Stuff Digital Edition

Language matters for equality in sport

Andrew Voerman andrew.voerman@stuff.co.nz

Little details matter when it comes to making sport more equal and inclusive. Including the choice of words. When the All Whites played The Gambia earlier this month, a series of ads appeared in the corner of the Sky Sport broadcast.

One of them was for a match between the Wellington Phoenix and Macarthur FC.

The next was for a match between the Wellington Phoenix women and Western Sydney Wanderers women. Spot the problem? It made it look like there was a main Phoenix team and an additional Phoenix team for women that needed an extra modifier on the end.

That obviously isn’t the case – there are two Phoenix teams, each as important as the other – and there were two possible solutions.

One would have been to add men onto the end of the team names in the first listing.

The other would have been to drop women from the end of the team names in the second listing and increase the prominence of the competition names – A-League Men and A-League Women.

In its listings, Sky Sport has gone with the second option, so hopefully there won’t be any repeats.

It was far from alone in this regard, as Australian Professional Leagues, the outfit that runs the A-Leagues, has had more than its fair share of teething problems.

In September, it announced the A-League men’s competition and the W-League women’s competition were no more.

Going forward, there would be A-League Men and A-League Women, collectively known as the A-Leagues.

My initial reaction was that it was a mistake to drop the W-League brand which had been built up over the years to become a prominent part of the local sporting landscape.

But after giving it some thought, it seemed bold.

Previously, there was the A-League, or the A(ustralian)-League, and the W-League, or the W(omen’s)-League. Like with the Sky Sport example, men were the default option.

Now there are two A(ustralian)Leagues, one for men and one for women.

The problem is APL hasn’t quite stuck the landing.

Soon afterwards, it unveiled a naming rights sponsor for A-League men and dropped the gender modifier, making it the Isuzu Ute A-League. A sponsor for A-League Women, which starts Friday, is said to be coming, but until there is one, it looks quite jarring to have gender emphasised out in one but not the other.

As recently as last week, the online fixtures for the two competitions had the men’s name shortened to ALG and the women’s to ALW. This was changed within 24 hours of it being pointed out on social media, but it’s frustrating that it happened in the first place.

Zoom out and there are endless examples.

Why, in 2021, is there a Fifa World Cup and a Fifa Women’s World Cup? Why is there the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour? The Big Bash League and the Women’s Big Bash League?

New Zealand Cricket’s Super Smash is an example of a competition that has got things right. If gender modifiers are used at all, they’re used equally.

Further afield, there’s World Rugby, which decided in 2019 that its pinnacle men’s and women’s events would both be known as the Rugby World Cup.

But if it had decided to call them the Men’s Rugby World Cup and the Women’s Rugby World Cup, it would have been just as good. Many do so anyway, to avoid confusion.

What matters most is not making men the default.

Making up for the years of neglect women’s sport has generally faced won’t happen overnight, but getting the language right should be easy.

My initial reaction was that it was a mistake to drop the W-League brand.

SPORT

en-nz

2021-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://stuff.pressreader.com/article/281925956286133

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