Publication Design by Caitlin McNamara

WOMEN IN SPORT

Written by Michele Willson, M. Tye, S. Gorman, K. Ely-Harper, R. Creagh, T. Leaver, M. Magladry & O. Efthimiou

Women in Sport

DDD30013 Publication Design Caitlin McNamara 100581178 Swinburne University of Technology School of Design Published and Printed in Melbourne, Australia for the School of Design 2017 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from Swinburne University of Technology. Declaration of Originality Unless specifically referenced in the bibliography, the mark and all other material in this book is the original creation of the author. While very effort has been made to ensure the accuracy, the publisher does not under any circumstance accept any responsibility for error or omission. Copyright Agreement I agree for Swinburne University to use my project in this book for non commercial purposes, including: promoting the activities of the university or students: internal educational or administrative purposes: entry into appropriate awards, competitions and other related non commercial activities to show my work in lectures and as an example for future students online and face to face and in lectures. In some situations, this may involve re-purposing the work to meet the requirement of Swinburneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s use. I agree to grant to Swinburne exclusive worldwide, non commercial, irrevocable and free of fee license to use this project produced in DDD30013 in any way for non-commercial purposes. Signed Date

Women in Sport

FRAMING THE WOMENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S AFL contested spaces and emerging narratives

of hope and opportunity for women in sport

Written by Michele Willson, M. Tye, S. Gorman, K. Ely-Harper, R. Creagh, T. Leaver, M. Magladry & O. Efthimiou Designed by Caitlin McNamara

CONTENTS

Women in Sport

Preface

Introduction

The AFL and AFLW : An introduction

Sport sites as a contested space

Distributive justice

Recognition

32 36 42 50

Encounter and interactional justice

Procedural justice

Procedural justice and recognition : Legal and institutional reform

Sport-spaces in popular culture : Recognition and interactional justice

34 40 46 56

Care and repair

Central sites of contestation : Media, legal and popular cultural spaces

Recognition, interactional and distributive justice in the media

Conclusion : Sites of contestation and narratives of hope

Women in Sport

preface

This article explores historical, contemporary and emerging sites of contestation within sports, with a particular focus on womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Australian Rules football in Australia. Sport played out on the field, in the media, popular culture, governance and legal arenas are positioned in this article as contested public spaces. The increasing presence of women in these spaces is seen as a shift towards a more socially just sporting space. With an emphasis on the contemporary sporting landscape and the historical commencement of the national womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Australian Football League Women (AFLW) competition in February 2017, the evolution of this sport as a contested space can be understood as it relates to narratives of hope and opportunity for women. With overwhelming public feeling that the first AFLW season was a success, it is time to pause and consider what this development means for elite womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sport, and women in contemporary Australian society more broadly.

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INTRO DUCTION 14

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Women’s sporting achievements and growing female sports participation remain under-recognized and under-reported despite significant strides made since the late twentieth century. Little research to date has specifically explored the cultural representation of women footballers in an Australian context (Hindley 2008; Caple, Greenwood, and Lumby 2011; Downes, Syson, and Hay 2015) or its everyday contexts and lived experiences (Bloch 1987). Despite a strong sporting tradition amongst women in Australia, professional female participation in male dominated sports such as Australian Rules football (hereon referred to simply as football) was almost unthinkable in the mid to late 1900s (King 1979). However, this situation has radically shifted since that time with the commencement of the first Australian Football League Women (AFLW) season in 2017: the highest profile sport in Australia has now become a professional sport option for women alongside other elite team sports such as cricket, basketball, and netball.

This significant event in Australian sport is anticipated to have cultural, social, and economic impacts for sport generally, and for women’s participation and leadership in and through Australian sport specifically. At this point in the introduction, we pause to provide context for what will follow and, in particular, the approach for this paper. With the June 2016 announcement of the first AFLW teams, a group of researchers, from diverse disciplines within the Faculty of Humanities of an Australian university, came together to discuss opportunities that this seminal moment in Australian sport might present for research. More specifically, by taking a definitive moment in time, to see what might be learned about Australian culture and society from that moment on, if viewed through an AFLW lens. As with all such multi-discipline collaborations, a common language and framework needed establishing for all players to share both individual and collective understandings. To this purpose, the notion of ‘contested spaces,’ drawing on the work of Low and Iveson (2016), was considered an appropriate starting ground for exploration. What follows is the result of that exploration.

