Our research has revealed that new opportunities for women in (or close to) leadership positions in surfing have also played an important role in initiating further changes towards gender equity. The announcement of 50% points is not progress, it’s a reminder that in the eyes of the association and the world, women are considered less than men. 2017 World Champion adaptive surfer Dani Burt was so irked that she wrote a protest letter, arguing that: In the 2018 Adaptive Surfing World Championship team competition, women’s events scores are only weighted at 50% of the men’s scores. However, it has not been equitable across the board. In May, the ISA announced that it would offer equal competition slots for women and men in the 2018 World Surfing Games and the World Junior Surfing Championship. Along with implementing some gender diversity across their various boards and committees, their flagship international surfing competitions are the central way to demonstrate this commitment. The ISA actively promotes itself as being committed to “best practice”. Surfing at the Olympics will be governed by the International Surfing Association (ISA), with the support of the WSL. Our research suggests that by setting targets for gender inclusion for the international federations, the IOC is exerting a regulatory pressure with impact on the structures and decision-making in recruitment of staff and committee representatives. Key aspirations include achieving 50% female participation. But promoting women’s participation and involvement in sport is also central to the IOC’s modernisation agenda. Much of the public commentary on the inclusion of surfing, alongside skateboarding and sport climbing, has focused on these sports’ appeal to younger audiences. Surfing will be making its Olympic debut in the Tokyo 2020 summer games, and this also has an important effect. More money may be pouring into women’s sport, but there's still a dearth of female coaches Key members of the commission were convinced that this constituted inequity. When they failed to persuade the WSL, they lobbied the California Coastal Commission, the state permit-granting agency tied to the Mavericks event, arguing that gender-based discrimination was against the law. It drove the movement in California for women to gain access and equal pay to the infamous big wave event at Mavericks. The Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing has worked tirelessly to fight for gender equity.
#FEMALE SURFERS PROFESSIONAL#
Women outside the professional sport have also contributed through campaigns against the sexualisation of female surfers. Their struggles and successes have ebbed and flowed with industry changes, and alongside broader social trends. Professional female surfers have been advocating for decades for their rights, including equal pay, access to events, visibility and sponsorship. Women have been riding waves since the beginnings in ancient Hawaii. The men’s purse was US$551,000 (split between 36 surfers) and the women’s purse US$275,500 (divided among 18 surfers). In 2016 it instigated a move to address the gender pay balance. The World Surfing League (WSL) organises professional surfing internationally. The visibility appears to be having important trickle-down effects, with the numbers of recreational female surfers continuing to grow. Professional female surfers gained the respect of their male peers and of viewers around the world. Over the past decade, women’s positions in the sport have undergone radical changes. In the contemporary context, however, the hyper-masculinity celebrated in surfing culture has meant that women had to develop new strategies.Ĭori Schumacher, former world champion and self-proclaimed surf feminist and activist, described how from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, female surfers were marginalised, with minimal sponsorship or prize money, and largely invisible in the surf media. Since the beginning of wave-riding in ancient Hawaii, women have been active participants in the cultural practice of surfing. The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations University of Waikato provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. University of Waikato provides funding as a member of The Conversation NZ. Holly Thorpe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. She is affiliated with Professional Associations including the Leisure Studies Association, the International Sociology of Sport Association and the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. She has received funding from UK and NZ research councils, and charities. Associate Professor in Sociology of Sport and Physical Culture, University of WaikatoĪssociate Professor in Sport, Leisure and Health, University of Waikatoīelinda Wheaton works for The University of Waikato, NZ.
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