Women in sport have come a long way, but are they competing on equal terms?
Women’s sport is having a moment. Stadiums are filling, television audiences are growing and female fighters are headlining major cards. But one question refuses to disappear: can a woman simply be recognised as an athlete, or must she also be attractive, marketable and sexually appealing?
The debate erupted again after actor Sydney Sweeney appeared in Novig’s “Just Sports” campaign. In the ad, she is minimally clothed and uses sporting equipment to cover her body. Some female athletes argued that it reduced women in sport to a familiar sales device. Others defended Sweeney’s right to use her image however she chooses.
Both views can exist at once. A woman can have agency over her body, and the sporting world can still be questioned for repeatedly deciding that women’s bodies are more commercially valuable than their ability.
Have times changed for female athletes?
Yes, significantly. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games were designed around an equal allocation of athlete quota places for women and men. Australia’s team went further: 256 of its 460 athletes were women, close to 56%. Women are no longer a novelty in elite sport, and their success is not a side story.
Media attention is also moving in the right direction. Victorian Government research found that coverage of women’s sport increased from 15% of Australian sports news in 2022–23 to 20% in 2023–24. That is real progress, but men’s sport still accounted for 75% of coverage.
So, have times changed? Absolutely. Have the standards become equal? Not yet.
The sporty and sexy double standard
Male athletes are regularly marketed through strength, rivalry, skill and achievement. They may also be considered attractive, but attractiveness is rarely treated as the price of admission.
For women, the equation is often different. Athletes can be encouraged to build a personal brand, grow a social following and attract sponsors, while knowing that appearance-based content may travel further than footage of years spent training. If a woman embraces sexuality, she may be accused of setting women’s sport back. If she rejects it, she may receive less attention. Either way, the scrutiny lands on her.
That is why the Sweeney campaign created such a sharp reaction. The issue is not whether one woman is allowed to pose provocatively. Of course she is. The harder question is why a sports company believed sexual provocation was the strongest way to capture attention, and why that formula remains so reliable.
Women in combat sports face an even sharper test
Boxing, Muay Thai and MMA challenge old ideas about how women should look and behave. A female fighter is not performing toughness; she is demonstrating trained power, discipline, courage and technical skill.
Yet combat athletes often face two opposing expectations. They must appear fierce enough to be taken seriously, but feminine enough to be considered marketable. Their weigh-ins, clothing and appearance can generate more online discussion than their footwork, defence or fight record. Men are allowed to look like fighters. Women are often expected to look like fighters and models.
The imbalance also extends beyond the athlete spotlight. At the Paris Games, only 18.6% of Australia’s high-performance coaches were women. In 2023, women held only about one quarter of board-chair positions across Australian sporting organisations. Women may be highly visible inside the ring or on the field, while decision-making, coaching and governance remain far less equal.
Is Sexuality the Problem?
Not by itself. Strength and sexuality are not opposites, and women should not have to hide their bodies to earn respect. Athletes should be free to present themselves as powerful, glamorous, sexy, private, or all of those things at different times.
The problem begins when sexuality becomes an expectation, a shortcut to sponsorship or the main lens through which women’s sport is sold. Choice matters, but so does context. There is a difference between a woman choosing to celebrate her own body and an industry repeatedly using the female body as decoration around sport.
Equality is more than being allowed to compete
Women in sport have never been more visible, and that deserves recognition. But equal participation is only one measure. Equality also means comparable coverage, investment, coaching opportunities, leadership pathways and the freedom to be assessed first on performance.
Perhaps the most useful response to the Sydney Sweeney ad is not outrage or applause. It is a better question: if the campaign had featured a highly skilled female athlete showing what she could actually do, would it have attracted the same attention?
At HERfight, we believe women should not have to choose between femininity and strength. But their strength should never need sex appeal to make it worth watching.
HERfight creates women’s combat-sports gear for women who train, compete and show up on their own terms. Explore HERfight women’s boxing gloves and find gear designed with women in mind.
Related: Why Self-Defence Matters for Women. Jamie Edenden and other Australian fighters and coaches on awareness, confidence and staying safe.
Sources
• Associated Press, Female athletes accuse Sydney Sweeney ad of sexualizing women in sports
• Change Our Game, Representation of women in sports news coverage 2023–24
• Reuters, Australia sets gender targets for sporting boards
• The Guardian, Women coaches in Australian Olympic sport
• Australian Sports Commission, Media coverage and representation