Women’s sport has developed professionally in Australia over the past twenty years. Historically, there have been far fewer women’s professional sport leagues with enough sponsorships to pay athletes full time, compared with men’s sport. This started to change beginning with netball, basketball and rugby.

With the meteoric rise of women’s professional football (AFL), it has become clear that the time has finally come for women’s professional sport. But there are still fundamental equity issues around sponsorship, media coverage and importantly, how much athletes are paid.

On this episode, Nicole and David take a look at the professionalisation of women’s sport in Australia. Tracy Taylor from the UTS Business School joins us in the studio to tell us about her research into women’s professional sport. Later, we interrupt gold medal winner and AFLW rookie, Chloe Dalton during Carlton training to tell us about her experience in professional sport.

Further Reading:

• Tracy Taylor is Professor of Sport Management with the UTS Business School. Her research focused on human resource management and executive leadership development, covering areas such as cultural diversity management in sport, volunteer management, and sport and security. You can find more of Tracy Taylor’s research on the UTS Business School website
• Chloe Dalton (@ChloeDalton7s) now plays for the Carlton Blues

Credits:

• GWS Giants Theme song by Harry Angus of Cat Empire
• Thank you to OMP Sports Management, GWS Giants and AFL Women’s for helping us with this episode.Music: Gunnar Johnsén, Rand Aldo,  Jobii
• Photo: Darrian Traynor/AFL Media