Women in Sport

In this paper, we therefore draw on Low and Iveson’s (2016) work on socially just public spaces, purposefully expanding their use of the term public space into the non-physical ‘fields’ of the national sport of Australian Football League (AFL and AFLW), as a useful conceptual heuristic by which to interrogate a raft of attitudes, discourses, and practices. In pursing this course we do not make a hard-line differentiation between spaces that are either public or private. Instead, following the idea of public spaces as socially constructed, we recognize the presence of private meanings and experiences within public settings, and the incursion of public discourse within private settings. For this paper, we define public spaces as arenas or sites which are more broadly visible in the community. Sporting fields, like all urban spaces, embody ‘a physical space where debates, negotiations, conflicts and power struggles within a society are played out’ (Lopez 2014, 1). This article will explore some of these ‘sites of contestation’ in the AFLW today. After providing a brief overview of the AFL and AFLW, we explore how participants in women’s football (the precursor to AFLW) were treated historically, how women in Australian (and international) sport have been characterized or represented publically and what, if anything, has changed. This sets the scope, tone, and contention for the article. We then introduce Low and Iveson’s (2016) framework for socially just public space to interrogate major sites that reveal the cultural discourse of female sporting participation as contested space, by critically analysing traditional and social media, legal initiatives, and popular culture representation. In doing so, we will argue that the development and evolution of AFLW is producing a shift in cultural storytelling, or the emergence of ‘narratives of hope’ alongside sites of contestation in the female sporting imagination in the AFL and in broader Australian culture.

Women in Sport

THE AFL & AFLW AN INTRODUCTION

Australian history officially records that the first recognized football match was played between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar in 1858 on a Richmond paddock, adjacent to where the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground is currently located. The league has grown over time from a relatively small base of mostly Victorian teams to now comprise a more nationally representative cohort of 18 teams: nine based in the city of Melbourne, one from regional Victoria, and eight based around other Australian states. Despite this (still uneven) national distribution of teams and Australia being known for its strengths in many other international team sport codes, the AFL is considered the pre-eminent professional sporting competition in Australia.

Since 1995 in Australia, the AFL has been at the vanguard of institutional change designed to eliminate racism and prejudice, in all of its forms, from its code through Rule 35. Rule 35 was the precursory rule that dealt with racial and religious vilification that has led to other anti-vilification rules that the AFL now has in place, covering colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, special ability/disability or sexual orientation, preference or identity. Rule 35 thus provides the legal framework that assists in the regulation of racial, ethnic, and community harmony in the AFL at the elite level and to a lesser extent, second tier and amateur competitions.

Women in Sport

This framework enables the players, coaches, administrators, members, fans, and spectators to understand the impact of prejudices (even casual forms) in the community more holistically. Specifically, it enables the AFL to refine its professional development and support processes and to lead the way on such issues. It could be argued that the introduction of Rule 35 in 1995 set the tone and the platform for other developments to occur due to its scope and purpose. It could therefore also be suggested that this rule has prompted conversations at executive levels within the AFL’s administration and informed the development of many social justice matters in the AFL more broadly: By extension Rule 35 has paved the way for the planning and implementation of the AFL’s. Women playing football is not a new phenomenon. Wedgwood (2005) notes a women’s game was played in 1895 and reported in the West Australian newspaper, while Hess writes that the first documented women’s football match took place during the First World War in 1915 in Perth, Western Australia (Hess 2011, 1393).

Rule

35 35

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According to Hess, ‘the history of women’s football in Australia can be characterised as fragmentary and discontinuous in nature’ whereby, Teams are formed, games are played, only for the groups of participants to soon dissolve, sometimes after a single match or a season or two, with the games and the players lost to memory until years later when completely different groups of women, often ignorant about the previous manifestations of the game, become enthused about the code and the same cycle begins again. (Hess 2011, 1392) Auskick, a grassroots initiative for male and female young players started 21 years ago, and it is credited as one of the primary reasons for the current success of women in the AFL (Robinson 2016). The Auskick initiative, allowing girls to play in mixed competition, created the first public display of female footballers. However, as will be discussed later in this paper, there were a raft of barriers to ongoing participation and career development in place (legal, social, policy) and, therefore, it was only a matter of time before girls were arguing their case to be allowed to continue competing at youth and adult levels. A 2010 report commissioned by the AFL into the state of the women’s game recommended the establishment of a national professional women’s competition. Originally set to commence in 2020, the commencement date was brought forward to 2017. According to Squiers (2017, 4), Each year since the AFL announced plans for the competition, the game has experienced strong growth in participation numbers of female players at a grass roots level.

