House of Commons - Women and Sport - Culture, Media and Sport Committee

Women and Sport - Culture, Media and Sport Committee Contents

3 Inspiring women

Women's sport and the media

74. Traditionally, women's sport has been largely ignored by the media, except when women's competitions have been held at the same time as the men's equivalent (for example, tennis championships, or athletics meetings) or in the few sports where women compete directly with men (for example, horseracing or the triathlon).[108] Sports journalism has been predominantly by men, for men, and it has been assumed that there is little or no interest in women's sport among either sex. This attitude has contributed to the perception that sport is unfeminine and to the tendency of girls and women to drop out of sporting activity, which reinforces a lack of interest in women's sport at the elite level.

75. The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London provided an opportunity to change this situation: the achievements of female athletes were widely reported and their successes celebrated. Questions remained, however, on whether this interest in women's sport would be sustained over the medium to long term, and whether the 'Olympic effect' would spread to other sports.

76. There was broad agreement among our witnesses that broadcasters have been more committed to covering women's sport since the 2012 Olympics. The Sports Journalists Association suggested that the London 2012 Olympics was a watershed for women's football as far as the mainstream media was concerned, and it argued that the many female sporting heroes produced by the Games "were afforded the same attention, the same respect" as their male counterparts. However, as both the Sports Journalists Association and the National Union of Journalists pointed out, these women represented sports (athletics, equestrian, cycling, rowing) that receive little media coverage outside major competitions, even when the competitors are men.[109]

77. The BBC, BT Sport and Sky all provided us with numerous examples of their coverage of women's sports, and of tournaments where women competed alongside men.[110] The BBC emphasised the importance of free to air sports coverage,[111] and the way in which its public service obligation required it to support a wide range of sports (15-20 when television, radio and online coverage were taken into account), not just those that delivered big audiences: "Indeed, some of the events we cover will attract lower audiences than could have been achieved by other (non-sports) programming".[112] BT said it aimed to be "the foremost venue for women's sport stories, exclusives and campaigns,"[113] and affirmed its commitment to women's football and tennis. Sky pointed to its coverage of netball, and listed among other sports covered in 2013 two women's golf tournaments, international cricket matches, the US Open Tennis Championship, squash and table tennis championships, athletics, domestic and international badminton, equestrian events and indoor and world league hockey.[114] Channel 4's emphasis was different. Its focus was on one or two areas—recently, coverage of disability sport and horseracing—and it noted that these were sports in which women competed on an equal footing.[115] All four broadcasters also described the growth of reportage of women's sport and greater focus on individual sportswomen in magazine and news programmes, and the extent of coverage of women's sporting competitions and matches on their websites.

78. Nevertheless, many viewers are interested only in 'big events', showing little inclination to watch even athletics World Championships, despite the participants and level of performance being virtually the same as in the Olympics. The fact that women's sporting fixtures have fewer spectators than men's does not help: TV coverage is far more attractive to viewers if it shows full rather than empty stadiums, but enthusiasm for attending sporting fixtures is increased by seeing sport on television. The BBC commented about the Women's Football European Championships:

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79. Most of our witnesses considered that there had been less progress in improving the quantity and quality of coverage in the printed press. Against the trend was the Sports Journalists' Association, which submitted that there has been a growing appreciation of women's sport and a steady increase in coverage in both print and broadcast outlets, which has accelerated since London 2012. It considered that the national football, rugby and cricket teams were beginning to attract serious attention and column inches.[117] Most newspapers still cover men's Premier League football far more extensively than anything else, however. Exceptions to this have been the Independent on Sunday and the "i", which have both published commitments to increase their coverage of women's sport and were considered to have lived up to that commitment so far. The Sunday Times has also shown commitment in the form of long term support for the Sports Women of the Year Awards, and the decision by its weekly Style magazine to feature sportswomen more often. Style magazine and the weekly magazine Stylist were cited to us as "rare" examples of the 'women's press' taking an interest in women's sport.[118]

80. StreetGames told us of the difficulties it had experienced in raising media interest in its activities, except when high-profile individuals like Nicola Adams and Victoria Pendleton were involved in an event. It excluded from its criticism women's sections of the national newspapers, women's lifestyle media and the sports trade journals, in particular SportSister.[119]

