Room 4
IN/VISIBLE INEQUITIES
Gender disparities in treatment, opportunities, and resources continue to position female athletes like “second class citizens”.
“My Bag”
My bag always seemed heavier than everybody else’s
because it, quite literally,
would be heavier.
I’ve got an extra pair of this,
I'm bringing everything extra for the just-in-cases.
I do wonder if I hadn't, what the outcomes would have been.
I don't necessarily think they would have been horrendous.
But it did feel like it made a difference.
If you failed or you made a mess or made a mistake—
It didn't just feel like a mistake.
It felt like I was letting down women in my sport because I was confirming people's stereotypes.
Double standards.
People accused me of being arrogant and full of myself.
I never saw them call my male peers up on the same behaviour.
Somebody would make some off the cuff, crass comment and I would just get really
fired up and then go and perform really well.
And then other times it would get in my head and it would just
sit and stew and really distract me.
Surgeries that needed to happen,
pretty substantial injuries that were pushed to the side—
there is a greater pool of examples within the female cohort.
The males have a back injury and it's got a scan.
They're off training for two weeks.
They've had the treatment and then they're back.
Men could somehow manage to lead these slightly social lives,
like slightly pushing the boundaries.
I didn't have that space to do that because I was absolutely maxed out on energy.
The women always have to work around the men.
You have a slightly less good session,
because you’re just not in the right environment.
You got the session done,
you did the right exercises,
but the environment you’re in and
feeling like the session is valued
is part of the session.
It's getting better, but you really have to fight,
hang on a second that's not acceptable.
In a shared environment testosterone wins.
The kit is designed for men.
It’s a bit sad because you get so excited about making the team for the first time and
I can't wear any of this kit until my mum's hemmed it all.
We just never really had kit that made us feel really good.
Subconsciously playing on your mind throughout that you might
have been pulling things down or loosening your top.
We used to beat the guys everyday hands down and
they refused to train with us because we were girls.
They only wanted to train with the boys,
who were just scraping the top 10 in the world
at the time.
They didn't believe they could learn as much from us.
Throw everyone against the wall,
and you're gonna get the odd one or two females that comes off.
But the longevity of their career is cut short.
Either burnout or
just lack of support or
injured and
just the push for performance, performance, performance.
There is still an issue with sexism.
Deep, deep down.
My bag always seemed heavier.