In the past decade female participation has grown a whopping 790%. In 2016, females accounted for 27% of all AFL participants, in 2014 it was 19%. Last year alone [2016] saw a 21% increase in the number of girls involved in the Auskick program and this is all before the first ball had been bounced in the AFLW. In its first season in 2017, the AFLW surpassed all expectations with spectator demand often exceeding stadium capacity resulting in many spectators being turned away. There was also extensive media coverage. However, a number of concessions were made in order to bring the AFWL into being: for example, AFLW played a very short season in the heat of summer, players were contracted for fewer contact hours, and received little remuneration comparative to their male counterparts meaning they had to juggle jobs and training. These concessions are under ongoing discussion and negotiation. The outcome will be one measure of how successful the AFLW is in terms of evaluating the importance placed on women’s sport and in producing a more socially just public space of football.

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T R O P E R T R O P S AFL

AFLW

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SPORT SITES AS CONTESTED SPACES Negotiations currently being undertaken by, and on behalf of the AFLW, are part of a long history of contestation: women have had to fight in the courts, in the media, and at the dinner table for their right to participate and to compete equally in traditionally male dominated sectors. Professional sports are no different. Existing bodies of work catalogue how women’s sport historically was situated as seemingly inferior to the men’s sporting equivalents and hence received minimal representation or coverage in the media, in policy discussions and more broadly in popular culture narratives. A recent report by Accenture (2017, 3) notes that, in 2013, women’s sport globally received ‘only seven percent of sport media coverage and less than one half of the total value of commercial sponsorships.’ Australian women’s sport was not excluded from this imbalance and there has been considerable struggle to address this as a result. In an Australian context, the struggle for recognition, inclusion, and respect has been captured in descriptions of the sexual politics in women’s football, both Rugby and Australian Rules football, as far back as the 1900s (Brown 1995; Downes, Syson, and Hay 2015), including consideration of issues around the integration of other minorities such as Muslim and Indigenous Australian women. These struggles have led to the discussion of sport as a site of contestation which perpetuate women’s (in) visibility across many societies and cultures. In Australia, this notion of contested space has been extended to capture the long history of exclusion of Indigenous men and women from the sporting field (Tatz and Tatz 2000; Gorman 2011; Maynard 2012).

Given that contestation is based on the premise of improving social justice for marginalised groups, it is relevant to introduce Low and Iverson’s (2016) framework for socially just public space to interrogate major sites that reveal the cultural discourse of female sporting participation as contested space. In this paper, we apply this framework through critically analysing discourses and practices within legal initiatives, traditional and social media, and popular culture representations of women and football. In doing so we question whether the evolution of women’s AFL in Australia represents a transformation of sites of contestation and resistance into sites of hope and real opportunity for women in sport, and by extension, more generally in society. Sport happens within and is part of our social-space. This social-space is one composed in the production and use of material space, the representations or abstractions of space, and the lived experiences of those who inhabit and contest space (Lefebvre 1991). Contestation of and in public spaces was highly visible, for example, in the occupy movement (Davidson and Iveson 2014) where the ‘right to city:’ was politically contested through the physical occupation of public spaces.

Women in Sport

Women’s contestation of the public realm through events such as ‘Slut Walk’ and ‘Reclaim the Night’ are also significant examples. Contestation of the public sphere, however, is not limited to physical presence in city streets, squares (and football fields) but includes the realm of the media, popular culture, legal, and institutional regulation and practices. Social justice is important for sport-space: ‘If public spaces are not socially just in a number of ways, an unjust politics of exclusion, rather than inclusion will continue through the current regime of urban civility’ (Low and Iveson 2016, 27). Social spaces, such as city streets and sports grounds have a long history as sites of discrimination and contestation for women. Continuing contestations over women’s dress, behaviour, presence/exclusion from ‘dangerous’ places, equitable access (when accompanied by children or in other caring roles, equitable access to public toilets etc.) In the public spaces of cities continue into the sports arena. However, echoing narratives of women’s experience in the city (Wilson 1991), women’s lived experience of participating in sport is not one of passive exclusion.

The history of female sporting participation also includes examples of mobilization, agency, and power. Osborne and Skillen (2010, 191) state that ‘sport historically, as now, can be understood as a site of contestation, one successfully mobilized by sporting women.’ Contested sites serve as a focal point for the critical evaluation of a just society. Low and Iveson (2016) bring together their own and other’s work on justice and cities to propose an evaluative framework of five propositions for socially just public spaces. These five propositions are: distributive justice; recognition; encounter and interactional justice; care and repair; and, procedural justice. We wish to employ these principles as a useful conceptual heuristic for discussing the ways in which sport and society have positioned and are positioning women and sport in terms of inclusivity, recognition, and equity. In order to do so, first these propositions require further explanation (with brief examples drawn from the AFLW to illustrate). These propositions will be applied subsequently to the ‘sport-spaces’ in law, media and popular culture.

Women in Sport

DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE ‘Distributive justice refers to questions of how the wealth, rewards, benefits and burdens of urban life should be distributed to achieve a just city’ (Low and Iveson 2016, 16). For example, it requires asking questions about the ways resources are systemically distributed and whether these are equitable or produce inequities.

