My take on Sidelined: The Fight for Equality in Women's Basketball Documentary

Today: September 13 2022

I first started writing this piece last year, motivated by news coming out of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament about the gym [or should I say lack thereof] that was set up for the female athletes playing in the 2021 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament in comparison to the male players. I felt compelled to say something as I reflected on the state of play for women playing elite sport ~ why in the Year 2021 were things like this still happening? I started writing, but my story would sit idle in my drafts folder, until today!

The motivation behind moving this story from draft to published; Sidelined.

I'm home after attending the premiere of the Deakin Melbourne Boomers documentary Sidelined: The Fight for Equality in Women's Basketball. Set against the backdrop of the 42nd season of the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL), the Melbourne Boomers take their fight beyond the basketball court to overcome gender inequality, lower pay, balancing a sporting career with other work, racial discrimination, and the constant pressure to justify their existence as female athletes in a sporting and societal landscape dominated by men.

My Back to the Future Journey Through Basketball

Rewind to 1990

I played in the Women's National Basketball League between 1990 and 2000; 193 games. I was 27-years young when I prematurely hung up the sneakers and retired as the grind simply overwhelmed me. This grind would see me fall out of love with something that had been my whole life since the age of seven - the 'job' of female athlete in the 90's was extraordinarily difficult. In my last season I would rise at 5:00am most days to be at practice at 5:45am for a 6:00am start. From practice it was quick shower and off to work - full time, 9 - 5 kind of work. From work it was back to practice - weights/fitness/shooting/swimming = exhausted! Next day - get up and do it all again.

I started to question how I could possibly continue to build my off-court career, the thing that was going to pay the bills if I kept up this grind for a little bit of 'pocket money'? How long would my my employer provide understanding when I needed to miss work on a Friday to go on a road trip? Where was I going to fit in study? Time with family and friends? And the biggest question of all - how long was I going to wait to start a family? [The WNBL's Parental and Pregnancy Policy wouldn't be introduced until many years later when I was Head of WNBL in 2018). Perhaps I knew something as when I started to try and fall pregnant I would face some significant health issues and difficulties that had I kept playing and left any longer would have had a disastrous effect on my ability to fall pregnant.

Watching Sidelined left me thinking that not enough has changed for women playing elite sport in 2022 compared to when I was playing elite level basketball through the 90's. Women everywhere are facing the exact same challenges. My daughters are going to face the same challenges and that is not OK!

Fast Forward to 2021

Sedona Prince, a basketballer from the University of Oregon shared a video highlighting inequality that went viral. Sports Performance Coaches Ali Kershner (Stanford University) and Molly Binetti (South Carolina University) also spoke out, even NBA star Steph Curry shared Sedona's video via his own Twitter platform on March 19th. His tweet alone had reached over 99 thousand likes at the time I first started writing this story. I was left feeling nothing but sadness and despair that in the Year 2021 we were still having the same conversations that I was having back in 1994, when I myself was playing College ball at the University of Oregon.

"If you aren't upset about this problem, then you're a part of it" ~ Sedona Prince

Here is a sample of the comments shared on social media platforms in the USA after Sedona shared her video last year:

"The men’s basketball brings in way more money for the NCAA, they deserve the weight room. Got a problem with it? Make your games more interesting with higher level and you’ll bring in more money to EARN stuff like a nice weight room!"

• "Innocent question: is there a difference in how much money each gender brings in for basketball?"
• "Stop trying to manufacture outrage. It is what it is....basic economics. The disparity that exists between the revenues of Men’s/Women’s basketball is far greater than that of the weight rooms. If you can get as many people to spend as much $ on Women’s hoops, the rest follows."
• "Men’s basketball brings in a lot more money. If schools skimp on the facilities for men to give women better ones, the better athletes would just attend other schools that value their revenue generators. Encourage more viewership for women’s bball. Find ways to draw the crowds."
• "$800 million dollars.. that how much MORE money the men’s tournament will make this year than the women’s tournament. The weight room was a poor decision on the tournament directors part however it’s a accurate correlation to the difference in product and production."
• "Wait wait wait wait.... there’s a women’s March madness?!?!?"

Rewind back to 1994

In 1994 I left Australian shores for Eugene, Oregon to play College ball. I remember feeling extraordinarily proud and excited that in a matter of days I'd be playing Division 1 basketball, I'd be a Duck!

1994; that was 28 years ago.

