Women's sport in Australia
Basketball is nominally professional in Australia but players do not earn enough from the sport to compete full-time.
[4] At the same time, a number of women's sporting contest were taking place in Australia including the first bicycling race in the world for women held in Ashfield, New South Wales,[5] and the first Australian championship in golf, open to both genders, was the Australian Ladies' Championship played at Geelong in Victoria in 1894.
Many of the sport organisations for women remained intact during the war period and held competitions.
The influx of newcomers helped to introduce and led to participation in sports that had previously not enjoyed much popularity in Australia.
[13] Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011–12 survey found that nearly 64% (around 5.8 million) of females aged 15 years and over reported that they had participated in sport and physical recreation at least once during the 12 months prior to interview.
[16] The top ten sport and recreation activities were: Walking for exercise (2,784,700), fitness/gymnasium (1,745,700), swimming/diving (729,200), jogging/running (585,400), cycling/bmx (490,600), netball (410,500), tennis (314,200), yoga (298, 900), dancing/ballet (229, 100) and bushwalking (216,800).
[22] The lack of media coverage of women's sport in Australia has presented challenges to female participants in several areas, including providing few role models and making it hard to acquire money from sponsors.
Traditionally professional female golfers, tennis players and surfers have been able to earn an income from international circuits.
There are a limited number of high-profile female Olympic athletes that have been able to supplement government grants and competition earnings with sponsorships.
The lack of sponsorship for female athletes was highlighted when Sally Pearson, 100 metres hurdles gold medalist from the 2012 London Olympics, had lost sponsors after the Games.
Amongst these are Lauren Jackson, Erin Phillips, Kristi Harrower, Belinda Snell and Penny Taylor, who played basketball in the United States.
[29] In recent years, netball players have been able to earn an income particularly since the establishment of the ANZ Championship.
[35] This tension eventually boiled over, as the Matildas boycotted an international tour of the US in 2015 in protest against the lack of financial reward they were receiving.
They were also coming up against the current world champions, so it was a big chance to demonstrate the continued rise of women's soccer in Australia.
The dispute centred on a number of objectives some of which are interrelated, and can be broken down as follows:[36] (i) provision of basic minimum standards setting out the time commitment and requirements necessary for high performance standards in international football; (ii) Pay equality and equality of opportunity; (iii) Establishing a career pathway for elite women footballers and making football the sport of choice for young women.
The PFA want an immediate correction to Matildas salaries so they are at least on par with the Australian minimum wage of about $33,000 a year and for them to be able to take up opportunities overseas when not playing and training for the national squad.
In 1912, Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie became the first female athletes to represent Australia at the Summer Olympics.
[40] In 2006, Emily Jansen, a below-knee amputee alpine skier, became Australia's first female Winter Paralympian.
[43] In the financial year 2013–2014, Sport Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women Program provided $400,000 for individuals and organisations to undertake training to improve their leadership potential in the areas of: coaching, officiating, governance, management and administration and communications, media and marketing.
[44] In 2006, the Australian Parliament's Senate Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts Committee published the report About time!
[45] This extensive review made recommendations related to grass roots and elite athlete participation, leadership and governance and the mass media.
