How women in sport are tackling gender inequality

It's not just in the boardroom where women are paid less, penalised for having children and considered less capable of generating big bucks.

"The most competitive FIFA Women's World Cup we've ever seen" is helping to challenge the mistreatment of women in sport, says journalist Macaela Mackenzie.

Macaela Mackenzie is a senior editor at Glamour magazine. She is the author of Money, Power Respect: How Women In Sports Are Shaping the Future of Feminism.

The US women’s football team, who've won four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, are trailblazers in the fight for gender equality, Mackenzie tells Jesse Mulligan.

“They have this incredibly long and robust history of fighting from the 1980s when they were wearing men's hand-me-down uniforms.

“There's just been this under-recognised legacy of advocacy in this team for decades.”

In 2016, a group of players demanded equal pay via the Equal Employment and Opportunities Commission (EEOC).

“That was essentially an investigation that would allow them to then sue their employer for pay discrimination. The EEOC ruled in their favour, saying that they could sue, which is what they did in 2019, on International Women's Day.”

The timing of the women's legal action was quite deliberate, Mackenzie says.

“It was really about a broader push for women's equality and really getting the whole world in on this rallying cry, paying attention to gender equality in their workplaces and joining this fight.”

The persistent argument that pay disparity is inevitable because women’s sport generates less revenue does not make sense, she says.

“You can't expect two teams to perform at the same level when you're giving one absolute state-of-the-art resources and endless funding ... and you're basically telling another 'Good luck to you out there. We're not going to help you out at all.”

As funding for women’s sport improves, so too does performance and the amount of money flowing in.

“The product is improving, viewership is improving. This World Cup is a perfect example, this is the most competitive FIFA Women's World Cup that we've ever seen.

“That is a direct result of the fact that [football] federations around the world have made a lot of changes in the last four years.”

Discrimination against sportswomen who have children has been a significant impediment to their success, Mackenzie says.

“There's been this really pervasive cultural attitude that women athletes are going to be worth less and won't be able to perform at the same level after going through pregnancy or becoming mothers.

“I think that has really shaped the way that federations and sponsors have treated women athletes - literally devaluing them at that moment in their careers and prematurely ending their careers.”

Thanks to scientific research, we now know athletic performance is not affected adversely by childbirth, she says.

“There's some exciting research and data coming out on the physiological side that shows that some of the physical changes that occur during pregnancy and postpartum can actually be athletically beneficial.”

There are additional benefits mental health benefits to motherhood, Mackenzie says. Women athletes have told her that having children enlarged their perspective and sense of balance.

“One of the most dangerous things that can happen to you is you get in that downward mental spiral of ruminating over a bad shot at practice or something that happened in a game where you feel you messed up. And that can really bring you down.

“Many of the athletes I spoke to who are moms said having a kid has a really protective effect against that because you can't ruminate about something that went wrong in practice, you have to go home and show up and be there for your kid who's just so excited that you're there.”

Participation in sport helps women develop skills that will serve them in the workplace, Mackenzie says.

"There's a lot of actual data that looks at the professional outcomes of girls who have access to sports. Ninety-four percent of C-suite executives in the United States, female C-suite executives, played sports.

“I don't think that there is any doubt about the connection between access to sports participation and the development of leadership skills, and team-building [skills]. All of these things really help to make you successful in the professional sphere.”

Girls who have access to sports are more body-positive, she says, and more confident generally.

“Pretty much every woman that I spoke to for the book - whether she was a professional athlete or academic or a woman in business - all had some connection to sport in their life ... from girlhood to their collegiate years.

“They all spoke about this idea that sports is really a place where you get to try and fail in a safe environment. It's a place where you get to push yourself past the limits you thought you could achieve. It's a place where you get to set goals, and you get support from a team or from coaches to achieve those goals.”