Georgie Parker: Australian sporting women cutting through and making impact but more work to do on equality

It was International Women’s Day on the weekend. A day filled with pink cupcakes and posts celebrating the important women in our lives.

While the tokenism of the day itself isn’t lost on me, it is a reminder that although there is so far to go when it comes to equality, Australian sporting women are cutting through and making change.

As a little girl, in a family of only daughters, my sporting idols were mostly men. Male footy players in winter and cricketers in summer.

I cut my hair like my favourite Crows player, Shaun Rehn, and wanted so desperately to be a boy, not because I ever questioned by gender, but because they got to to play the fun sports.

When I asked to play footy, I was told no, the only reason being I was a girl, and it was a boys sport. This isn’t the case for young girls anymore.

There are now opportunities for all and females on screens who can be role models for all children, not just girls.

While it’s very easy to think of the negatives as a female athlete, I look at what our women have been able to do over the past few years, smile at the progress and get excited about what the future looks like.

We all know about the “Matildas effect” after they became the most watched sporting event in Australian history, knocking off another female icon in Cathy Freeman, with at its peak 11.15 million people tuning in to their semifinal.

The flow on effect from this was enormous with more people talking about all women’s sport from this day forward.

In years past you wouldn’t think making off remarks about the Australian women’s football team would lead to a radio show being cancelled, but that is now the power of this team.

Our female Olympic athletes shined in 2024, doing the majority of the heavy lifting on our record-breaking medal tally in Paris.

Thirteen of our 18 gold medals were won by women and not just in the pool like we’re used to. We even started winning medals in athletics of all places.

Nina Kennedy won our first field event gold medal in pole vaulting and Jessica Hull won a silver medal in the 1500m, in what Gerard Whateley described as our best medal at the Paris Olympics.

The highest broadcast ratings of the Olympics was to watch golden girls Ariane Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan qualify for the final of the 200m freestyle and Jess and Noemi Fox became online sensations, becoming the sisters we all want to know and that brands all want to work with.

NRLW gained huge growth with over 25,000 people in the stadium and ratings of their first State of Origin nearly tipping 1 million people — out-ranking AFL this night.

This wasn’t an anomaly, with all matches having attendances over 22,000 and continuing this trend on broadcast also.

Pete V’landys made a vow to keep the women playing one of their State of Origin matches before Magic Round for the foreseeable future, which is exactly what women need to bring fans of the men’s game in to our stadiums.

The AFLW is continuing to be the forefront of women’s sporting professionalism in their collective bargaining agreements and the Australian women’s cricket team broke records and hearts with their 16-0 demolition of England in their Ashes campaign.

So while women’s sports can be the low hanging fruit for many to punch down on, have a think if any of these women gave you any joy or sense of pride.

Maybe it’s not women’s sports you don’t like, maybe you’re just not watching the right ones