Outrage at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year contest

This year the prestigious and widely-viewed BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) has hit rock bottom in terms of equality. Of the 10 nominees on the list there are no women, yes that’s right ZERO women. How can this be? The BBC claim they have no part in the decision which is made (apparently) by prominent newspaper and magazine editors. I suppose this demonstrates how widespread the level of sexism is in sport. And yet we are nearly at the end of 2011…how can this still be happening?!

SPOTY began in 1954 and since then there have been 12 women winners. You don’t need good maths skills to figure out that that means lots more men have won the trophy than women. But that’s not the central issue because it’s a popularity contest on the night, judged by the British public. The main problem is when not a single sportswoman appears on the list of 10 contenders. Over the past few years there have been at least one or two women nominated, but to have 10 men and no women is an insult to all the fantastic female athletes we have in this country. Chrissie Wellington is an obvious choice – four-time World Ironman champion (and someone who should really have been nominated years ago), Helen Jenkins - current ITU triathlon World champion, Emma Pooley - bronze medallist in World road TT and 2^nd overall in the women’s Giro d’Italia, Victoria Pendleton – European team sprint champion, Beth Tweddle  - European champion in gymnastics, Helen Glover and Heather Stanning – silver medallists in World rowing champs…I could go on.

I did an interview today on BBC radio York about this very issue and the interviewer Jonathon Cowap asked me if the issue is really about the appeal of women’s sports. But women’s sport in appealing and interesting, and just as good as men’s sporting performances, but women are not given the chance to demonstrate their athleticism, strength and skill because the media mostly ignore them. Sportswomen are not taken seriously enough in this country and the BBC SPOTY contest clearly demonstrates this. What a shame, not only for the sportswomen who have produced fantastic performances this year and deserve to be recognised, but for young girls growing up who see celebrities as their role models, instead of strong female athletes. Perhaps the BBC don’t realise how damaging this type of inequality is, but when news of female obesity makes the headlines, hopefully they will see the connection. Every action has a reaction, and the Sport, Gender and Media conference organisers will keep campaigning for more gender equality in sports until it is achieved.

Can I suggest boycotting the SPOTY programme until some sort of quota system is implemented? I am very interested to hear people's suggestions and reactions to this news.