Equality for women in sport: it’s time to shut up about it
I’m tired of all the talk
It’s time we stopped going on and on about equality and levelling the playing field and just got on with the job.
The South Australian Government announced this week that women riding in the Tour Down Under will now be competing for the same amount of prize money as the men. That’s an increase of the prize pool from $15,000 to $100,000 for the 2019 race.
But that’s not all, even though the Government didn’t yet have approval from the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale — the world governing body for cycling), to increase the money for this year, they put the cash aside anyway. That approval came though after the race was run and this year’s winner, Australian cyclist Amanda Spratt, will receive some extra cash to make up the difference.
Can we just let it sink in for a moment that APPROVAL for equal pay needed to be given. Race organisers couldn’t just go ahead and provide equal prize money because it’s the right thing to do. How messed up is that?
I wrote to the UCI in November to get the stamp of approval from the UCI and then David (Lappartient) said lets talk about it when we are down. So the first thing we did when he landed was said ‘can we do this?’ and he said ‘sure, absolutely, great idea’.
Look, I know this is a positive story and I am basically nit-picking here but honestly, can’t we all just get blanket approval for anyone, in any sport, who wants to pay the women more?
Why do we need to keep having these conversations about equality? Just make it happen.
So, thank you to the South Australian Government for getting on with the job. Kudos. Let’s see more cycling events and more sports in general following their lead. More from Leon Bignel,
This is 2018 and we should be doing the right thing by women and if we set this example in cycling we hope it spreads to other sports.
