Gains made, yes, but there’s more ground for sportswomen to cover

One October morning in 2022, a group of athletes, coaches and residents brought the streets of Eldoret to a standstill while protesting against a rise in gender-based violence.

The protests came following the shocking death of former World Cross Country champion Agnes Tirop who had been found murdered in her house, allegedly by her husband.

After Tirop’s burial, many more athletes came out and revealed that they had been victims of GBV at some point in their lives. That should have shaken the system. And what did they get?

They got a meeting with then Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed. They got a conference to sensitise athletes on GBV and an event dubbed Agnes Tirop Memorial World Cross Country Tour. They also got a few headlines. They made their voices heard. What more do you want?

In December last year, the whole world witnessed women referees take charge of men’s games at the Fifa World Cup for the first time ever. It certainly broke the record books for female referees, and was a proud moment for women everywhere.

A few months before that, an all-female team was appointed to preside over the men’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. What more do you want?

Across the world, women's games are having more airtime on TV.

Last year, a Champions League match between Barcelona and Real Madrid women’s teams broke attendance records as 91,553 tickets were sold. More women have been enlisted as sports pundits and commentators in top media outlets globally. What more do you want?

In the US and Sweden, female national team players are now guaranteed equal pay. Even here in Kenya, national team players are entitled to the same allowances as their male counterparts. What more do you want?

What more do you want? I found myself pondering on this question on International Women's Day amid the motivational messaging and cut and paste platitudes directed at women. What more do you want?

Whether overtly or subtly, this question has been thrown at women whenever they ask for more equality and less discrimination.

Well, I’m not a pro athlete, but I believe I am a woman, so I will attempt an answer to this question.

Here are two things that women athletes want this year. They are grateful to the sports bra, which in my books is the most impactful invention in women’s sport, but they also want running-related businesses, race directors, service providers and medical professionals who dedicate their careers to female health.

Secondly, they want you to stop posting sickening comments on Twitter and begin providing equal and objective coverage for female athletes.

A 2019 study by Plan International analysed over 1,300 comments on popular Facebook posts shared by major Australian sports news media, including Fox Sports, over a year. The results showed that sportswomen received three times as many negative comments as men (26.98 percent compared to 8.52 percent).

We know that women were written out of much of history because they were never written about in the first place.

So how about we move female stars from the sidelines of sports coverage and into the headlines?

That said, dear reader, I’m happy and excited to be back with this column after a two-month break! Thank you for keeping the fire of equality burning during that period. 

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