Low and Iveson (2016) highlight two key aspects of distributive justice that essentially concern access to space: geographical distribution, and affordability. Places for participation in sport and spectatorship share the value of access for all with other public institutions like parks, libraries, and hospitals, and like these same spaces may also in actuality be more or less accessible depending on an individual’s advantage or disadvantage. The creation of the AFLW increases access to the professional AFL sporting and cultural sphere for women. However, there remain systemic issues regarding just distribution of wealth, rewards, benefits, and burdens of participation in this sport with, for example, the women being currently only offered part-time employment and therefore paid substantially less than their male counterparts as a result (Niall 2017).

Women in Sport

This lower level of pay, exacerbated by possible player relocation to interstate teams, will result in a narrowing of opportunities for less financially secure female players, female players with children, and potentially other groups of female players (such as carers). There may also be legacy effects to participation including postponement of study, temporary withdrawal from career, injury and rehabilitation that are relatively easier to compensate for as a well-paid male footballer. This not only invokes the proposition of care, but also the proposition of distributive justice within the category of women players that is, the AFLW may become a competition for rich and middle-class players. This is a crucial area of social justice for females in the AFLW.

RECO GNI TION

Women in Sport

‘Alongside redistribution, recognition seeks to address the systemic devaluing and stigmatization of some urban identities and ways of life’ (Low and Iveson 2016, 18). Low and Iveson (2016, 18) identify that it is not enough to just let everyone be themselves in public, but that special support should go to ‘those claims for recognition that seek to address institutionalized patterns of cultural value which give a particular group a subordinate status in relation to others.’ Historically, girls and women have been ideologically positioned and regulated as ‘out of place’ in the AFL with few development pathways or competition options being offered comparative to the men (Lenkic and Hess 2016). This has been an issue of significant contestation and plays some part in the recent successful establishment of the AFLW.

Women in Sport

encounter and interactional justice â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The concept of interactional justice is about the quality of interpersonal interaction in a specific situation or placeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Low and Iveson 2016, 18). Truthfulness, respect, propriety and justification are attributes of interactional fairness and encounter. Looking at media engagement with the AFLW season enables a focus on the nature of encounters between individuals and members of groups within this contested space and how respectful, truthful, and justificatory these encounters may be. While more detailed accounts of this will form the topic of a later paper, the coverage of the present AFLW has largely been very positive though not uniformly so and empowering.

Women in Sport

truthfulness respect propriety justification

CARE AND REPAIR

Women in Sport

Care and repair, as applied to the health and wellbeing of the individual, and the particular context of injury and rehabilitation, is positioned within this paper’s observations related to distributive justice. Care for people and places however, ‘speaks to and represents a tolerance for others that provides the groundwork for a socially just place’ (Low and Iveson 2016, 20). The challenge for the AFLW in this context is twofold, both in addressing the extra support and resourcing that players with caring roles may need in order to have equitable access to the sport, and in the larger context the ‘resourcing and supporting of carers who can enable everyone’s access to public space’ (Low and Iveson 2016, 20) to ensure equitable access to AFLW games as spectator or fan. How care is organised in a society impacts access to public spaces. In Australia currently, women take the bulk of caring roles both for children and other dependents pointing to the extra support that women players are likely to need when filling multiple demanding roles. The AFL has arguably been increasing care for others by championing issues such as multiculturalism, and cancer awareness. If we consider the scope of AFLW from children’s sport to the professional league there are many opportunities to contribute to the repair of physical and virtual community facilities, and to care for social bonds formed within player and spectator communities.

Women in Sport

JUSTICE

PROCEDURAL “A concern with procedural justice focuses our attention on the ways in which decisions about public spaces are made to what extent are public spaces themselves the object of genuinely democratic and inclusive public debate in the wider urban public sphere, and to what extent are such debates captured by powerful interest or constrained by existing societal structures.”(Low and Iveson 2016, 21)

The exclusion of women in leadership positions in sports organizations has been a concern since 1990 and continues to be highlighted by authors. In the case of AFLW, if women/stakeholders feel ‘locked out’ of decision-making that goes on behind closed doors then the process, and space of AFLW will not be perceived as just. To date, most of the organisation and coaching of the AFLW has been undertaken by men indicating a need for further procedural justice initiatives in this space.

Women in Sport

CENTRAL SITES OF CONSTESTION media, legal and popular cultural spaces

This paper now turns to examine in more detail, three sport-spaces outside the playing-field: legal; media and, popular culture spaces. These are central sites of contestation, both traditional and emerging, which inform the everyday experiences of women in sport. This list is certainly not exhaustive as we recognize the multitude of spaces in which women as athletes interconnect and engage on an ongoing basis. These areas have been specifically chosen to offer the reader some insight into the representation and participation of women footballers using the Low and Iveson (2016) framework as a way to address questions of inclusivity, recognition and equity.