In the book Full Court Press by Lauren Kessler, Lauren would document the highs and lows of our 1994/95 season, and in particular, the fight our head coach Jody Runge would embark on to bridge the very large gap in equality for female athletes and coaches in the NCAA. Coach Runge's office was much smaller than her male counterparts; the male coach of the men's basketball program - his office was in a multi-room suite with a private reception area. In the entrance to the Len Casanova Centre which is home to the University's coaches and administrators, 13 sculptures adorn the entrance - not a single female basketballer in sight. In Coach Runge's first season at the Ducks she signed a contract for $42,000. The Head Coach of the Men's program who led his program through two losing seasons in his first two years - he was earning $200,000 plus money from endorsements. Our locker room; it's old and musty - it's the men's old locker room. I remember feeling like we were locked away in airless, old basement. The men's team - they had moved out and inhabited a fully refurbished locker room courtesy of a $150,000 renovation. They had space, couches, lockers, juice dispensers, satellite television hook up, private phone lines and offices for their coaches. The men travelled on chartered buses, we travelled in small vans driven by our coaches.

When I arrived at the University of Oregon I was immediately struck by a sense of inequality and quickly understood Coach Runge's drive to make a difference. There were so many examples of inequality surrounding our program. We had to get up at 5:30am to be at Mac Court to start training by 7:00am; the worst practice time in the rotation. The men's team - they had a permanent lock on the prime practice time, from 3:00pm - 6:00pm. The women's basketball team and women's volleyball teams alternate the two other available practice times, the early morning and the early afternoon. The early morning time slot is brutal and the early afternoon time slot messes with classes, it felt like a lose-lose situation.

One morning, just before the season kicked off we all arrived at training to see pictures of the men's basketball team players in eight feet by five feet tall photo frames spread around the stadium concourse. I still recall how this made us feel, and the conversations we shared as we stretched for practice that morning, feeling like this stadium wasn't even our home court. One of my team mates, a sophomore named Arianne said to Coach "not what I would call gender equality, Coach."

Our PAC-10 season kicks off with a road trip to California where we'll take on UCLA and USC. Game one is at Pauley Pavilion against UCLA. We win by 25, its a huge win for the first game of the conference season. After the game, we put on our tracksuits over our uniforms - there are no locker-room shower facilities provided. Two days later we head to USC and for our changeroom we are crammed into a small, windowless conference room in USC's student rec centre. There are no lockers, no showers, no benches, just some hard back chairs lining the perimeter of the room. We won't even play in the main stadium, we'll play in the high-school sized practice gym with a few rows of bleacher seats pulled down for the game. I'm shocked that we'll take on the Cheryl Miller coached, reining PAC-10 champions in a sub-standard gym.

Fast forward to the end of the season, we make it through to the 'Big Dance' and lose in the first round. I'm named to the All-Pac-10 Team, an honoury list of the ten best players in the league as voted by the coaches - it doesn't ease the pain of our loss in Georgia. Our men's team also make it to the tournament and the result is the same, a first round loss. Post-season, Jerry Green who is the Head Coach of the Men's Basketball program at Oregon leaves to interview at UNLV. Oregon panic and head into negotiations with Jerry immediately. Coach Runge's negotiations are put on hold, yet again. Twenty-four hours after returning from his interview in Las Vegas, Jerry is offered a 4-year $249,000 contract with an athletic booster-funded annuity to guarantee long-term financial security. He signs immediately. Via lawyers acting on behalf of Coach Runge, Oregon are sent a message, "The callous indifference to Jody's situation cannot and will not be endured." Many more months pass, and it's not until mid-May before Coach Runge's new contract would be finalised. Not only did Coach Runge's courageous legal battle with University administration for equal funding and support challenge the rules of collegiate politics, it challenged her own mental wellbeing. In recent chats online with Coach, I think the battle she faced has left scars that still run deep. The public battle was exhausting and left her feeling more vulnerable than she ever had before. I can empathise with Coach; having led a women's league I too am wearing some battle scars.

