I first became aware of the pervasive sexism when it comes to women’s sports teams in my first year of university. It was around the time that I discovered the Canberra Capitals and turned into an avid women’s basketball fan. Whenever I told anyone about my fondness for the team, they would snigger and say…
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The Australia Jockeys Association is lobbying for changes to rules governing parental leave after it was revealed female jockeys are missing out due to indirect discrimination in federal policy. To be eligible for paid parental leave under the still incumbent Labor scheme, applicants must have worked 10 months out of 13 before the child was…
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Canberra’s Caroline Buchanan became Australia’s latest BMX champion over the weekend, winning gold at the UCI world titles in Auckland. The 22-year-old beat fellow Australian Lauren Reynolds by 1.296sec to claim the medal. The title is her first in BMX racing, though she holds two in mountain biking. The win marks a new beginning…
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Are you a woman with a huge, physically and mentally challenging goal on your bucket list? Well, you’re not the only one. Running long distances, running through mud, receiving electric shocks and trekking mountains are now the norm for challenges which both women and men are grabbing head on. But the increase of women in…
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If the back (and often front) cover of your local News Corp paper is anything to go by, sport is big news in this country. The last few months have been sufficient proof, if anyone needed any more, that a culture of sexism in sport continues to be tolerated – in fact – accepted, in…
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How’s everyone enjoying the Ashes? That’s what you do with the Ashes, right? Enjoy them? I don’t know; I’m not really following. What I have been doing instead is getting into the spirit, without actually engaging with any of the reports or the coverage, by compiling a list of great women in cricket! 1. Lily…
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Cricket Australia has announced a significant restructuring of their contracting system that will result in a sharp pay increase for female International and State players. Top-tiered female athletes will be paid a maximum of $52,000 which is more than double the current figure of $15,000. As a minimum, players will receive a $25,000 retainer, up…
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It’s a Saturday night in Newcastle. I stop off for a coffee along one of the city’s café strips, hoping to keep up the high from the roller derby bout I have just seen. Upon spying the local league’s shirt I wear, a male waiter prods me with questions I am ill-suited to answer as…
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The Tour of Flanders is a famous road cycling race held in Belgium every spring, and is an important race in the European professional calendar. But the most recent Tour of Flanders is perhaps most well-known among the public for an incident that occurred during the celebration of winner Fabian Cancellara. As Cancellara was being…
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When I was in year seven I thought that it would be a good idea to try out for my school’s netball team. I turned up at the gym, the air rich in oestrogen, in my little blue pleated skirt. Growing up, I was always one of the taller kids, so it was assumed that…
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Third in our December series of women’s sports, rowing! Read on for the health benefits of rowing, the local rowing clubs, and women’s rowing as a professional sport. Why row? Rowing is about strength, cardio and flexibility. A low-impact form of exercise, it strengthens muscles and joints throughout the body without the strain of weights…
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Seriously, women’s cricket is a thing. I didn’t know either – my only experience of girls playing cricket was in my own backyard in primary school way back when I hadn’t learnt yet that I was terrible at ball/bat/team sports. And even though every second channel on TV broadcasted international cricket this week, I bet…
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Hello, summer – and hello, summer sports! Not just tennis and swimming and cricket, but other sports too. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be investigating the less known summer sports of Australia and the women who play them professionally. This week, ultimate frisbee. What is ultimate frisbee? Ultimate frisbee is a non-contact team sport,…
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More women than ever have competed in the 2012 London Olympics than any previous games. For the first time, every country represented at the Olympic Games has sent women to compete in London. This includes Saudi Arabia, a country that has never previously sent any women athletes to the Olympics. Women’s boxing also made its…
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