THE POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH

81. The DCMS considered that London 2012 demonstrated the potential for much greater media coverage of women's sport. The Culture Secretary wrote to national broadcasters in September 2012 about the importance of keeping the spotlight on female athletes and their sporting accomplishments. The DCMS has urged all the major broadcasters and the printed press to do more, and it has hosted two roundtables[120] to discuss how to improve coverage. The DCMS suggested to us there had been some progress, particularly from the broadcasters—listing a number of tournaments and matches covered, on television and radio—but it conceded: "There is still more work to be done", not only to increase media coverage of women's sport but also to improve the quality of the content presented to the media and to increase commercial sponsorship of women's sport.[121] As far as the print media were concerned, the DCMS concluded: "The fact that these magazines are beginning to promote sport to female readers, where usually they would be more reluctant to do so indicates a small but positive shift in attitudes towards the role and relevance of sport in media targeted at women."[122]

82. The NUJ highlighted trivialising or simply disrespectful comments on sportswomen by both sports commentators and sports leaders as indications of a refusal to treat women as equal participants in sport, adding: "What appears to be happening is that notions and perceptions of femininity, largely promoted by the media, do not include being sporty. It isn't just taking part in sport that is unfeminine. Having an interest in sport is, for women, straying into male territory."[123]

83. There are comparatively easy ways in which the media could contribute to reinforcing the view that women's sport is normal and worthy of interest. One example would be for more national newspapers to publish the results of women's matches alongside the men's. Another would be for journalists and commentators to refrain from discussing the appearance of sportswomen and from making derogatory comments about the ability of women in general to play sports.

84. The January round table meeting with broadcasters noted that some sports had been very successful in promoting the women's game to broadcasters. As already noted, these included sports where men and women compete at the same event, such as athletics, or those with an integrated sponsorship deal, such as cycling.[124] Others such as cricket had attracted media partners through sustained engagement and by developing an approach that appealed to the broadcasters.[125] After discussion with the BBC, the FA agreed to move the women's FA Cup Final from Monday to Sunday, to enable fuller coverage and promotion.[126] There was consensus that interesting stories and people attract media coverage and the sports themselves needed to work harder to make these stories more easily accessible to the media.[127]

85. The RFU's strategy has been to obtain coverage in print, broadcast and social media for the England women's team by using the profile of the men's squad as leverage. It has found that joint press conferences are successful in raising awareness of the women's game, and result in more press coverage than a standalone women's team press conference. England Netball and the LTA have taken a different approach: rather than attempting to get coverage on traditional sports pages, in competition with men's team games, they have worked on media such as women's magazines and the lifestyle press to reach women directly, providing the media with articles which are suitable for the publications. The ECB has also experimented with 'lifestyle' approaches to marketing its sport.[128]

86. England Netball has gone further, by radically changing the 'branding' of the game. It developed its new image utilising several key themes—no action shots of athletes, a soft colour palette, participants' own voices and imagery relevant to each of the ten audiences its consumer research had identified. This was very different from the approach normally taken by sports and was part of an overall strategy to attract both the right audiences and potential sponsors and the media. [129]

87. England Netball has also actively used social media, increasing its reach by 20% year on year. It is currently the most followed netball twitter feed in the world. In this, it has been assisted by its programme of training netball teams drawn from the staff of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, who, it says: "blog/tweet about netball endlessly."[130] The ECB acted as 'broadcaster' for a women's Ashes one day international in August 2013, streaming the match live online and enabling it to be simultaneously broadcast on a number of other websites, including those of several national newspapers.[131]

88. Some of our witnesses considered that women's sport was not fully exploiting the opportunities provided by social media,[132] but England Netball was not alone in seeing the potential. BT told us it was: "working with a number of outlets like Mumsnet, the online parenting network, to pull in a potentially vast new audience. They are not necessarily women themselves but those interested in wider women's issues."[133]

89. The Sports Journalists Association concludes: "Nothing in Britain will supplant men's football, particularly the English Premier League."[134] This is probably true, but the evidence we received pointed to a number of initiatives taken by some sporting organisations to maximise media coverage of women's sport that ought to provide inspiration to others.

90. However, it is not enough just to besiege the media with demands for more coverage. Sports are in competition for airtime and column inches, and need to understand the factors that make sporting events more attractive to broadcasters and newspapers.

