Female athletes, sports deserve equal recognition
Friday May 16 2008
Dear Editor,
I believe that a newspaper has an important role to play in a community. It has a duty to report unbiased and impartially, but it also has a responsibility to communicate and reflect the values of the community. One would hope that these values would include equality for men and women.
As the spring and summer sports seasons begin and I’m reading the sports section of my May 2 Banner, the top story, complemented with photos, is about losses by men’s lacrosse teams.
In fact, of the 21 athletes pictured throughout the sports section, there is but one female in the photos of athletes, an inductee to the Orangeville Sports Hall of Fame — congratulations. This example merely highlights a practice of sexual discrimination in sports reporting I have witnessed for some years, perhaps made aware more so by having three daughters play sports in this town.
That same week that the males were losing, women in this town were making Orangevillians proud by capturing gold medals in lacrosse tournaments across the province. These ladies played with determination, pride and class, well representing Orangeville and the community they live in.
The Welland Tribune thought enough of their women’s teams’ second and third place finishes to print a photo. Our ladies finished first, winning gold medals in both tournaments without even a peep from either Orangeville paper.
If a newspaper reflects the values of a community then it’s about time that female athletes and women’s sports teams in this town were given equal representation and recognition.
I have no idea if any of the two newspapers sports reporters are men or women, and frankly that shouldn’t matter, what does matter is that half of the people in the community are women.
Ian Williams, Orangeville
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