I SPENT a very interesting and educational morning at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow last Saturday listening to Sarah Shepherd talk about her book Kicking Off – How Women in Sport are Changing the Game.

Sarah, a journalist who works for a London sports magazine, spent many long hours compiling information to include in her book and even longer hours before that trying to get a publisher interested in the concept.

Four-time ironman world champion, Chrissie Wellington provides the foreword and condenses perfectly the issues facing women in terms of their health, wellbeing and confidence, while also commenting on the still-active sexism that excludes women, on many occasions, from participating on a level playing field.

The book asks three questions: Why do the most successful female athletes earn less than their male counterparts? Why do so few elite sportswomen have the profile their talent deserves? Why are girls still growing up believing that sport is “for boys”?

Included in the book is a section on Billie Jean King who has helped change the global sporting landscape for women. Billie Jean’s successes include 39 Grand Slam tennis titles as well as being the winner of the inaugural WTA Tour Championships – and that is just for starters.

She is an avid advocate for sexual equality and travel the world supporting events that champion that cause and is also the founder of the Women’s Sport Foundation.

For me, one of the most interesting areas discussed on Saturday, was the rise in the number of female professional athletes – by that I mean being paid for playing their sport. While we could all now give examples of of women in this position, and believe that attitudes are changing, Sarah points out that in most cases their contracts are short term, with no cushion of comfort to an athlete who might have to sit out a season due to injury.

On average a male can expect a contract to cover anything between five and 10 years. For women, it’s one year to three years at best. Golfer Rory McIlroy has a 10-year contract with a leading sports brand which will net him in the region of £150 million. Jessica Ennis-Hill tops the list for female athletes with a one-year contract worth £195.000.

Perhaps woman athletes have been conditioned to be thankful for what they get! Which leads on to the question, ‘Why does society rate the success of men over that of women, particularly in sport?’ Carrying out a quick search online I thought it would be interesting to see how many books there were on female athletes. The search results were very interesting. Quite well populated, there was very limited choice from Scotland or indeed the United Kingdom, with most of the publications, promoting female athletes, from the US.

Why is this the case? Perhaps publishers believe that our female athletes simply don’t have a tale to tell. Do they feel that there isn’t a market out there for this type of book or is it that the athletes themselves don’t believe their story is of interest to the general public?

Whatever the case there is one thing that is clear, we are failing our female population if we don’t provide inspiration for those who are coming up through the ranks. Let them read about the good and bad times, the hardship and joy that being a professional athlete brings. Give them the books, create the opportunity and let them decide their future.

Saturday listening to Sarah Shepherd talk about her book – ‘Kicking Off – How women in sport are changing the game’. Sarah, a sports journalist for a London sports magazine, has spent many long hours compiling information to include in her book and even longer hours prior to that trying to get a publisher interested in the concept.

Four times Ironman World Champion, Chrissie Wellington provides the foreword for the book and condenses perfectly the issues facing women in terms of their health, wellbeing and confidence, and compares that with the still active sexism that excludes women, on many occasions, from participating on a level playing field.

The book asks three questions:-

Why do the most successful female athletes earn less than their male counterparts?

Why do so few elite sportswomen have the profile their talent deserves?

Why are girls still growing up believing that sport is ‘for boys’?

Included in the book is a section on Billie Jean King who is still a major forces in the in the US and has helped change the global landscape for women. Billie Jean’s accolades include 39 Grand Slam titles as well as being the winner of the inaugural WTA Tour Championships. To be fair, this is the condensed list of her achievements which would, as a concise list, probably take up the whole column! I must also take time to mention that she is an avid advocate for sexual equality and travels throughout the world supporting events that champion equality. She is also the founder of the Women’s Sport Foundation, so all in all pretty strong credentials for inclusion.

For me, one of the most interesting areas discussed on Saturday, was the rise in female athletes becoming professional and by that I mean being paid for playing their sport. Whilst we can all find an example now of a female ‘professional’ athlete, and believe that attitudes are changing, Sarah quite clearly points out that in most cases these contracts are written on a short term basis with no cushion of comfort to an athlete who may have to sit out a season due to injury. On average a male can expect a contract to cover anything between five and ten years, whilst a female contract can range from one year to three years at best. Golfer Rory McIlroy has a 19-year contract with a leading sports brand which will net him in the region of £150 million, and in contrast, Jessica Ennis-Hill has a one year contract, topping the table of female athletes at £195.000.

Perhaps woman athletes have been conditioned to be thankful for what they get. Which leads on to another question: Why does society rate the success of men over that of women, particularly in sport?

Carrying out a quick search online, I thought it would be interesting to see how many books there were on female athletes. The results were interesting. There was very limited choice from Scotland or indeed the United Kingdom, with most of such publications being from the US.

Why is this the case? Perhaps publishers believe our female athletes simply don’t have a tale to tell. Do they feel there isn’t a market out there for this type of book or is it that the athletes themselves don’t believe their story is of interest to the public?

Whatever the case, there is one thing that is clear: we are failing our female population if we don’t provide inspiration for those who are coming up through the ranks.

Let them read about the good and bad times, the hardship and joy that being a professional athlete brings. Give them the books, create the opportunity and let them decide their future.