ENHANCING THE VALUE OF WOMEN'S SPORT TO THE MEDIA AND SPONSORS

91. Our witnesses agreed that, ultimately, whether the media profile of women's sport is enhanced will be a commercial decision, taking into account the impact that the quality of the sport, venue, timing and size of the audience has on a potential sponsor's decision to offer funding, as well as on a broadcaster's willingness to increase its media coverage.[135]

92. A number of our witnesses suggested that rights holders, commercial partners and media organisations needed to invest more effort and resource in ensuring a full calendar of women's sports events were staged and marketed to a high standard.[136] Several suggested that scheduling cannily, such as holding women's races/events alongside men's events, could increase coverage significantly.[137] Amy Lawrence, of the Observer, suggested linking women's sporting events to their male equivalents, pointing out that at Wimbledon, a day at centre court can mean a game or two of both men's and women's tennis. She said she would love to see a women's football game played either immediately before or immediately after a Premier League game. "The crowds would not be massive but some of the crowd who come early/stay late can see the women's game and begin to develop a stronger bond with it."[138] From next year, the women's Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race will be held on the same day as the men's, over a tidal course.[139] In cricket, women's international Twenty20 fixtures are played immediately before the men's match.[140] Other approaches can also be beneficial. The FA told us that the Women's Super League now played a summer league partly to ensure that ground clashes were no longer an issue and partly to provide a summer alternative which had less competition from other forms of football for fans, sponsors and broadcasters alike. It commented: "This has proved successful … and the quality of the product and the coverage it receives continue to grow."[141]

93. Chrissie Wellington believed that the quantity and quality of coverage of women's sport could be improved if sports governing bodies acquired the entire broadcasting rights to events and races, with the ability to sell those rights exclusively to one broadcaster for the entire series. This, she suggested, would increase the commercial appeal of rights to broadcasters and also help to create coherence and consistency in the promotion, packaging and presentation of the sport.[142] She and others also commented on the role played by sports presenters. The DCMS suggested that top sports presentation at London 2012 showcased minority sports in a far more engaging and informative light than usual.[143] Sport England considered that one of the reasons for the success of netball in Australia was that it had built the profile of its top players and teams so that it had become "almost a national institution", with the public being aware of characters and following team rivalries.[144]

94. Again, some sports (netball, for example) appear to be thinking more creatively than others about providing the media with attractive and easy ways to present their sport.[145] Rugby is beginning to respond: some women's matches take place just before or after men's matches.[146] Recently, a contract has been signed with the BBC to show both the men's and the women's Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races from 2015 until 2021. It is a matter of spreading best practice amongst the sport governing bodies.

WOMEN JOURNALISTS

95. The NUJ believed that the media could play a vital role in increasing women's participation in sport and the sports industry, but first it needed to get its own house in order. Its concerns focused on two issues: the continuing scarcity of women journalists, and the way some newspapers portrayed women's sport. Broadcasters were thought to employ a higher proportion of women than the print media. The Mail on Sunday was considered to be an exception because of its appointment of Alison Kervin as the first ever female sports editor of a national newspaper.[147] The NUJ argued that the "briefest of flicks through the back pages of newspapers will show a dearth of women reporting or photographing sport and virtually no coverage of women's sporting events. This partially reflects the situation in national papers, where the majority of bylines belong to men." It added: "it seems that you are more likely to see a female reporter on the frontline of a war than the touchline of a football or rugby match."[148]

96. Sky considered it important to employ women presenters and reporters, saying:

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97. All four broadcasters listed for us their teams of female presenters, reporters and pundits, and provided evidence that women have moved into senior director and editorial roles.[150] The BBC has also recently launched a trainee scheme to provide employment opportunities for female sports journalists.

98. The Sport Journalists' Association argued that the situation regarding women sports journalists had improved dramatically in the last 40 years, stating that until the 1970s it was unthinkable that a woman journalist would report on men's sport, but since then, the number—and degree of acceptance—of female sports journalists, both print and broadcast, has continued to grow. Amy Lawrence, one of the Press Gazette's list of top 50 sports journalists in 2012, said that she felt comfortable in her job, and most people judged her on the standard of her work rather than her gender.[151]

99. However, as the NUJ pointed out, of the Press Gazette's top 50 sport journalists in 2012, only two were women; the current membership of the Football Writers' Association is thought to be 4% female; and there has never been a woman chief football correspondent.[152] Andy Cairns of BskyB noted in December 2013 that only 18% of that year's students for sports journalism were women.[153]

100. The Sports Journalists' Association told us that Sue Mott, a pioneer women sports journalist who was employed by the Sunday Times in the 1980s, believed the main factors inhibiting more women from becoming sports journalists were not only the malign influence of school sport in reducing women's interest in the area, but also the competitive nature of the industry and the difficulty of combining family life with travelling to cover major sporting events.[154] However, the latter two factors are common to a number of professions.

