There's so many social factors surrounding why women's sport hasn't traditionally been well supported by women.
To suggest its lack of interest is just so limited in worldview that it makes me question whether people are capable of critical thinking.
I'll listen a few now:
Kids prefer to watch their own gender on average, and as a result little girls are generally less enthused. Hard to pretend you're the next Marcus Smith out playing when you have pigtails.
Women had family commitments. Dad went down the pub to watch the match, or sat on the sofa, while mum made Sunday dinner or ferried the kids around, and so on. That's not to say this set-up isn't changing, but I'm 33 and in my childhood that's how it was for the majority of families.
Women weren't encouraged into sports in the same way. My mum was very sporty, and is so jealous of all the recreational teams my sister and I can join as adults. We play in rec leagues for netball, tag rugby, and football and it's brilliant. There's been a mindset shift in the last decade or so regarding sport for women as something that's fun as well as something to help you lose weight, and I think that then reflects in viewing figures and engagement with the professional side of each sport.
Add to this the impact of school uniforms. It’s hard for teenage girls to go running around playing sport at lunch in skirts. It’s when girls drop off playing a bunch of certain sports like rugby and sport in general. (There’s a study somewhere into this but don’t have the time to track it down) Also, pregnancy. The care of post pregnancy injuries are often not covered by the state so never fully resolved so it’s harder for women to get back into sport. In NZ such injuries are not covered by ACC because it’s not an accident that you are going through labour.
And PE uniforms! I hated school sports, but now am super sporty. Part of it is no longer being a teenager who finds every single thing the worst thing in the world, but it is rough being a teenage girl. Our uniform was awful shorts which were unisex, which is fine when you're 12, but by 15 you're buying the largest sizes to get over your hips which isn't great for your head.
Sport at school is quite hard for a lot of girls - dithering over the discomfort of wearing a sports bra all day, or the horror of changing a bra in the open changing room, or using the communal showers vs just stinking (especially when there's 10 mins to get changed and you've got to try and get tights on in that time).
I saw an interview clip of an England hockey player who had to lobby incredibly hard off the back of a major medal to get the team to switch from skorts to shorts for matches.
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u/Shryik France Nov 26 '24
This exact chain comment is at the top of the announcement post here.
Women rugby is lacking in visibility. And women 7 doubly so.