Throw It Like a Girl

No comments  admin_rosie August 22, 2018

The 100 Best Paid Athletes and Not One Woman in Sight

The $900 million dollar question….

Today Forbes released their 2018 top 10 female athletes earning list. The top 10 athletes, led by Serena and dominated by female tennis players, earned a total of $105m combined. All sounds pretty rosy, right? Standing alone, this figure seems impressive. But when we bring men into it, it begins to look a little different.

Let’s take the Forbes top 100 best paid athletes list for 2018 released earlier in the year, where of the top 100 best paid sports stars, not one of them was a woman.

Worse, if we compare the total earnings of those top 10 athletes in that list, all men remember, they earned over $1billion combined. That’s nearly $900million more than the top 10 highest earning females. Whilst utterly deflating, it’s hardly surprising.

My blog conf...

Feminism, News, Opinion, Uncategorized, Women's sports

No comments  admin_rosie March 8, 2018

It’s Only Words..and Words Are All I Have… #IWD2018

It’s Feminist Christmas and no, that doesn’t mean sitting around a burning effigy of a man, exchanging giftwrapped tampons.

On International Women’s Day and as a Marcomms professional I thought I’d focus on one of my favourite things to exist – words. And just how powerful these can be in the world of women and exercise and women in sport. Of course words can be just as powerfully destructive as they can powerfully constructive and I’ll be looking at which way the pendulum falls for women in sport…

First to the gym. And what’s been undeniable is the explosion of women and exercise- whether that’s infiltrating our Instagram feeds, to influencing the fashion we buy (#athleisure)...

Feminism, Opinion, Uncategorized

No comments  admin_rosie February 19, 2018

Ring- a-ding-dong the Walk-on Girls are Gone

Gone are the days of grid girls and walk-on girls.

Cue clapping or boos depending on which side of the fence you’re on.

Last week the governing bodies of F1 and Darts made a bold decision to stop using them, with immediate effect.

The Women’s Sports Trust encouraged other sports to follow suit and ‘stop positioning women as an embellishment’. That’s all very nicey-nice language, which when translated means stop using women as an accessory to sport. Something you look at, whilst the men get to compete next to them.

The decision prompted offshoots of debate including whether ‘sport is becoming too prudish’ and ‘does it take away from the spectacle of the sport’?

I’m going to take a minute or two to dispel some of the furore surrounding these decisions.

“Just because som...

Opinion, Sportswomen, Women's sports

No comments  admin_rosie September 27, 2017

Female Sports Journalism: If you Build it, Will they Come?

Jaqui Oatley – first female broadcaster to commentate on Match of the Day

This week’s blog has a bit of self-reflection (gaah) on my ambition of becoming a sports journalist and how (if that ambition was realised) what impact would female sports journalists have on increasing coverage of women’s sports? It also features an ode to my Dad so make sure to read on.

It’s pretty clear that progressing women in and women on sport is part of my agenda (you may have noticed..). But it does pose the question of – how do we get more women writing about sports in general and would that automatically result in more exposure of women’s sports?

To argue yes would be presumptuous and conditional on the following:

Female sports journalists will write about women’s sports
Female sports journ...

Football, Sportswomen, Tennis, Women's sports

No comments  admin_rosie August 17, 2017

It’s the Summer of Love… For Women’s Sport

Time to celebrate some of the achievements we have seen in women’s sport this summer. The past month has been absolutely brimming with stories and its testament to the quality and achievements of women’s sport that the biggest problem I’ve had is focusing on only a few.

We’ll be doing a whistle-stop tour across Wimbledon, the women’s Cricket World Cup and the Euros with our top takeaways from each.

Wimbledon, wimbledon, wimbledon. Remember when the sun shone and life was great?

This was a Wimbledon for women. And I’m not afraid to admit it but this was the first year that the women’s game took centre stage over the men’s. Why I hear you ask?….

The gripping, entertaining battles came from the women’s game – Wozniacki, Radwanska and Kerber were all in involved in three se...

