Ben Cannon
High Distinction & Work and Leisure Prize
Knox Grammar School
Grass Ceiling: The extent to which gender bias limits female participation in amateur and elite sport

When I chose my PIP topic I thought it was a very straight forward one. I soon discovered this was not the case. My original PIP investigation explored the importance of sport to Australian culture and investigated the hypothesis that there is gender bias in the access to, and reporting of, elite sport in Australia reflecting the social constructs of contemporary Australian society.

The hypothesis is proven through a combination of secondary and primary research methodologies. The secondary research establishes quantitative and qualitative data from public knowledge and is reinforced by primary research designed to reflect cross cultural perspectives gained through analysis of questionnaires and interviews conducted with focus groups reflecting different perspectives based on gender, age, ethnicity and global location.

Preliminary findings are expanded upon by further scholarly research and cross generational gender interviews with former and current elite athletes aimed at establishing if a gender bias existed a generation ago.

I investigate the power of media bias on access to sport through interviews with sports producers and undertake quantitative and qualitative media analysis.

I identify and discuss gender bias at different levels of sport from the traditional amateur lifestyle sport to the elite level of sport where participants are selected from the amateur ranks to expand their level of skill and receive financial support to compensate them for their additional commitment and finally, to the fully corporatized professional level where the sport is the principle source of income and career for the athlete.

Through constructing cross-generational longitudinal research I am able to substantiate my hypothesis and also analyse the impact of globalisation and commodification of sport on women and Australian society and culture. The analysis of cross generational interviews, and synthesis of the concept of continuity and change, provides me with a better understanding of gender issues and interactions between people and the importance of sport to individual and community identity and culture through time.

Finally, in addition to finding that the access to sport and thus, to Australian culture, is limited by gender, there is evidence that the globalisation and commidification of sport poses new access barriers for both amateur and elite Australian sports and therefore to the traditional links between Australian sport and our sense of cultural identity.