And just like today in the year 2022, when a women goes in to battle for what is right and just, when she fights for equality, out come the haters. When Coach Runge fought for equality she was considered "hostile, caustic, embittered, and ungrateful". A sports columnist for the Register-Guard (Eugene's newspaper) wrote a piece stating unequivocally that men's and women's basketball are not equal, the coaching jobs are not equal and that the pay should not be equal. Two days later he'd write another piece about how women's sport doesn't attract big-money donors and how that's too bad, and just the way it is. The paper then go on to publish a letter that has been sent to the editor in the sports pages - they title it FIRE HER. It starts like this; "Jody Runge is a lawsuit looking for an excuse to happen. She is a cancer looking for a body. She is an egocentric, angry, combative women spoiling for a fight. Get rid of her." The letter writer would go on to say "She was a no-name assistant when the University offered her the chance for relative fame, lots of fun and relative fortune. She should have shut up and enjoyed it. Whatever it takes to get her out of there, do it!"

"She is an egocentric, angry, combative women spoiling for a fight. Get rid of her."

Fast Forward to 2018

In 2018 former elite Australian rules footballer, television and radio sports commentator, Chyloe Kurdas, who spent a decade building the first-ever national women’s professional competition, the AFLW, as AFL Victoria’s Female Football Development Manager would present at TEDxSydney and a video of her talk would be shared on the TEDxSydney Facebook page. The ignorant and offensive comments are nothing short of horrifying and ignites great sadness when I revisit them. They are a stark reminder of the cruel reality women endeavouring to change the game come up against here in Australia, and the lack of support that follows. Here is a small sample of the feedback that was posted [this is the 'nice' stuff!]:

• "When are people going to realise that the reason women sports are paid much less is that the sport BRINGS IN LESS MONEY!?! It’s simple economics."
• "Another woman not wanting men to achieve anything." 35 other people either liked, loved or laughed at this comment!
• "Why do women want to take over a mans game, have been AFL supporter all my life, would never watch females, woman think they can do what males do no way, wake up AFL."
• I’ll never pay to watch women play football. If I want to see women act unruly I will go down to the pub on a Friday and Saturday night. Let them play in their own right and not on the shirt tails of men’s competition." 15 other people either liked, loved or laughed at this comment!
• "Sharon can't train tonight girls she has her period, blood rule!" 21 other people either liked, loved or laughed at this comment!
• "Never been a die hard watch every game AFL, cricket or any other sport fan but would watch with my husband and kids. Now, I cannot stand to watch because of the need television channels feel to impose female commentators. They are try hards who try to be "one of the boys" and annoy the s**t out of me with their ridiculous comments."
• "Stick to basketball netball etc not football that is a males sport."
• "Who? Perhaps if they wore lingerie like the US it would be worth watching."

At the time of starting my draft of this article last year there were 3.5 thousand interactions with this post, 536 comments made and it was shared 202 times.

Fast forward to 2021

Just like the haters came out in 1994, they were back out in 2021 following Sedona's video and the same old reasons why women don't deserve equality in sport are shared on social media platforms around the world. I am left finding it hard to believe that all these years later the same old arguments are reeled out; it's any wonder we are exhausted and frustrated. I'm Marty McFly travelling back and forth through time, yet nothing is different, nothing has changed. In the time gap between 1994 and 2021 we are having the same conversations, we are progressing too slowly. The same hate spews out every time we talk about equality for women in sport here in Australia; for both athletes and women in senior leadership roles. Whenever the subject of improved pay conditions, broadcast opportunities, quotas, or the opportunity for women to be professional athletes comes up, out flows the hate.?

Where to from here?

Ad nauseum we listen to the same arguments being rolled out every day. Honestly, if I hear one more talkback caller on SEN radio say "women don't bring in the same revenue as men so they should not be treated equally" I'll do a Terry Wallace and spew up! 1994 to 2022 - 28 years - same conversations, same comparisons being made and female athletes facing a life that remains a challenging grind.

My article presents examples of how all these years later, the same stories and themes continue to repeat. Don't get me wrong, we have progressed a little since I was playing all those years ago, but not enough.

We have to stop measuring women's sport by the same metrics as men's sport. We have to stop expecting the games to look the same. It's time to celebrate the different way women play their sport and acknowledge their own individual greatness. It's time to stop the ongoing comparisons and discussions about the things women don't do in a sporting contest that a man might do, and instead appreciate the awesome things that they do bring to the game and the communities they are part of.

My call to action!

Women's sport needs financial investment so that the grind can stop and women have the opportunity to be the very best version of themselves when they hit the court, field or pitch. It's time to show up and invest, time to take into consideration the broader opportunities and positive brand exposure that results from partnering with women's sport. Brands will be provided with the opportunity to resonate with people's values and campaigns will have the potential to be meaningful, particularly at a time when the public are really starting to care about where the brands they love invest their money.?

