International Women's Day, get used to it
It’s International Women’s Day, get used to it.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know it was International Women’s Day today until my partner mentioned it to me yesterday actually… and that line pretty much sums up this story, but hopefully you keep reading… at least for a few more lines at least.
Us guys, blokes, boys, gentleman or whatever we are, are pretty damn hopeless when it comes to remembering things, being organised, knowing what goes with what or even acknowledging the ladies that do so much for us. Some of us, not all of us, but most of us take for granted the role women play in our life.
When it comes to sport, us men are even worse at recognising the work women do to keep clubs/teams running. They take on the roles that the majority of the men don’t want to do, like running the canteen or the role of gatekeeper where you never get to see any of the games. But they do it without fuss.
At least now women are breaking that mold of just being canteen ladies or gate keepers. The rise of Women’s Sport on and off the field has been nothing short of incredible. It’s only just over a century too late, but that’s what happened when men are running things. Slowly but surely women are also gaining opportunities to run sporting organisation’s. Marina Go and Raelene Castle are probably the two highest profile examples to date. Marina Go was the President of Wests Tigers for 5 years and during that period, it was a pretty turbulent time. Although Marina Go has moved on from the Tigers, it’s fair to say that she was the driving force behind a Tigers club that is arguably the most stable it have ever been since the joint venture began.
Then there’s Raelene Castle who has copped plenty of criticism these past 12 months, mainly from Murdoch media outlets over the Rugby TV rights. I wonder why that is…
You’ve got to hand it to her, she has basically been bullied every day by some media, but Castle stands her ground, and as the TV rights saga drags on, it’s looking more and more likely that Castle will get a much better deal for Rugby than anticipated. But will Castle be thanked by all those Rugby folk who doubted her, probably not, Would Tigers supporters walk up and thank Marina Go for her efforts of creating a stable club, also probably not. And that’s where we let ourselves down. We don’t appreciate the great work women have done or still do for sport.
So, the next time you’re at a local game and you are served by a volunteer at the canteen make sure you say thank you and really mean it. Without women in sport many teams/clubs would fail to exist.
