A Crash Course in Feminism Mk. II (or, why everyone should be a feminist)

[Wolfshade]

The difference is we value a bunch of useless overpaid men far more than a bunch of underpaid, competent, victorious women just because they are men.

Not strictly true. Until recently Rugby was an amateur game so their "over paid" was the same level of "over pay" that the women currently enjoy. And back then big results could dominate headlines.

Also of not only the FT carried the news of the innings victory over india, though no where was the women's defeat (front page wise).

[eldargal]

Was being the operative word. Male sports get something like 99% of the funding an 97% of the media attention despite usually performing worse than the women.

Not reporting defeats still just shows a lack of value for the womens sport. If they win they might get a mention, if they don't, nothing.

[Wolfshade]

Now for the chicken and egg question.

Do the newspapers not cover the women's sports because they are not popular or are women's sports not popular becuase they are not carried by newspapers?

To give you some scope, I have seen U19 male rugby with bigger audiences than some internalation womens games.

[eldargal]

It all comes back to society as a whole not valuing women as much as men. If the media talked about womens sports more and you had a big push to change the culture by highlighting how amaze our womens sports are AND also started funding them properly you could turn it around fairly quickly.

The media ignoring the existence of womens sports in general just continues to send the message it isn't something to be valued or worth reporting.

[Mr Mystery]

Indeedy.

Though I am noticing a greater level of reporting on women's sports, which if nothing else is at least encouraging.

Someway to go until we're at the same level of enthusiasm we see for Atheletics though, where gender doesn't seem to bother anyone in reporting success!

[eldargal]

I believe the BBC said they would try and increase the amount of reporting they did and I wouldn't be surprised if some other outlets followed suit.

[Mr Mystery]

Yay! Progress!

But as someone who hasn't really kept tabs on such things, what I said about Athletics - how come the reporting on those sports is far more gender neutral? Ditto Tennis and that. When did it begin, and how did it get that way? Is it an approach that could be adopted for Foosball and Rugby Foosball?

[Psychosplodge]

If I was guessing I'd say that while the actual competitions are separate, they're held at the same event?

[Wildeybeast]

Another positive sporting story. Fairly low down the rung, but it's a start.

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28856370[/url]

[Kirsten]

discussion on the radio today about the wage gap. with it came a perfect example of unconscious sexism from a very well meaning retirement age man. he started off by saying that women should be paid the same as men, which was great, but then went on to point out that in his family, his wife and two daughters got paid more than him. the problem was, he is a self employed french polisher (ooeer), his wife was a teacher, and his daughters were an accountant and a solicitor, so not exactly comparable. the real problem then came when he said, with all good intentions, that 'most women are as good as men'.