101. The issue of the number and prominence of women journalists and broadcasters should be irrelevant to the issue of how women's sport should be promoted. After all, the ultimate aim is for it to be considered completely normal for journalists of both genders to comment on both men's and women's sport. However, a number of women have made the breakthrough into being considered simply experts, and we hope that their achievements inspire others.

Finance, including sponsorship and prize money

102. Our witnesses were in agreement that women's sport was significantly underfunded in comparison with men's. Sports governing bodies vary in their ability to access government funds and attract commercial sponsorship from broadcasters or other sources, and this affects their ability to support grassroots sporting activity, training for the elite and future elite players, and prize money.

GRANTS FROM PUBLIC SOURCES

103. Public funding for sports is the responsibility of two bodies: UK Sport, which funds elite athletes, and Sport England, whose remit is to increase participation in sport at the grass roots level.

104. Through its World Class Performance Programme, UK Sport invests in Olympic and Paralympic sports which demonstrate that they have athletes with the potential to win medals over the next two Olympic/Paralympic cycles. Over 1,300 of the nation's leading athletes who are believed to have the potential to win medals at the next two Olympiads benefit from an annual investment of around £100 million, and UK Sport also supports many more identified as having the potential to compete at world class level with the help of targeted investment. We were told that 43% of the 1,400 athletes funded by UK Sport are women, which correlates to the percentage of medals for women at Olympic and Paralympic games.[155]UK Sport is funded by a mixture of Government Exchequer and Lottery income.

105. Because UK Sport invests in medal potential it does not necessarily fund both male and female athletes within an individual sport. In making investment decisions for Rio 2016, the UK Sport Board initially approved funding for Women's Goalball, Women's Water Polo and Women's Beach Volleyball but not the male equivalent as it judged that the women's programmes were most likely to deliver medal success. UK Sport also funded Synchronised Swimming, which is a female only sport with no male equivalent on the Olympic programme.

106. UK Sport subsequently—following its Annual Investment Review at the start of 2014—withdrew funding from Synchronised Swimming, Goalball and Beach Volleyball which it considered had failed to demonstrate realistic medal potential before the 2020 Games. This 'No Compromise' policy of withdrawing funding from 'failing' sports to re-invest in other programmes has been heavily criticised but has the support of the Government since at least some of the UK's success in winning medals in 2012 was attributed to this approach.[156]

107. As a non-Olympic sport, netball does not qualify for funding or specialist support from UK Sport for its elite players, though it does receive funds for them from Sport England. Similarly, the RFU does not receive any public funding from UK Sport to support the elite women's programme but does from Sport England. England Netball considered itself disadvantaged by not being able to access the specialist support provided by UK Sport: "We are competing against Australia and New Zealand where women's sport, including Netball has greater status and support."[157]

108. Chrissie Wellington argued that public funding should be directed towards developing athletes, to enable them to train full time and to receive the support they needed, more than towards the existing elite. She suggested that government funding to elite athletes and teams could be conditional upon participation in grassroots programmes. She also advocated means-testing to ensure that athletes with lucrative commercial partnerships did not receive government funding which could be better spent on development athletes.[158]

109. Sport England provides support for over 100 sports in a variety of ways: through advice, the provision of services and funding. It seeks to increase women's participation in sport in three ways:

a) Through investment in National Governing Body Whole Sport Plans. These plans set out agreed targets for increasing the number of people who play the sport regularly;

b) Through multi-sport projects aimed at particular groups of women and girls, for example the Us Girls project with women under 25 in deprived areas;

c) To create an environment "where the norms of women's experience of sport—ie that it is less usual, less expected and less catered for than men's participation—are reversed" through the Bury project.

Sport England also invests in the development of talented athletes in 43 sports, and funds the elite programmes of netball, squash and women's rugby.

110. Sport England has said it will invest £493 million (almost half its funds) into 46 National Governing Bodies for the period 2013-2017 following assessment of their Whole Sport Plans. Within this total, significant funding has been awarded to a number of sports popular amongst women, for example netball (£25.3m), running (£22m), equestrianism (£6m), swimming (£20m) and tennis (£17.4m). To be eligible for such funding, NGBs had to fulfil one of two criteria:

· To have been in receipt of similar investment in the 2009-13 round (in order to build on previous investment); or

· To be a governing body of a sport with more than 75,000 people in England taking part once a week (as these sports are thought to present the best opportunity to increase and sustain regular participation).