Women in Sport

PROCEDURAL JUSTICE AND RECOGNITION legal and institutional reform The exponential growth in female participation in football is in part due to the AFL embracing social and cultural change both at a grassroots and elite level. Significant to this change was the amendment of the leagues’ ‘The Female Participation Regulation,’ excluding girls aged 12 and over from playing in mixed junior competition. In practice the policy was a female exclusion rule.

In 2003 three teenage girls (Helen Taylor, Emily Stanyer, Penny Culla-Reid) who had been banned from playing in their junior teams challenged the Regulation before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) arguing it was contrary to the Equal Opportunity Act 1995 (Victoria). Taylor & Ors v Moorabbin Saints Football League & Football Victoria (‘Taylor’) would test whether the exemption under the Act enabling sporting organizations to exclude participants when ‘the strength, stamina or physique of competitors is relevant’ could be applied to all girls over the age of 12 (Bradford 2004, 5). In this landmark case Justice Stuart Morris ruled that there was not enough scientific evidence to suggest that ‘the strength, stamina and physique’ of girls and boys differs enough to discriminate under 13s and 14s girls competing with boys (VCAT 158 2004). But he upheld there were ‘sufficiently significantly’ differences from the age of 14, and therefore 14 and 15-year-old girls could be lawfully excluded. Justice Morris did not endorse the exclusion of girls from under 15s football but recommended the decision be ‘left to the girls themselves’ and for the football associations to consider ‘self-selection,’ concluding whilst it was lawful to exclude girls from under 15 and 16 competitions, it was ‘equally lawful…to allow them to play.’ The case received a lot of media attention generating fierce community debate on the physiological differences between boys and girls, equal rights and gender (Ely-Harper 2012).

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In response to the verdict and adverse publicity, the AFL replaced the former Female Regulation rule with its Gender Regulation Policy (Section 4), upholding their right to exclude females over of the age of 14 in non-female competition. Despite the ruling going against the two older plaintiffs (Emily Stanyer and Penny Culla-Reid, both 15), former barrister (now Judge) Felicity Hampel who represented the girls noted the significance of recognizing human rights played in the judgement: Treating people as individuals and granting them the right to participate in the area they want to participate, based on their merits rather than based on assumptions about what people can and can’t do, what female footballers can and can’t do. (Ely-Harper 2012) Concerning procedural justice, Australian Anti-discrimination law still lags behind and there is certainly further work to be done in bringing more nuanced legislative changes to reflect scientific evidence and changing community attitudes on female participation and sport. Previous AFL Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Demetriou, has publicly stated his desire to see Australia become a ‘compassionate, welcoming and generous nation’ and, under his stewardship, the AFL has played an active role in promoting harmony and diversity within the code (Demetriou, 9 December 2005). Taylor highlighted the lack of development and participation opportunities for females over the age of 12 and the AFL seeking to redress this gap created an under 17s Youth Girls Competition. The female participation rate in Victoria since that change has increased from 6500 registered women and girl players in 2004 to currently over 9000. Within this social and historical context of the struggle for recognition and procedural justice the AFLW league can be further understood and appreciated.

Women in Sport

diversity harmony

harmony diversity

HARMONY

DIVERSITY

Women in Sport

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RECOGNITION, INTERACTIONAL AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE IN THE MEDIA Critical theory and gender discourse have produced an extensive body of work offering much needed insights into the impact of culture and media on female sports participation, and the complex factors that determine the way sports women are imagined in the media and popular culture more broadly. Feminist perspectives on the ‘sexy versus strong’ dichotomy (Daniels 2012) and the objectification and sexualization of sportswomen in both their visual representation and sports commentary continue to dominate the discussion. Emerging perspectives, however, are beginning to challenge dominant interpretations and traditional binaries (Bruce 2016), with some even arguing for the need to generate new language modes which transcend conventional gender roles and discourse (Wachs 2006). In addition, qualitative explorations of intersecting subjectivities, such as sexuality, race, and minority groups, are providing invaluable emerging sites of investigation around the complexities of cultured identities and identity construction for professional sports women as it intersects and relates to such things as role-modelling, leadership, community engagement, cultural heritage, sports management practices, and social inclusion research. These new interpretative frameworks bring to light previously little discussed aspects of interactional justice within women’s sport such as ‘microaggressions’ where social actions and comments, for example, ‘you throw like a girl,’ undermine, marginalize, and diminish women’s sporting prowess and ability through the implicit negative assumptions embedded (Hall and Oglesby 2016; Kaskan and Ho 2016).

