FIFA and the NRL kick goals, but is it 'game over' for female leaders in sport?
This article, written by Johanna Adriaanse, appears on theconversation.com and discusses how the recent appointments of Moya Dodd to FIFA's Executive Committee and Raelene Castle as CEO of NRL club Canterbury Bulldogs mark significant milestones for women's presence in sport leadership, but questions why there is a need to justify a woman's appointment in such an explicit way and to reassure the public that the best person was chosen?
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Women in Sport - The State of Play 2013
These figures, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, show the latest data on female participation and involvement in sport in Australia.
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Is Women Playing in Men's Leagues a step forward?
This article, by Sam Squiers discusses 22 year old American basketball sensation Brittney Griner and the larger debate about whether adding females to male competitions can be beneficial or detrimental to women's sports
It appeared on The Daily Life website on 3 May, 2013
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Sport for Development Programs for Girls and Women: A Global Assessment
Using a framework of sport for development (SFD) theory and program objectives set forth by the UN, this study identified trends in sport for SFD programs for girls and women.
The number of SFD programs, objectives, and intended impacts identified in this study suggests that the abundance of policies supporting sport and women's development is a step forward in the quest for global gender equity and the achievement of various Millennium Development Goals.
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Study Advises New Ways to Attract Club Members
'Australia's sporting clubs have the potential to recruit an additional 3.8 million members if they consider new ways of delivering sport to Australians who want to get involved in club-based sport according to a new report released today.'
This was one of the findings of a new report, 'Market Segmentation for Sport Participation' which identifies the key motivators, needs and barriers that underpin Australians' decisions to participate in sport.
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Gender equity gap still exists in Olympic leadership opportunities
This article, which appears on Phys.org uses research by the University of Michigan to show that 'despite attempts to support the inclusion of greater numbers of women on the international sporting scene, few women hold leadership roles in the international and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic organizations.'
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Teaching girls to prioritise function over form for better body image
This article by Bree Abbott, of Murdoch University, first appeared on theconversation.edu.au on 15 February 2013. It discusses how "we need to shift the focus from appearance to function and teach girls to value more than just looks."
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What next for cycling? Gender diversity will help return integrity to sport
Anti-doping consultant Catherine Ordway wrote for www.womensagenda.com on 23 October 2012 about the fallout from the Lance Armstrong doping scandal and questions 'Where to now for the Sport?'
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"Sport in Transition" paper supports the rights of transgender and intersex athletes
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) has released a report entitled, "Sport in Transition: Making Sport in Canada More Responsible for Gender Inclusivity." The document concludes that, because variations in sex development exist, individuals should have the right to compete without question in the gender they feel they are or have always identified with, and emphasizes that this right to gender self-identification carries both the privilege of inclusion and the responsibility for fair play.
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Real success drives women's coverage
Richard Hinds writes about how the media and society is often 'accused of treating women, and women's sport, with less regard than their male counterparts', and claims that 'the media could do more to prominently display the achievements of women athletes. But so, too, could those paid to administer women's sport manage their athletes better'. The article first appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 October, 2012.
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Bonita Mersiades calls for more women in sport leadership roles
This article by Ray Gatt appeared in the Australian on 9 October, 2012, and discusses how 'one of Australia's most respected sporting administrators says federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is a "pussycat" compared with the men who run world football.' and how she believes that 'governments need to ensure qualified women have a bigger role to play at the top end of sports administration.'
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Gender inequality of Olympic proportions
Amy Bainbridge writes about how women were not allowed to compete in the first ever Olympics back in 1896 in this article. It appeared on ABC's The Drum website on 26 July, 2012
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Ladies first: Why 2012 is the Women's Games
This article by Emily Dugan appeared in The Independent on 8th July 2012. It details how London 2012 will be the first Olympics to which every nation sends a female competitor and which women are not barred from any sport
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Channel Nine grabs gold in the testosterone Olympics
Peter Bannan writes, in this article which first appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 15th June, 2012, about the heavy bias of Channel Nine's Olympic presenting team towards males, and provides several suitable alternatives.
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Olympics' Coverage Still Shortchanges Female Athletes
This article by Jane Schonberger appears in the On The Issues Magazine for Spring 2012 discusses the issues with the lack of gender equality in Olympic Games Coverage
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Lingerie Football League good or evil ... or somewhere in between - by Narelle Gosstray
Last year when it was announced that a Lingerie Football League was coming to Australia, the Board of the Australian Womensport and Recreation Association (AWRA) gave the issue some serious thought and presented our position on it.