111. Like UK Sport, Sport England has recently reviewed its support to ensure that it is directed at those sports most likely to help in achieving its aims. Early in 2014 Sport England announced its unwillingness to maintain a long-term commitment to the NGBs for basketball and swimming and it made a small cut in the grant for tennis, on the grounds of these NGBs' disappointing performance in increasing participation. Sport England assured us that the money held back from the NGBs would not be lost to the sport, but would be distributed to other providers such as local authorities, community groups, charities and associated governing bodies, and to support facilities such as swimming pools and parkruns.[159] The Payment for Results Review, the outcome of which was announced on 27 March 2014, withdrew a total of £2.8 million of funding, representing up to 10% of their grant, from six sports governing bodies.[160] Three other NGBs[161] failed to show growth but were considered to have adopted the right approach to encourage people to play their sport, so they were warned that they must deliver growth by December 2014 or lose money in 2015; and it was noted that UK Athletics had not achieved its growth target but had, nevertheless, increased the number of people participating, so its grant was not reduced.[162]

112. We comment in more detail on the performance of different NGBs in the next chapter of this Report. As far as the two government agencies are concerned, we commend their rigorous and evidence-based approach to the award of scarce resources to sporting bodies. Some have argued that UK Sport should focus less on Olympic medal potential, and more on an assessment of whether the UK is able to compete at world-class level, not least as some major sports are not represented in the Olympics and the list of Olympic sports varies from Games to Games. However, a medal count is at least a transparent criterion. We are pleased that Sport England is seeking to continue to support the sports and those who play them, even if funding is being taken from the relevant NGB. As we have indicated throughout this report, NGBs vary widely in the degree to which they engage with the problem of increasing participation, and it may well be that local organisations are sometimes better placed than NGBs to invest imaginatively to increase participation.

COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP

113. In 2011, the WSFF found that, just a year before the Olympics, women's sport received only 0.5% of all UK sports sponsorship; men's sport received 61.1% and the rest went to mixed sports.[163] The WSFF reported to the Committee that, though it expected a small increase post-Olympics, it believed that commercial investment still "completely fails to reflect the true value of the market", despite the fact that the UK's leading sportswomen regularly outperform their male counterparts on the international stage, the best women's events enjoy large television audiences and sports fans have shown a desire to watch and engage with women's sport.[164]

114. The overwhelming disparity partly reflects the disproportionate 'slice' of commercial sponsorship taken by the Premier League. Much of the remaining money goes to Formula 1, rugby, cricket, golf and tennis. Investec's sponsorship of GB/England women's hockey is a rare exception and—according to BT—is partly the result of a senior executive's personal commitment to the game.[165] A relatively new sport, triathlon, provides the same prize money, commercial sponsorship and media opportunities for men as women, as men and women frequently compete in the same race.[166]

115. Tennis is the only widely played sport in which the women's game attracts almost as much commercial sponsorship as the men's. BT suggested that this is because it is a popular worldwide sport where the athletes are visible and known; there are four Grand Slams a year that focus attention on female players; and Billie Jean King started to battle for equal prize money in the 1970s where many other sports are only now beginning that fight.[167] BT added:

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116. Sky believed that partnerships between broadcasters and sporting bodies provided "not just the opportunity to grow sports using funding derived from sports rights, but [for broadcasters and governing bodies to work] together to promote a sport." Sky cited as examples its support for women's cricket, its partnership with British Cycling, supporting female as well as male elite cyclists, and its work with women's golf.[169]

117. Amy Lawrence, deputy football correspondent of the Observer, suspected possible sponsors and advertisers were lagging behind in willingness to take women's sport seriously: "I don't know how much determination there is to market specifically to female sports enthusiasts from big companies and promoters. Certain broadcasters and papers are keen, but I sense they find it hard to make the kind of breakthrough they'd like." [170]

