A survey conducted by BBC Sport found that more than 40% of elite sportswomen in Great Britain have "experienced sexism but only 7% have reported it," according to the BBC. The anonymous questionnaire was sent to 568 women in almost 40 different sports, with 339 responding. Asked why sexism was not reported, one respondent said that she believed it "could affect her selection chances." Another was worried sexism could be perceived as "banter," while a third said that "inequality is normal." The survey was carried out as part of Women's Sport Week and other findings included:
- A third of elite sportswomen "do not believe they get enough coaching support compared to men."
- 43% said they do not believe their governing body "supports them and male colleagues equally."
- More than two-thirds said they "could not make a living" as sportswomen.
- All but 11 of the respondents believe the media "should promote women's sport better."
- Nearly 50 elite sportswomen said they had been criticized on social media "about their appearance, or even 'trolled.'"
Sports Minister Tracey Crouch believes more needs to be done to "stamp out" sexism, while cautioning that it is "difficult to eradicate such behaviour without it being reported." Crouch: "I would really encourage people to come forward and report it if they are seeing incidences of sexism. It shouldn't be tolerated and we need to make sure we're doing all we can to stamp it out." U.K. Sport CEO Liz Nicholl believes the funding body's high-performance system "does make a difference for women in sport." Women make up 45% of athletes on UK Sport's World Class Programme. However, Nicholl added, "If any female athlete in our high-performance system feels marginalized in this way, we want to hear from them, as this is unacceptable" (
BBC, 6/4).
