The game was not broadcast, however, and went barely mentioned in the daily news cycle. Given the extensive coverage of the Australian men’s initial loss to England (and their 46-run revenge victory over the weekend), it’s unfair that successes in Australian sport are ignored simply because women’s cricket has not been offered the opportunity to develop an audience.

We need to start paying attention to our female athletes – and not just in cricket. (Note the Matildas’ recent run at the women’s soccer World Cup and the Diamonds’ championship win in Netball.) It’s for the sake of the athletes who commit to representing Australia; who embrace full-time commitments only to come up short in sponsorship deals due to lack of coverage.

If the success of Australian sport currently rests on the teams who aren’t being supported, they need to be given the opportunity to be seen, so they can maximise their potential and inspire upcoming female athletes to achieve their own goals. Channel Seven, Foxtel and Telstra just spent $2.508 billion to broadcast the AFL until 2022. Can’t some of that funding go towards women’s teams?

There’s an innate difference in the way males and females are built, and this sometimes gives rise to the argument that men’s sport is more interesting. But it’s precisely because of that difference that we should watch our successful female teams: they represent how success in sport is about more than mere physical dominance. There’s a reason these teams are performing well at the moment, and we should be watching to find out why.

It’s not just about Australian female sport teams outperforming their male counterparts; it’s important to pay attention to the female teams to debunk the myth that female athletes and teams are inferior (represented by their general lack of sponsors and smaller prize pool).

We should pay attention to female teams because it represents the multi-faceted nature of competitive sports. Women play sports differently – in a way, apparently, that heightens their success.

Photo from the Southern Stars Facebook page.

Emily Lam is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. Learn more about the contributors program.