Examples of microaggression practices and of marginal representation are prolific in the media and have similarly become subject to increasing critique. A recent example of this occurred when the Outer Sanctum podcast, hosted by six die-hard Hawthorn supporters (all women) drew attention to Collingwood President and AFL commentator Eddie McGuire’s inappropriate on-air jokes about drowning sports journalist Caroline Wilson. This was further compounded by it being in the week of the White Ribbon match that raised awareness of domestic violence and violence against women. In the aftermath of this faux pas McGuire’s behaviour was widely criticized in the press and he was forced to apologize (Perkins 2016). There has also been considerable academic focus on the disproportionate and unequal media coverage of men’s sport when contrasted with women’s sports coverage. For example, Rowe (2016, 31) notes the ‘substantial over-representation of men’s sport on the anti-siphoning list’ in Australian television coverage this is a list that ensures that free-to-air broadcasting is guaranteed for those on the list, i.e. the sport or certain key events cannot be offered solely on paid media channels. Less coverage or coverage in less visible timeslots impacts on the ability of female players and sporting bodies to secure lucrative sponsorship deals. Such unequal distribution also translates into everyday understandings of what is important, and valued: where men are the play makers and provide the centralized dramatic action, and women are on the periphery as ‘trainers’ and water ‘girls’ or relegated to the status of light entertainment such as cheerleaders.

Women in Sport

The less regulated sites of social media open up additional avenues for critical analysis by a range of commentators on sport, player representation, and game coverage as they transcend the structural challenges old media has placed on women’s sport (Vann 2014). However, these avenues do not automatically result in more equitable media coverage, representation or interaction: there are numerous examples where the online space offers a platform to amplify existing social prejudices and practices in ways that are detrimental to women, their representation and their participation. Kian et al. (2011, 680) argue that ‘the anonymity of the Internet permits hegemonic masculinity to flourish in specific locations, without contestation.’ Hegemonic masculinity is certainly visible in some online spaces, particularly those spaces which involve the perceived intrusion of non-normative identities into masculine space. Sport is often ‘conceptualized as a male preserve – in which women as athletes and as fans often remain invisible’ (Antunovic and Hardin 2015, 661). Creedon (2014, 715) writes that ‘the coverage of women’s sports remains insultingly trivial,’ because ‘the values used to cover and construct representation of women athletes and women’s sports have not changed.’ More positively, social media has opened up spaces for other voices and other forms of representation by providing an alternative platform where women’s sport may be represented more widely, and in ways that resist dominant patriarchal frameworks in the media and in society more broadly (Olive 2015). Antunovic and Hardin (2015) propose that sports blogs present an opportunity for women to negotiate the masculinized ideals of sport. In their analysis of female bloggers for sport fandoms, the blogs are framed as sites of feminist contestation, where women can assert their participation in both the spectatorship of men’s sport, and advocacy for women’s sport. Could it be that it is in these user generated platforms that we see an ethics of care and repair toward the development and continuation of AFLW spaces, fans and players?

Self-representation is a crucial form of engagement with dominant ideologies, especially in media where hegemonic identities are permitted to flourish. ‘Self-representation,’ as defined by Dobson (2015, 4), refers to the conscious, intentional performance of the self, as opposed to ‘everyday’ self-expression as defined by Goffman (1959, 2). For female athletes, the immediacy of social media and the potential for selfrepresentation also provide a way to critically negotiate the gender expectations applied to them on a personal level through interactions with fans. Additionally, the immediacy of social media facilitates the creation of a personal brand, where athletes can communicate with their fans and followers in a conversational, casual way (Hutchins and Rowe 2012). This allows athletes to ‘package themselves for fans’ without fear of being misrepresented or misquoted, and provides fans with a sense of the athlete as a relatable, ‘real’ person (Anthony 2011, 22). Vann (2014) contends that the lack of coverage in traditional media of women’s sport may be somewhat remedied in social media, particularly through sports reporting on Twitter. Furthermore, she argues that the increase in representation of women’s sport on social media may result in an ‘incentive for traditional media outlets to endorse and promote these sports’ (Vann 2014, 440). The modes through which female athletes construct their online personas are also worth noting as a potential signifier of changing attitudes towards women’s sport. With more female players and more positive and comprehensive media coverage, it would be expected that these changing perceptions and realities would be evident in popular culture. The section below details shifts evident in these areas also in relation to fiction, non-fiction literature, and film.

