<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kane noted, \u201cThe bottom line is we haven’t won anything as a nation for a long, long time and a lot of these players were part of that as well and they know how tough it is, so it is not digging anyone out.\u201d Since then, thousands of comments have been made all over social media and headlines on media outlets, with Grazia UK even writing<\/a>, \u201cWe remember The Lionesses winning the 2022 Euros, even if Harry Kane doesn\u2019t\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this line, it\u2019s clear that the captain is referring to his own team, making a point about the 58-year-long drought that the male pundits have been a part of. However, this is a generalisation that continues to hurt the women\u2019s game and female athletes across all sports. Why is it that when a sport is referenced without a gender tag, it is assumed that they are referring to the men\u2019s discipline? Many tend to forget the inherent sexism in labelling sport that stems from historical oppression. The NBA was created first (by 50 years!) therefore the women\u2019s equivalent had to be called the WNBA. Going back to football, you have the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Women\u2019s<\/em> World Cup. Even the athletes themselves are named in connection to men – take swimmer Katie Ledecky, who has the most individual world titles of any athlete, reduced to the \u201cfemale Michael Phelps<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Take multiple world record holder Katie Ledecky, reduced to the “female Michael Phelps”.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Why is recognising women as athletes so difficult? Whether it\u2019s the use of \u2018girls\u2019 vs \u2018men\u2019, or the disproportionate attention or frankly disrespectful design of women\u2019s uniforms versus the men\u2019s, women often draw the short straw in sport. We have made leaps and bounds in terms of wider gender equality in sport, for example, the 2024 Olympics have been lauded as the first to achieve total gender equality in athlete participation. There are more and more opportunities and schemes for women and girls to play sport like the F1 Academy, which has seen drivers Marta Garc\u00eda and Abbi Pulling shine in the spotlight. But this cannot be said still for media attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although visibility is crucial in spreading women\u2019s sports, the sexist and disrespectful manner that some commentators or social media users have is arguably causing more harm than good. During the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Chicago Tribune released a headline<\/a>: \u2018Wife of a Bears’ lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics\u2019. Arguably, they are writing about a woman and celebrating her success. But why does her success need to reference her identity as a counterpart to a man? If the Bears\u2019 lineman isn\u2019t even famous enough to warrant his name in the headline, why does two-time-medal winner Corey Cogdell-Unrein deserve to have her name erased? Even in the article itself, they double down on calling her \u201cthe wife of Bears lineman Mitch Unrein\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n