International Women’s Day has been a beacon of gender equality for more than 100 years – but today it feels more important than ever because, make no mistake, misogyny is on the rise. And it’s not a wolf-whistle, pinch-your-a*** misogyny, it’s much more deeply hidden and thus much more sinister.
The rise of Andrew Tate and his women-hating, women-abusing followers is not an aberration, it’s cast-iron proof of where we are. It is no surprise a new survey carried out to mark International Women’s Day today showed 64% of UK adults think misogyny is a problem. And three in ten consider it a very serious one. And they are right.
Of course, it’s no secret I believe the way our sporting bodies prioritise perceived “trans rights” rather than cherishing and fostering the sporting ambitions of our girls and young women is also a very serious mistake. It’s an outrage women’s sport only gets 4% of the sponsorship dollars across the world.
But it’s an even bigger outrage that, over the last few years, women have lost £1.5million of their already tiny winnings to males identifying as females.
Some 3,500 races have been won by males in women’s sports and more than 11,000 races have been affected. Biology exists and we need to protect the female category, otherwise the women will just not have the opportunity to win anything. A lot of organisations in Europe and the UK have taken cowardly options.
They protected elite sports, and I’m talking about the likes of the FA and the cricket and golfing bodies, who chose to protect the one percent of professionals but not the 99% of pathway sports at grassroots level. And in sports like football, where there is contact, it can be extremely dangerous. Dads and mums simply remove their kids rather than see them get hurt so for young girls it is already self-limiting.
It’s important to talk about the feelings of young girls and not just the feelings of trans athletes. And because of the creeping erosion of hard-won women’s rights, and the palpable rise of plain old-fashioned misogyny on new social media, it’s important for women everywhere to fight even harder, to realise and celebrate the power of women to change the game through strength, tenacity, belief and sisterhood.
Last week I was in Paris at a conference celebrating the unbelievable courage and strength of Iranian women ready to give their lives to end the misogynist fascistic tyranny of Ayatollah Khamenei. Despite my passionate beliefs on women’s sport, I knew this was so much bigger – it was, and is, life and death. I was moved to tears as these remarkable women told their stories of the inhuman cruelty they face just for being Iranian women.
On International Women’s Day today, it’s important to note that despite being attacked and vilified and tortured, these women were not victims: ordinary in so many ways they were simultaneously heroes and giants of female courage. They are fighting for the justice which will surely come.
Chief among them is Maryam Rajavi, who leads the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Maryam has spent years calling for the end of the unelected mullahs and a free, fair and democratic country where state and religion are separated. There have been many threats and attempts on her life. And yet she fights on.
It was hard not to be moved when this dignified lady, who has fought female oppression for four decades, told the conference: “Throughout history as technology has advanced and human knowledge has expanded the suffering of humanity has gradually subsided. Yet today when we examine the status of women we see that at its core society remains deeply misogynistic.”
Iranian resistance and the struggle for fairness in women’s sport might seem poles apart, but at heart they are both about not giving up the fight, of never backing down, and of realising that, if we don’t stand up for what is right, if we don’t have the courage to take action, as women, then nobody will do it for us. And we can – and do – win.
From the International Olympic Committee knowingly and insanely putting biological males in a boxing ring last year in Paris to now, with every one of its new presidential candidates pledging to protect the female category.
Earlier this week the press regulator upheld the right of journalists to describe a transgender goalkeeper playing for a women’s football team as biologically male. It seems insane a ruling was ever needed on what is after all the undeniable truth. But it is progress. Another win for women.
And that, surely. is the clear message we can take from International Women’s Day – whether on the streets of Tehran or a running track in Tunbridge Wells, wherever there is injustice, if we stand together we can fight and win.
