Summary of story from The Guardian, December 3, 2011A young female rower said two years ago that the big scandal of the way women were treated in UK sport was best illustrated by netball: it was never covered by the media, even though the UK’s women were among the best in the world.
As host nations of the Olympics, we could have nominated it as one of our four new events.
Instead, we chose women’s boxing: no spectator base, no foothold in schools, no realistic chance of it catching on, but you wanted equality, ladies? Here, take a punch in the face.
The England women’s team has just won the World Netball Series, beating Australia and New Zealand, despite the fact that Australasian leagues are mainly professional, whereas our players have to rule the world while holding down full-time jobs.
Karen Atkinson, captain of the England squad from 2008 to 2011, has won 122 caps.
Is she on the shortlist for BBC Sports Personality of the Year (see WVoN story)?
Do you even know what she looks like? Of course not.
All it takes for the patriarchy to triumph, as Zoe Williams points out, is for feminists to not moan loudly enough.