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Human Rights, Gender and Sport: Lessons from Australian Rules Football

2020; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

1556-5068

Kate Seear, Liam Elphick,

Doping in Sports

The development of women’s sport has long been intrinsically connected with human rights, whether in promoting gender equality, removing barriers to full participation in society, or addressing discrimination based on sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. This is particularly so in Australia with the recent development of several elite-level female sporting competitions at a national level, such as the National Rugby League Women’s Premiership and the Women’s Twenty20 Big Bash League. These competitions, many still in their infancy, provide a lens within which to examine human rights issues in society, from which broader lessons can be learned moving forward. Indeed, human rights scholars often draw a link between sport and gender equality, arguing that equal opportunity to participate in and play sport is an important human rights concern. This chapter therefore explores the relationship between human rights and sport in contemporary Australia, using the first two seasons of the Australian Football League Women (AFLW) as its case study. We begin with a brief overview of the connection between human rights and sport as well as women’s involvement in Australian Rules football since its inception, including an outline of some of the historic structural barriers to full participation that women have faced. Following this, through an analysis of two case studies - sex discrimination and LGBTIQ+ rights - we examine some of the human rights controversies, challenges and opportunities thrown up by the development and launch of the AFLW. We argue that a close examination of the first two years of the AFLW provides useful insights into how sport can advance human rights, including non-discrimination, gender equality and LGBTIQ+ rights. At the same time, we argue that the existing format and structure of the AFLW poses risks to gender equality and human rights more broadly, including transgender rights. We conclude with some reflections about the lessons offered by the first two seasons of the AFLW, including what the first two seasons mean for the future of human rights in the AFL, in particular, and in Australian sport more broadly.