Women in Sport

SPORT-SPACES IN POPULAR CULTURE

recognition and interactional justice Despite evidence of women playing Aussie Rules from 1915 (Williams and Hess 2015) and as recently celebrated in a photo exhibition curated by the WA Museum of the first documented women’s team (Bounce Down: Women’s Australian Rules Centenary 2015), women’s footy stories have been either absent or lost to history. Australian Rules narratives in literary fiction and on film have historically focused exclusively on a single male protagonist in satirical larrikin tales or rites of passage drama treatments. Novels A Salute to the Great MacArthy (Oakley 1970), and Deadly, Unna? (Gwynne 1998) and David Williamson’s stage play, The Club were adapted to film (The Great MacArthy 1975; The Club 1980; Australian Rules 2002) enjoying considerable commercial and critical success with Australian audiences. The absence of female protagonists in fiction and non-fiction is no doubt consistent with women and girls overall non-documented participation and limited opportunities (Williams and Hess 2015). The first elite amateur female player to appear on Australian screens was in The Club (2002–2003) a reality TV show featuring Debbie Lee from the Victorian Women’s League competing against male players. Commensurate with increased opportunities and media coverage since 2004 there has been an increase in documentary films featuring female football stories: Girls Kick Balls (Schafter 2008) on the University of Melbourne Women’s team and Even Girls Play Footy (Ely-Harper 2012), which examines the Taylor court case through the personal stories of the three teenage plaintiffs.

Women in Sport

The first female footy player characters in literary fiction appeared in Jan Harper’s children’s book Girls Can do Anything (1975). Three girls tired of sitting on the sidelines decide to put on their footy boots because ‘footy’s for all, not just for boys’ (Harper 1975). Post the Female Regulation rule (discussed in the previous section) there has been a re-emergence of female characters in children’s literature.

The AFL endorsed Cartoon Book Shop series strategically names female characters in the titles (e.g. Stephanie’s Stats Win the Match, Libby Loves Her Legendary Lions, Di’s Demons Do or Die), (Sedunary and Harvey 2005). However, these characters are non-playing supporters contributing enthusiastically off field, from the sidelines.

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PROTAGONISTS Women in Sport

The first female footy player protagonist since 1975 appears in Cheryl Critchley’s novel Still Kicking (2006). Inspired by Taylor and drawing on real life stories of young girls wanting to play AFL, Still Kicking tells the story of Sam ‘who is about to turn 14’ facing the prospect of being ‘forced from the game she loves, just for being a girl’ (Critchley 2006). Female characters playing in mixed competition under threat of exclusion is also a common theme. In Hawthorn football star Cyril Rioli’s children’s book Fox Swift the girl character ‘plays in a helmet to disguise her identity’ (Lawrence and Rioli 2013). Despite having won their legal right to play up to the age of 14 the female AFL player is represented as disrupting perceived social norms of femininity and femaleness. These culturally inscribed fictional representations of female players perpetuate the perception to young readers that girls who play footy are problematic and difficult.

The recent Auskick website page features multiple sets of boy and girl pairs in triptych formation. Traditional pink and blue as gender signifiers have been replaced with the girls dressed in red and boys in black guernseys. The featured pair are both dark skinned and dark haired and the pair behind are blonde and fair skinned. The girl in the foreground is made significantly larger than the boy she is competing with. The girl in the background is in an ‘active’ pose kicking the ball forward whilst the boy holds a more receptive pose of receiving (‘marking’) the ball.

However, these representations are shifting. Re-positioning itself as a trailblazer in female participation, the AFL is strategically placed to make significant commercial and social capital gains through the AFLW competition. This is evident in its branding of the female player at both the elite and junior league levels within an image of AFL player inclusion and cultural diversity.

The Female Football Match Guide cover page presents another triptych image of junior girl players, including a player wearing the hijab, aligning the ideal female image with cultural diversity at grassroots and elite levels. An imposing AFLW star, Daisy Pearce, stands above them all, hands on hips, completing the AFL’s picture of gender inclusion. These ‘new frontier’ images mark the re-emergent female player protagonist made visible now being played out in real life, on our big, small and multiple screens. No longer hidden from history and needing to disguise herself we can expect to see an increase in narrative representations of the female AFL player, offering new sites of contestation and hope as the first generation of AFLW players take to the big stage.

