Since the 1990s women's sport has not received as much attention as men's sport despite the fact that women have still made a significant contribution to Australian sport in all levels. This is because men's sport is generally more exciting and at a higher level then women's sport who also have a low media profile. Since media coverage is generally selective a high media profile is essential to attract sponsorship and attention. This low media profile is evident because the Australian public is unaware of women's sporting events and achievements, and there are also few widely known role models for women and girls. On the radio over 90% of sports coverage is devoted to men's sport and on the newspaper men's sport is 6 times greater then women's.
In most sports men are generally superior then women even though both sexes have achieved a very high level of skill. For example in swimming, the women are good but the men are better.
Chicago girls at Sokol Sports, Prague, Austria (L...
English: A collection of a few books about women's...
English: Elizabeth Callahan competes in her fourth...They achieve faster times and are more competitive which grabs audience attention. People don't care as much about women's achievements because men have done better, they only care about the best.
Another reason for their low media coverage is sexualization and sexism. Women are often portrayed as sexual objects for male viewers, rather then competitive athletes. Also the minority of women who do get publicised are often only the glamorous, slender athletes and not the serious competitive athletes. This diverts attention to women as sex symbols from women's sporting achievements and reinforces assumptions that women's sport is non-competitive.
Sexism is also another issue. The media might choose to promote men's sport rather then women's sport because they think that women can't be as good as men on the field. It is a long held belief that the sporting...