It’s not often Cate Campbell and I are divided in opinion, but in this week’s episode of Here if You Need we found ourselves with slightly opposing views of whether more men should be included in the commentary of women’s sport.
Put simply, I don’t feel we need to be ‘balancing out’ commentary teams based on gender. It should come down to the talent’s knowledge and insight of the game. Now, this is NOT a license for sports bosses to then go ‘great, so we should revert to having all males in the commentary box because men know the game best’.
It’s clearly evident through the inclusion of female commentators in the last decade or so, that there is valuable insight, analysis and opinion to be gained from both genders, regardless of the sport.
What I am saying is that I don’t feel in a scenario where you have an all-female commentary team, that one or two should be swapped out for a couple of male commentators to balance out the panel. We have fought for so long to see women get the same opportunity as men, the last thing I want to see is a talented female media personality have an opportunity taken away from them purely because of their gender.
Listen to Hayley discuss this topic with Cate Campbell on Here If You Need. Post continues after podcast.