Women in Sport

SOCIAL femininity femininity femininity femininity femininity femininity femininity

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femininity femininity femininity femininity femininity femininity femininity

Women in Sport

CONCLUSION

sites of contestation and narratives of hope

Women in Sport

In this paper we have drawn on Low and Iveson’s (2016) work on socially just public spaces, purposefully expanding their use of the term public space into the non-physical ‘fields’ of the national sport of AFL (and AFLW), as a useful conceptual heuristic by which to interrogate a raft of attitudes, discourses, and practices towards women and sport, with a focus on the AFLW. As sites of resistance and contestation, the various sporting spaces discussed legal, media and cultural point to a critical fact: sporting participation and competition becomes a crucial rite of passage in the development of female players as athletes and as women. In their examination of women rugby players’ experiences in France, Jon cheray and Tlili (2013) find that even though the same rules ‘technically’ apply to both men and women, the journey of women is distinctively different due to the heightened perception of social and physical challenges. But with this unique set of challenges have come opportunities for overcoming adversity, developing essential life skills, and becoming mentally, emotionally, and physically resilient. Indeed, Edwards and Jones (2007, 361) argue that ‘the important point is that sport’s value lies in a meaningful contest and challenge that encourages technical and moral excellence.’ Osborne and Skillen (2010, 194) point out that the contingency of female sporting participation on a diverse host of elements such as ‘life stage, social class, ethnicity and national identity’ is the very reason why we should not view the history of women in sport as a monochromatic story of marginalization, but rather, one of mixed blessings and a chance to see female individual and collective agency played out.

In her auto-ethnographic account of her own sporting career as an ‘odyssey’ and her transformations of consciousness within this, Krane (2009, 221) reminds us that ‘physically active women push their physical and mental limits. In doing so, they also construct and reconstruct personal identity and social conventions.’ The road to resilience and leadership in sport contexts is a complex one, and not necessarily defined by or bound to gender. Contestation of sport-space has led to the production of a rich tapestry of unfolding stories of public and self-representation of Australian women in AFLW against the backdrop of an ongoing performance of struggle and hope. Women’s sport is in a crucial state of change, and the analysis of its progress will contribute to conversations around gender, equality and the various ideologies embedded in the institution of sport. The success of women in football has given hope to other sports such as hockey in the ‘fight for women’s elite sport’ (Partland and Nagy 2016) signalling ‘a giant leap for women’s sport’ (Lulham 2016). Jeffery (2016, 29) goes as far as to comment that the launch of the women’s AFL league has sparked ‘an arms race for the best female athletes.’ Former Pinjarra resident Sabrina Frederick-Traub who is 1 of 16 AFLW players, comments: ‘My whole life has changed’ (Rake 2016, 2). This unprecedented shift has led to a truly historical moment, the inspirational ripple effects of which are being felt across women’s sports and, most importantly, on the ground (Chalkley-Rhoden 2016). The battle may be far from over but the evolution of sport as a contested space to include an emerging narrative of hope has paved the way for a brave new world in which ‘girls are the new frontier’ (Robinson 2016, 1).

Women in Sport

Decades worth of battles in the sporting fields, courts, media, playgrounds, and homes have brought about a gradual but decisive shift in the collective cultural imaginary of women in sport, and sports inclusion. The multitude of sporting sites (both professional and recreational) in which women’s agency is played out will remain contested, and new, previously uncontested and, at times, unexpected sites, are bound to emerge. In essence, therefore, these sports-spaces are being redefined as both sites of contestation and hope. This is a critical moment in the history of women’s sport, and AFL in particular. The momentum leading up to this point has the potential to serve as a springboard for unprecedented changes in football in Australia and abroad. However, this is not likely to be achieved without the ongoing and concerted efforts of, not only women (and men) in leadership roles in the AFL and government, such as coaches, club administrators, and sports ministers, but everyday women and girls on the ground fighting for their right to play, their right for equal and fair pay, their right to be included, and their right to be visible figures in their local clubs, communities, and the media.

However, the thing that seemed to be the main talking point and one that caught public attention was that on the night of the AFLW’s fairest and best awards which Phillips won, she kissed her partner Tracey Gahan. Some sections of social media and the media itself were outraged that Phillips would have the gall to kiss her lesbian partner while she celebrated her success raising questions as to how far Australia as a society still needs to go to provide socially just sporting spaces. Images of Phillips with her children on the field was also subjected to critique. The AFLW (and the AFL as an organisation) publically supported and embraced the player/lesbian parent in ways similar to the WNBA in America, yet not often seen in Australian sporting media. Reflecting at the end of the first AFLW season, what is clear is that, despite the noted historical resistance to and the previous lack of a female presence in the AFL, it is the women themselves who are leading the way in changing the conversations and understandings of inclusivity, gendered identity, and sport.

Maybe the most poignant story that demonstrates this point unfolded during the final stages of the inaugural AFLW’s season through the story of Erin Phillips. Phillips, an elite Women’s National Basketball Association basketballer in her own right and an Olympian had a stellar season in the AFLW with the Adelaide Crows having moved from basketball to the AFLW. Phillips was best on ground in the 2017 AFLW Grand Final with the Adelaide premiership team, and has received both the AFLW best and fairest medal and the AFLW Players’ most valuable player award.

Women in Sport