Opinion, Sportswomen, Tennis

2 comments  admin_rosie July 13, 2017

A Woman Cannot be Considered the Greatest Athlete of All Time. Discuss.

Foreword: I wrote this blog many months ago and ‘banked’ it if you like for a time in which I could cash in. Safe to say McEnroe’s recent comments about Serena Williams have brought this time a little earlier than anticipated.

To recap, McEnroe last week refused to entertain the idea of Serena being the ‘best tennis player in the modern era’ citing that were Serena to play against men then she’d be ranked ‘like 700 in the world’. Or in other words, that until she can beat a man at the same sport, she’ll never receive such an accolade. Full story here.

This blog post explores the very simple question of, to be crowned he greatest athlete of all time, do you have to beat your male counterpart at said sport?

Let’s start with Fed...

Opinion

One comment  admin_rosie June 22, 2017

Why I Blush When I Talk About Sports

Its Women’s Sports Week (hooray!) and I thought I’d take a different take on it by choosing not to focus on sports-women specifically (weird, I know) but instead explore what it’s like to be a woman and like sport in the workplace.

Drawing on my own experiences and experiences shared to me by other women, I have offered some snippets which will hopefully give some relatable insight for women but also a few tips for men and women on how to open up the boys (sports) club.

As alluded to in the intro to my blog, one of the things that really gets my goat is the failure of men to invite women to sports or include them in sports talk.

Ok so the boys in my office are ABSOLUTE gems, I adore them. This isn’t accusatory and it’s not their fault...

Feminism, Sportswomen, Tennis, Women's sports

No comments  admin_rosie April 26, 2017

The Serena Williams Chronicles: Part 1

Part 1. Serena. The powerhouse.

I’d been saving these up ready to unleash them as the French Open and Wimbledon invaded our lives but alas – now Serena’s on her way to being a baby mamma – why not talk about this goddess now, for goddess sake.

To set the scene I thought I’d give a little amuse-bouche of just some of the comments ‘overheard’ about this powerhouse of strength, athleticism and invincibility (and yes you can quote me on that).

“But she’s got bigger biceps than me?!” (SAID BY EVERY MAN EVER TO HAVE LIVED….)
“That ass though, can’t she buy a longer skirt which covers it?”
“ …But don’t you think she looks like a man, its unnatural?”

Too many times have I been wound up on the Serena topic, trying to fight her corner to both women and men alike?...

Boxing, News, Sportswomen

One comment  admin_rosie April 4, 2017

A new era dawns for boxing

As ‘Bloke’ a sport you can get, where even your manliness of men steer well clear. A sport where strength, grit, power and ruthlessness reign – attributes once only ever reserved for men – women are beginning to soar.

With the rise of Katie Taylor, Clarissa Shields and Nicole Adams the scene is set for women’s boxing to change forever. Ahead of Olympic hero Nicola Adams’s professional debut in Manchester on Saturday, I begin to have a look at what has brought on this new dawn for women’s boxing and how other sports could learn from these revolutionary times?

Superstars

All too rare in female sports is the ‘Sports Superstar’. Something which, time and time again, is linked to the failure of women’s sport to galvanise audiences at scale.

Let’s get this straight – it isn’t...

Feminism

No comments  admin_rosie March 14, 2017

Men #beingboldforchange for Women and Sport

My top 5 countdown of men #beingboldforchange for Women and Sport. From tennis gods to a 5th grade basketball team – I’ve got it covered. See what men (and boys) in the sport world are doing to challenge the norms for women in sport.

5. Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive R & A

Alright he’s hardly a shining beacon of feminism but he deserves a name check given that it’s under his tenure that the R & A (golf’s joint governing body) took a stand against sexist policies affecting their sport.

In light of today’s announcement that Muirfield golf club have FINALLY voted to allow women as members, it seems apt to highlight who ultimately forced them (and yes I mean forced) to allow women into the club.

The R & A forced the club’s hand following Muirfield’s decision in May 2016 to vote down th...

I throw like a girl and I throw fantastic

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