Women's sport not delivering the revenue some of our male counterparts do cannot continue to be the reason used for not providing women with the same opportunities. Women in sport deliver in so many other ways and running out the same old arguments time and time again is counterproductive. Supporting women's sport financially so that they have the same opportunities is so much more than just eyeballs returning a financial reward on investment. Sometimes investment cannot be measured by financial return alone, it can and needs to be about more. It can be about the difference that an organisation can make for young girls and women by providing them with hope and delivering outcomes so that girls can start to see what they can be. Women and girls deserve the right to be able to dream and have the same hope and aspirations young boys and men have. More than ever before, sponsorship/partnership goals and deliverables need to move away from all the traditional metrics currently demanded by investors. If gender equality continues to be reliant on revenue, broadcast rights and bums on seats, we may never get to where we need to be.

Sarah Styles, former Head of Female Engagement at Cricket Australia and current Director of Office for Women in Sport and Recreation here in Victoria has first hand experience of the difference corporate support can make; "Support from major companies is fundamental to changing the game for women’s sport and equality in sport more broadly" said Styles in a 2021 post on LinkedIn. Sarah spoke of the Commonwealth Bank’s long term sponsorship of the Australian Women’s Cricket Team, a partnership that brought the Growing Cricket For Girls Fund to life and was pivotal in building the energy and growth ahead of last year’s record breaking ICC T20 Women's World Cup. Commonwealth Bank have now extended their support to the Matilda's and Football Australia ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Support like this changes the game. A question inspired by the success of the Commonwealth Bank's support of Women's cricket - who will be next to realise the enormous benefits that come by aligning with women’s sport?

Head of WNBL Christy Collier-Hill recently shared the Shifting the Goal Posts report on LinkedIn, a report stating that 6.6 million Australians currently engage with women’s sports, with 41% indicating they are more engaged with women’s leagues than they were five years ago. The report also found that regular spectators of women’s sports have significant levels of sponsorship recall with 82% of fans recalling at least one major brand. Christy's call to action; brands should absolutely be investing in women's sport.

I don't profess to having all the answers, but I do have the capacity to acknowledge that if we don't shift into a new gear now, we'll be having the same conversation in years to come, there will be another Sidelined style doco produced and the grind for women in sport will continue. Women from all around the world will continue to turn up to the smaller changeroom, the facility without a gym, be the recipients of the smaller pay packet and the same messages of hate and disrespect will fill our social media platforms when women seek opportunity and equality.

I want more for my daughters!

I want more for women and girls everywhere!

I want more for me!

I challenge everyone to respect the courageous women who speak up. Women like Coach Runge who in 1994 risked it all and fought the equality battle so that the sporting outcomes for women would be better for the next generation. Women like Chyloe Kurdas, Michelle Cowan, Bec Goddard and Debbie Lee, all of whom have faced "shocking sexual and homophobic vilification" as documented in Sam Lane's 2018 book Roar; the stories behind AFLW - a movement bigger than sport. Women like Sedona Prince who in 2021, 27 years after Coach Runge took a stand had the courage to call out an unacceptable situation so that sporting outcomes for women could be better. Women like Ezi Magbegor and Tiffany Mitchell who would courageously take a stand and highlight ongoing issues of racsim in sport, educating us so we can move from ignorant to aware. Women like the Deakin Melbourne Boomers and their Coach Guy Molloy who would stand in solidarity with Ezi and Tiffany and through Sidelined have courageously shared their untold stories that they hope will inspire many to do more - you have all inspired me to move this story from draft to published, thank you.

• I would like to acknowledge the inspiring Bulleen Boomers women Jan Collinson, Linda Perry and Michele Timms who did the hard yards all those years ago, thank you.
• I acknowledge Sam Lane, author of Roar and teller of stories that continue to make a difference for women in sport.

• I acknowledge Sarah Styles who inspires me greatly, and Christy Collier-Hill who continues the fight for equality in the WNBL every day.
• I acknowledge Adam McKay, Director, Editor and Producer of Sidelined; thank you for bringing this story to life #sidelineddoc
• Finally, I would like to acknowledge author of Full Court Press, Lauren Kessler. Lauren's book was a great source of factual content in this article from my time at the University of Oregon #goducks

Sidelined will air on SBS Viceland September 18, 4:45pm then continue weekly until October 9; read more at https://www.sidelineddoc.com/