118. The FA noted that, while women's football is not a professional sport in England, as both the quality and coverage of the elite game have improved, so has interest in the game from supporters and, correspondingly, from potential sponsors. The FA was particularly keen to work with partners who become closely involved in its grassroots work, and it referred to four companies as part of its full women's partner programme: Nike, Vauxhall, Continental and BT Sport.[171] It was hoping that this programme would grow and generate increasing revenues for the women's game, to enable it eventually to become professional.[172] Both the ECB and the RFU told us that they did not separate sponsorship of women's and men's programmes, and that many of their sponsorship agreements contained rights related to both the men's and women's programmes: for example, for rugby union O2 sponsored both the men's and women's senior 15s, and Canterbury[173] provided kit for both men's and women's teams, and for cricket Waitrose was the main team sponsor and adidas provided the kit for both men and women.[174] England Netball reported on its commercial strategy to increase the share of income it received from sponsorship, merchandise, events, working with commercial providers and membership offers. It had negotiated a television contract with Sky, and was hoping to sign contracts with other sponsors, and it suggested that one of its attractions was its understanding of and responsiveness to its customer base, netball supporters and grassroots players. Even so, it said that the value of its sponsorships was far below the levels of professional male sport.[175]

119. Some of our witnesses suggested that women's sport offers some special advantages to potential sponsors: it is an underexploited area, with extensive rights available at a comparatively low cost; its quality has never been higher; it provides an opportunity for distinctive commercial marketing—appealing to both male and female consumers and brands—as well as demonstrating corporate social responsibility by working in a developing area.[176] However, rights holders (such as the sports governing bodies) need to make strong business cases to encourage commercial investment in women's sport.

120. The WSFF emphasised the need to grow the fan base for particular events within women's sport to attract more commercial sponsorship. Some sports appeared to be better at developing a fan base than others: we were told that audience numbers at live netball matches had increased and it was one of the few female sports to sell out arenas with full price tickets. England Netball attributed this to its active targeting of women and girls as its preferred audience. In tennis, the LTA introduced a Ladies Day for the Aegon tournament in 2012 to help raise the profile of the sport amongst women and encourage attendance at the event; the day was sold out in both 2012 and 2013.[177]

121. The WSFF believed there were opportunities to market women's sport in slightly different ways to make it appealing to teenage girls and women who may not previously have considered themselves to be fans of that sport. Both of these potential new markets would increase the attractiveness of sponsorship to commercial partners. To assist this development, the WSFF suggested that the Government should consider ring-fencing some of its investment into particular sports in order to provide "seed-funding" to emerging and developing competitions and give an incentive to commercial investment. This, it argued, was the model that had helped netball in Australia develop from a mainly amateur, low-profile sport twenty years ago into a professional sport where the top players were household names and the domestic league was a commercially self-sustaining business.[178]

TRAINING AND SCHOLARSHIPS

122. None of the team sports from whose governing bodies we took oral evidence—football, rugby union, netball—was professional sports for women. This meant that they were heavily dependent on government grants, players' willingness to support themselves and cross-subsidy from the men's sport to support not only existing elite players but also the training of future elite players. Overall, there is a shortage of money for both men's and women's sport, and sometimes there appears to be a bias towards male sports. For example, GB Volleyball had so little funding before the 2012 Games that it chose to support only the men's team, leaving the women's team unfunded—yet it was the women's team that achieved a significant victory, while the men's team lost all of its matches. The funding decision caused considerable difficulties to the women players, one of whom incurred debts of £10,000 just to play in the Olympics.[179]

123. The RFU invested approximately £2.5 million on women's elite rugby in 2012, including on talent identification and development. While lower than the investment in the men's elite programme, in part that is attributable to the fact that the RFU had to pay release fees from Premiership clubs for the men.[180] The RFU claimed that the women's 7s programme was well funded, and the 15s programme was "one of the best resourced in the world", allowing England to compete at the top level.[181] The RFU has recently instituted an Elite Player agreement for the women's players which, like that for the men's, sets out the support from the Union in areas such as training and medical cover.[182] The ECB described its programmes for women, and the access women cricketers have to specialist coaching, medical screening and bespoke fitness programmes.[183] The FA told us it was creating an Elite Performance Unit for the women's game to oversee the development of the best young players.[184] Elite netball players receive only a financial contribution to their training and travel costs.[185]

124. Some commercial sponsorship for training young players is available, for example through the Sky Sports Scholarships scheme which offers financial support, media training and mentoring. In August 2013 Sky announced the latest 12 scholarships which included seven women representing a range of sports.[186]

PRIZE MONEY

125. Another area of inequality in sport is the prize money available to women and men. Prize money is not offered for any global or domestic netball competition. We were told that there were not even trophies available for the women's cricket league and football league.[187]

126. It has often been argued that men's sport is both more challenging and more interesting than women's, so the differential is justified. However, a number of sportswomen are challenging the assumption that women cannot compete on equal terms with men and, therefore, should not receive an equal reward. Chrissie Wellington has suggested that discriminatory rules that, for example, restrict the length and duration of races for women, should be evaluated and potentially abolished because they are not substantiated by evidence from respected sports physiologists.[188] A major campaign to get a women's Tour de France alongside the men's event in future is being led by Emma Pooley and Chrissie Wellington. A petition in support has reached the 100,000 signature mark.[189] Chrissie Wellington argued that race owners could consider increasing prize purses for female athletes (giving parity with men), to enable them more easily to make a living.

