Little more than ten years ago, much of women's sport was scarcely visible.
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![Up and running: The Goulburn Dirty Reds women's side has exemplified the trend of growth in women's sport in recent years. Photo: Zac Lowe. Up and running: The Goulburn Dirty Reds women's side has exemplified the trend of growth in women's sport in recent years. Photo: Zac Lowe.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ijfQKXbsEKgSKGW5xB5NiF/2a812bb2-8ed4-475a-b2fc-9f50820423cd.JPG/r726_530_4424_2753_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Many of the current national and international competitions for female athletes did not exist, or were largely ignored by broadcast and print media.
So this, the 2021 International Women's Day, feels as fitting a moment as any to reflect on the remarkable progress made by women's sporting organisations in recent years.
It was no surprise that Cricket Australia chose today to announce its plans for the first statue of a female cricketer to be erected at the SCG (alongside the 73 statues of men).
While some said it was long overdue, the gesture was still a poignant reminder of the stature which women's cricket has built over the last decade.
Executive director of the Bradman Museum in Bowral, Rina Hore, expressed how deeply moving she found the announcement.
"When I was told about the statue, I could have cried," Hore told cricket.com.au.
"It is such an important announcement because once you get that first statue, others will follow."
Australian women's cricketers have been afforded prominence in sporting circles, but with the launch of the Women's Big Bash League in 2015/16, the popularity and accessibility of women's cricket exploded.
It should come as no surprise, after the success of the WBBL, that we saw nearly 90,000 crammed into the MCG during last year's Women's T20 World Cup final.
It is this same success which has turned the likes of Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy, and Ellyse Perry into household names.
Shortly after the WBBL's inception, the AFLW was launched and had a similar impact on women's Aussie Rules, which grew by 31 per cent in 2019 alone.
The success of such franchise tournaments has undoubtedly had an impact on other sports, such as the Hockey One tournament.
Launched in 2019, Hockey One was Hockey Australia's adaptation of a similar, largely city-based competition with men's and women's teams which, for the first time, was broadcast to a mainstream audience on Kayo.
While hockey, like cricket, has often been an outlier in its accessibility for women's sport, it is yet another example of the massive increase in coverage for female competitions.
These changes are not unique to the professional ranks, either.
The success of the news women's franchises has caused a surge in popularity for local sport.
Take, for example, the the Goulburn Dirty Reds women's team. Prior to its launch in 2019, Canberra was the closest option for women's rugby union, and only occasionally were locals selected for representative teams.
In 2020, less than six months after the Dirty Reds women had won a premiership in their inaugural year, three Goulburn residents were selected in the Brumbies women's squad, and one was named a member of the coaching staff.
Much the same can be said of women's rugby league. In the years since the CRRL launched the Katrina Fanning Shield, its popularity has boomed throughout the region.
Similarly, while soccer retains the highest female participation of any of the four football codes in the country, the Southern Tablelands Football Association just months ago launched its "What's Best for Her" plan, which aims to increase local female participation even further.
The importance of this kind of growth among women's sports cannot be overstated. Young girls across the country now have a plethora of new role models to look up to.
Women who want to get involved in sport now have choices that they did not as little as a decade ago. Pathways and opportunities now exist which did not even five years ago.
Professional sport is quickly becoming a viable career option for talented female athletes, who can hopefully continue to build on the success of today's sportswomen and continue to inspire future generations.
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