We have had another interesting week at Christchurch Girls’ High School!

As many of you are aware we featured this week in a public calling out of poor behaviour towards our sports girls, at the launch of the school rugby competition. I am not going to revisit the issues, as we have now received an appropriate apology from the sponsor and have invited him to morning tea with the rugby teams at school. We appreciate the apology and will welcome the opportunity to introduce some of our wonderful female athletes.

The support we have received has been overwhelmingly positive, mostly by females but many males as well. Sadly, many shared their own stories of similar behaviour including current high level female sports people. They felt it was normalized and that they were unable to speak out due to fear of consequences either on their jobs or sporting aspirations. Disempowered and diminished. Wrong on every level.

If there is one thing I hope for our students it is that they will learn to speak out with courage when confronted with injustice, in their lives or if they witness such acts to others particularly women and minorities. It is this strength of character that we can develop in partnership with you their parents. By doing so we can equip them with strength and resilience to enable them to succeed and enjoy positive lives.

Noting some online male responses best summed up as “go back to the kitchen and be grateful for what you have got”, I decided to have a look at the evidence regarding the lot of women in sport, particularly in New Zealand. It is no surprise to women how unequal the playing field is for our girls. They will have less opportunity, less promotion, less sponsorship and severely limited financial opportunity. Yes, there is change emerging but we have a long way to go.

As our national game, rugby needs to lead this. It was as recent as 2018 that the Sports Minister Grant Robertson called rugby out as having a long way to go in this regard. So good on them for moving, but more and faster please.

Some international statistics which includes New Zealand show

· 40% of sports participants are women

· women receive only 4% of the global media coverage. Sport NZ says in NZ it is 15% but in the big sports including rugby it drops to 6.6%.

· Women hold only 27% of the governance positions in sport in NZ

· Australian research shows women receive around 8% of the sponsorship dollar. This is alongside the fact that women influence or decide 70% of the consumer spending decision. So why aren't predominantly male CEOs investing in women's sport? I wonder.

Next year we will see the women’s rugby world cup played and, according to a NZ Herald article, the bid was based on many of those players staying in 3 star accommodation. No luxury travel either. Is that the case for our All Blacks?

The old argument mainly put forward by males is that women's sport isn't watched. Yet women’s sport receives only 4% of the promotion budget. When promoted equally women's sport is watched. In 2019 the women's football final outrated the male final for TV viewership after substantial promotion. Our young women want to watch their stars and idols.

The All Blacks have had over a hundred years of promotion, our Black Ferns around 20 years. Our women balance jobs, family and lack of resources to reach the top of their sports. Our young women would love to buy merchandise featuring their female stars if given the opportunity.

The same can be said for game day crowds related to less significant promotion of events. In addition, the reality is that game attendance is only a part of the pay package source for male stars and much comes from promotions and sponsorship.

My intention here is not to undertake an exhaustive analysis of sport inequality, but to highlight that inequality exists and that the barriers our young women will face are real.

So, yes, well done to sports that have made advances including rugby, but don't expect our praise for a few crumbs fallen from the male sports table. Women contribute to those revenues and pay packets men in sport enjoy, so more please and faster. Then you might find we will applaud you and not have reason to highlight issues in the media.

Ngā mihi

Christine O’Neill