127. Meanwhile, equal prize money for men and women was first introduced at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in 2007, and the Aegon Classic (a women only tournament) was upgraded to a WTA Premier 600 event from 2013, with a resulting increase in prize money for participants.

128. The fact that fans of women's sport are currently a market comparatively underexploited by commercial sponsors, and that female sports fans offer opportunities for new sponsors to become involved, should inspire sports governing bodies to offer imaginative deals to companies. Greater coverage of women's sport in the media should increase the audience for such sport, and enhance the attraction of sponsorship.

129. While no one is arguing for all elite sportspeople to receive the same pay or investment in training as premiership footballers, the gap between the support and rewards received by those men and almost all professional/elite sportswomen is vast. It would enhance the respect in which women's sport is held for women to be better supported financially; and it is likely that better pay would enable more high quality women to continue to play sport and to develop their potential.

Role models

LEADERSHIP OF SPORT GOVERNING BODIES

130. Our Terms of Reference for this inquiry did not include a specific reference to women as leaders and members of the sports workforce, but a number of those giving oral evidence pointed to the gender imbalance amongst sports governing bodies, managers and coaches, and the degree to which women in leadership roles in sport were still subject to overt, as well as covert, sexism. The WSFF went so far as to say: "the lack of women in senior decision making roles within sport is a major issue preventing women's sport from reaching its potential."[190]

131. In 2006, our predecessors noted that there was not one woman on the FA Board and that there was only one female member of the 90-strong FA Council, and concluded: "The FA should demonstrate that it recognises the value of drawing women into governance and promoting female role models as a way of increasing recognition and widening the fan base, thereby benefiting the sport as a whole."[191]

132. In 2012 UK Sport and Sport England asked all publicly-funded sports' National Governing Bodies to have women as at least 25% of their board members by 2017. The latest figures (from May 2014)[192] show:

· 22 out of 45 NGB boards funded by Sport England and UK Sport do not meet the 25% minimum expectation[193]

· In 2009, 21% of board members were women. This had risen to 22% in the 2011/12 report and 27% in 2013/14

· The number of women in the most senior positions remains low: an average of 21% of the four senior roles surveyed are held by women

The Government considers that more needs to be done to ensure there are no barriers to women in the rise to Senior Management and Executive Director level, and it has given a Women and Sport Advisory Board the task of addressing this, amongst other, issues.[194]

133. Several sports governing bodies told us that they were keen to increase the number of women in senior roles.[195] Sport England said it was drawing together a pool of high calibre individuals who had expressed an interest in being on NGB boards, and highlighting advertised positions to those individuals.[196] Chrissie Wellington suggested more work was needed to find out why women were not rising up the ranks of sports administration.[197]

134. The WSFF argued that the lack of representation of women on the UK's sports boards meant that sports were missing out on the benefits that diverse leadership teams could bring, and made it less likely that sporting bodies fully understood how best to approach women's sport in all aspects of their business including participation, sponsorship and media profile.[198] It recommended that the 25% minimum expectation in relation to female board membership by 2017 should be raised to 30%, and that experienced and appropriate women from outside sport should be supported into leadership positions in the sector.

135. Having more women in senior management and board posts is not an end in itself: it may serve to increase understanding of women's views and needs at the levels where decisions on the future strategies of sports are made, and it also helps the image of sport in general to become less masculine. We welcome the progress that has been made in opening leadership positions in sport to women but note that some sports have made more progress than others. We particularly regret the fact that popular sports like swimming and tennis are lagging badly behind, and that the FA appears to have made little progress in this regard since our predecessors' report in 2006.

