The women’s rugby union competition for 2020-2021 kicked off, two full months after the men’s rugby union was able to restart its 2019-2020 season. The England women’s cricket team returned to international action against the West Indies in late September after a six-month absence. The men’s international team had recommenced at the start of July. The FA Women’s Super League returned for the start of the 2020-2021 campaign seven weeks after the men’s Premier League was allowed to restart its 2019-2020 competition in June.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an incredibly disproportionate impact on women's sport. There has been a significant lack of visibility of women's sport this year. The impact has been mainly twofold: first, often meaning that efforts put in to improve accessibility for women athletes have been undermined, and second, more and more competitions specific to women's sport have been canceled, which has meant fewer opportunities for women in a time where they need them the most.
Women's sport, unfortunately, seems to have been left on the bench. Almost all sports for women have been canceled or postponed, meaning that the future is incredibly uncertain. Note that this is not the same for men's sport, with a significant portion of men's sport resuming with some sort of security and safety bubbles- significantly unclear why this hasn't been done for women's sports as well, which has disproportionately hurt almost every involved stakeholder. Women's sports, despite having had a triumphant start to the year, with several athletes finally being recognized for their efforts and their successes, and seeming to eventually take off, has, unfortunately, had to experience a dip, yet again.
Canceling women's sport has meant four devastating things; first; the fact that there are now lesser opportunities for women athletes to participate in sports, which often means fewer chances of them qualifying for large scale tournaments like the Olympics, with qualifying tournaments being canceled and previous rankings being used to determine the qualifications instead.
Secondly, the lack of accessibility. The pandemic has meant that there is a significant lack of resources and training facilities for women. They had less access and this impacted their ability to train effectively.
The third being investment and sponsorship. Fortunately, as it were, with an uprising in demand for equality, there were increased investors and sponsors showing interest in women's sports and being willing to sponsor women athletes. After the pandemic, it has resulted in more and sponsors dropping out, which just left women's sport where it was before.
Fourth, it has reduced the number of women being encouraged to take up sport and has caused existing athletes to quit. This has been for two reasons: the reduction in training facilities and accessibility in a time where there was already a significant lack of resources; and pay. Their opportunities for major sponsorship deals are fewer inherently. The vast majority of women's athletes including internationally acclaimed athletes, (for example in the UK: 80%), are paid on an only match-fee basis in contrast to their male counterparts. No games have meant no pay for them. In a comparative, these competitions are the only source of income for them. Their counterparts are largely engaged on a contractual basis, and their competitions have run despite the pandemic, something women's sport has not witnessed. Women athletes, thus, have found it difficult to survive this pause in their careers and pay.
There are two ways to solve this issue: first, ensure that female athletes, as well, are paid on a contractual basis and not just per match, providing an essential check and balance system through which they have access to basic necessities when unable to play for an extended period of time. This indirectly means that women will be encouraged to step in and pursue their interests, as they are beginning to be treated equally. Second, allow basic equality such that women’s sport is not regarded as lesser or deprioritized in any way, treating it the same as men’s sports.
In the end, the pandemic has left scarcity, uncertainty, and a pause for just about everything for women athletes. We can only hope, that going forward, the world resumes with the same enthusiasm and vigor, and bring women athletes and sport the recognition and equality they deserve.
Comments