Women score equal dollars at Phillip Island
In the 70s it was coined Bloke's Island due to an alarming gender disparity, but Phillip Island will soon become a paragon of gender equality.
Overnight, Surfing Victoria announced the forthcoming Phillip Island Pro - a Qualifying Series event - will increase the purse so both Men and Women have equal prize money. The prize pool will now total $20,000 split 50/50 so each gender gets a $10,000 purse.
Already I can hear the reprobates grumbling that more guys surf so the prize pool should reflect that.
Well slow down, Mr Equal Rights, Bass Coast Mayor Pam Rothfield is way ahead of you.
“It is true that there are fewer female competitors in this surfing event," said Mayor Rothfield. "However, this is a case of the chicken or the egg: Having fewer opportunities to develop and less prizemoney available contributes to fewer females compelled and encouraged to pursuit surfing."
"Creating equal prizemoney is a small step towards a big change. I truly hope that their future sees many events with equal prize money.”
Surfing Vic CEO Adam Robertson and Mayor Rothfield with smiling islanders
Local Phillip Island surfer Sage Goldsbury was understandably rapt. “I’m stoked the local council have put in extra money because it shows that they care about female surfers in the area. There are some great female surfers from Phillip Island and the more support we get the better.”
Whether by design or not, the timing of the announcement is remarkable, because around the same time Surfing Victoria was drafting its press release, Phillip Island's most successful surfer*, Nikki Van Dijk, was hoisting a trophy aloft in Portugal. After four seasons on the CT, Van Dijk took her maiden win at the Cascais Pro.
The Phillip Island Pro will run from the 28th to 31st October.
*I took Glyndon Ringrose into consideration but his two seasons on the CT and highest rank of 27th are edged out by Van Dijk's four seasons and 9th.
Comments
Blokes Island also related to the traditionally Blokey things to do on the island. Surfin, track racin cars and bikes, dirt bike ridin, fishin, divin, drinkin - you name it, it is all there.
and wrenching copious amounts of cones! Don't forget the cones.......
"Having fewer opportunities to develop and less prizemoney available contributes to fewer females compelled and encouraged to pursuit surfing."
I'm sure that's the reason why 95% of the surfers I see in the water are blokes. They're all chasing the big dollar in the next surfing comp.
Social engineering at its finest. Excuse my ignorance but perhaps blokes are just more inclined to chase surf than women are - irrespective of how much money they invest.
Ignorance indeed.
You reckon participation rates that would place the male to female ratio at 5:1 are a conspiracy put forth by misogynists ?
I pulled that ratio from thin air , but I reckon it'd be generous to the amount of female participants.
For context, on at the drives right now is Battle Of The Sexes, based on a true story about Bobby Rigg, a retired male pro becoming the "number one female tennis player in the world in 1973" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Sexes_(film)
whilst the plot line is sometimes slow to unravel ...I walked out thinking "did mainstream society really think like that only 40 years ago?"