COACHES

136. As already highlighted, boys and girls prefer different styles of coaching, and research by the WSFF shows that the traditional style of male sports coach is actually off-putting to women contemplating participating in grassroots sport.[199]

137. BT spoke for many of our witnesses in saying:

200

138. Only 17% of qualified coaches (1^st for Sport Qualifications), and only 31% of coaches overall are women, despite the fact that women are more likely than men to use coaching (30% in comparison to 25%).[201] The proportion varies among sports, with gymnastics, swimming, equestrian, netball and tennis having higher proportions of women coaches than average. Both UK Sport and Sport England considered the shortage of female coaches a serious problem. UK Sport expressed frustration that so few elite sportswomen became coaches. While acknowledging that elite coaching was a difficult role for women with caring responsibilities because of the travelling involved, UK Sport suggested that one cause of the shortage was the fact that the apprenticeship programme depended on the nomination of trainees by head coaches, almost all of whom were male and who tended to nominate in their own image.[202] Gwenda Ward, an ex-Olympic athlete and Level 2 athletics coach, criticised her sport for unthinking adherence to traditional recruitment practices, resulting in a failure to develop female coaches.[203]

139. Joanne Herbertson offered insight into the difficulties faced by female coaches as a coach in a variety of sports herself. While commenting generally that very few women's sports jobs were well paid or offered flexible working conditions, she argued that women felt isolated (she cited training courses where she had been the only female participant)[204] and that the long hours and dedication required of volunteers made it difficult for those with other work and family responsibilities to take part. She also reported that she had faced patronising and sometimes downright hostile behaviour by male coaches and female players, who seemed to consider her as having less authority because she was a woman.[205]

140. Sport England wants to see more women getting involved in coaching. This is one of the targets in its UK Coaching Framework, which has been adopted by all five sports councils, and in the terms of its partnership with a body called Sports Coach UK. In partnership with the WSFF, Sports Coach UK has completed a research project on the experiences of coaching among high performing female athletes and has initiated a project to encourage more women into coaching. Following a regional pilot in the south-east in 2013, this was due to be rolled out nationally from 2014, with the target of recruiting 5000 women as coaches. Recognising that time constraints can be a barrier to becoming qualified, the training is to be provided in a more flexible way than previously, including e-learning modules.[206]

141. Individual sports are also responding to the need to recruit more women coaches. We were told that Sky Sports and the England and Wales Cricket Board had jointly launched a coach education programme in 2006, since when over 50,000 coaching certificates had been awarded, "a large number" of which have been awarded to female coaches. The ECB said the number of female cricket coaches had grown from 556 in 2003 to 2,756 in 2013.[207] The LTA has also undertaken research to understand, and address, the current imbalance between female and male coaches in tennis, including a comprehensive review of current coaches, focus group sessions, and programmes of mentoring with established female coaches.[208] The RFU found female-only training courses for coaches were not successful so had instead placed the emphasis on more friendly and supportive mixed courses.[209]

142. Many of our witnesses argued that women would be encouraged to take part, and persist, in sport were there more female coaches. The sporting authorities are trying to encourage more women to become involved in coaching. However, low pay and long and inflexible hours are not attractive—though many clearly find great enjoyment and reward in teaching and helping others. While the poor conditions are common to both male and female coaches, and there is only limited scope for sport governing bodies to change them, it is very unlikely that the sexism and lack of respect displayed to Joanne Herbertson would be experienced by a male coach, and it is very disappointing that some of this behaviour was shown by fellow coaches. If sport governing bodies are serious about encouraging greater participation by women, then they must take action to drive this sort of behaviour out of their sports.

108 For the triathlon, see Qq68-69 Back

109 SJA (WAS0014), paras 20 and 24-25 and NUJ (WAS0019), para 12. Back

111 It noted that in 2012 while the BBC accounted for 2% of TV sports output hours in the UK, it accounted for over 50% of TV sports viewing hours: BBC (WAS0003), para 6 Back

112 BBC (WAS0003), paras 10-11, 14, 17-19. This lists the events broadcast by the BBC over the previous twelve months, covering sports such as football, rugby, golf, netball and cricket. Back

113 BT (WAS0025), paras 10-15 Back

114 Sky (WAS0036), paras 2.2-2.4 Back

115 Channel 4 (WAS0028) Back

116 BBC (WAS0003), para 15 Back

117 SJA (WAS0014), paras 5-19, 27-35 Back

118 (WAS0031), para 35 Back

119 StreetGames (WAS0010), paras 1.15-1.16. See also Q25 (WSFF) Back

120 The first in January 2013 for broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Sky), journalists, and sports bodies including British Cycling, British Rowing, England Netball and the Football Association; and the second in May 2013 for the Professional Publishers Association, magazines including Company, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, Bliss, Glamour, Now, Stylist and Closer, and National Governing Bodies of Sports most popular with women Back