Issues in Sport 2025: Discrimination (Gender)

This review documents these qualitative and quantitative differences and discusses the negative impact this differential coverage has on consumer perceptions of women’s sport and female athletes. Additionally, the author examines explanations for these differences. The review concludes with suggestions for future research and strategies for change

Writing in response to submissions to this committee inquiry, journalist Greg Baum remarked:
Women's soccer is a joke...Women's cricket is not much better. Netball is OK, sometimes, when there is nothing else on. But women's basketball is not...Women runners, jumpers, throwers, cyclists and swimmers do their best, but it is, by definition, second-best

These Guidelines have been developed by the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) to provide guidance to sporting organisations on promoting the inclusion and participation of transgender and gender diverse people in sport.

As the world gears up for the start of the Tokyo Olympics - touted as a landmark in gender equality - an Australian report has found women are still being left behind when it comes to leadership roles in our elite sporting bodies.

By age 14, many girls are dropping out of sports at two times the rate of boys.1Through more than 25 years of research, the Women’s Sports Foundation has identified key factors which contribute to this alarming statistic. Read on to learn more about how these factors influence girls’ sport experiences and why they need to stay in the game.

Throughout history, sports have been guilty of prioritising certain groups at the exclusion of others. There has been a pervasive idea that being an athlete requires the demonstration of traditionally masculine traits. Any individual not doing so was, and often still is, susceptible to being harassed, sidelined, or ostracised.

Is there an unfair advantage? Should transgender women be banned from competing in female categories? Should there be a separate category established? Or should sport be more inclusive?

To include or to exclude? That’s the question at the core of the debate about transgender women in sports. But that’s a binary way of thinking about a nonbinary situation. It presumes only two types of people: men and women. People are more diverse than that.