To be honest we hoped that it would be a fly by night affair, and although there is a lot of promotion surrounding the impending tour to Australia, we still think and hope that it will run its natural course and fade out as quickly as it seems to have arrived. Of course there will be debate about the league. The promoters want that. By their calculations the more we talk about it, the more tickets they will sell. So one of the considerations by AWRA was, do we stay quiet on this, or do we announce our position?
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Let's get political - new women's uniforms aim to cut 'perve factor'
Samatha Lane discusses in this article, which appeared in The Age on 29 March, 2012, how "as they fight for more exposure, female Olympians worldwide will be more covered up at this year's London games."
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No Women Allowed
This article was written by Matthew Syed and appeared in The Australian on 17 March, 2012. It discusses how "Saudi Arabia, a nation that will be welcomed to London 2012 in July, has never allowed a woman to compete under its flag at the Olympic Games and does not even allow girls to take part in PE at state schools."
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World leader Tseng sets sights on more power
This article written by Martin Blake appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on 8 February, 2012. Martin discusses how despite being the world number 1 female golfer and having a stellar 2011 in which she won 12 titles, Yani Tseng is still struggling for recognition in the world of golf.
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Elmir eyeing London in women's boxing
This article written by David Beniuk appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on 3 February, 20120. It interviews Australian Olympic boxing hopeful Bianca Elimer, who also works as an advisor for a Greens Politician, and discusses the problems with the different weight divisions in Olympic Womens Boxing and how the large difference between weight divisions means that many competitors have been shedding unhealthy amounts of weight to fit into certain classes.
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Sport's gender divide: officials must start a gut-busting run
This article by Kimberley Crowe, which appeared in The Age on 8 January, 2012, discusses how 'Women's sport is not an inferior product, and better leadership would improve its profile.'
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Sport makes fist of Gender Split
This article written by John Ross appeared in The Australian on 5 January, 2012. It discusses how 'Sportsmen are more prone to alcohol-fuelled violence, both as perpetrators and victims, than non-sportsmen. But female athletes are both safer and more civilised than less active women, an Australian-first study suggests'
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Woman rider lets fly at top official
Chloe Hosking, one of Australia's top women cyclists, used the occasion of her season-opening win to brand the head of the sports governing body ''a dick''.
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The greatest coup of all for women's golf
"As Australian golf continues to wage wars against crowded international schedules, finally a telling punch has been landed... LPGA will co-sanction our national championship at Royal Melbourne in February next year" wrote Mark Hayes for the Herald Sun on 28 October, 2011.
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Playing it straight
This article was written by Nicole Brady and appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on 23 October, 2011. It deals with the reality of Homophobia in sport, and discusses the public coming out of hockey player Gus Johnston and the reasons he chose to do so. It also questions why, despite it no longer being viewed at as a 'career ending move' in most industries, sport is the 'last bastion of public life in Australia in which same-sex attraction is kept under wraps.'
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Concussions Among United States High School and Collegiate Athletes
This research article from the Journal of Athletic Training aims 'To investigate the epidemiology of concussions in a nationally representative sample of high school athletes and to compare rates of concussion among high school and collegiate athletes.'
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That's the fairway - ladies stirring the tee plot
This article from the Daily Telegraph on September 10 discusses how a SYDNEY golf club has been found guilty of sexual discrimination and ordered to change its tee times for female members in a court decision that could impact on every club in the state.
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Playing the (wo)man: why women's sport is still all about sex appeal
Andrew Hughes writes about the marketing of women's sport in Australia in 2011, and asks 'should Australian women focus on sex appeal to market the themselves...or is it or is it time to really start developing women's sport in this country where the focus is on the sport and not the athlete? The article was published on theconversation.edu.au on 21 July, 2011.
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Excellence in women's sport swallowed by the mediocre in men's endeavours
This article deals with the imbalance between male and females sports reporting in the Australian media. It was written by Patrick Smith and first appeared in The Australian on 12 July, 2011.
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Fighting Back
This article by Sandra Sully appeared in The Sunday Telegraph on May 15, 2011. It discusses how "female sport and male sport receive starkly disproportionate amounts of coverage...despite the ongoing success and strong participation levels of women in sport."
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