As International Women’s Day approaches, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Wide World of Sports have joined forces to choose the top 50 most influential women in Australian sport in a cross-platform content series.
A diverse range of women – including Anna Meares (#22), Jesinta Franklin (#42), Meg Lanning (#45) and Emma McKeon (#25) – are being published as a countdown over five days, concluding with the top 10 on International Women’s Day, Wednesday, March 8.
The top 50 influential women in sport will include athletes, sports administrators, journalists, sports agents and sponsors, among others.
The judging panel of 10 female journalists includes Wide World of Sports’ Roz Kelly, The Age sports editor Chloe Saltau, the Herald’s chief rugby reporter Georgina Robinson and Today’s news and entertainment presenter Brooke Boney.
40. Kate Jones
Wide World of Sports presenter Roz Kelly said, “The biggest players in Australian sport right now are not necessarily running out onto the field every weekend, setting world records or collecting gold medals.
“The fact it was such a challenge to compile the list shows we are moving in the right direction when it comes to female representation at board level and positions of power in Australian sport. But we still have a long way to go.
“We hope the list sparks healthy debate and encourages not just sporting organisations, but all businesses to break up the ‘boys clubs’ and work harder toward achieving equality.”
31. Caitlin Moran
The Age’s sports editor Chloe Saltau, said, “Some of the women on our list are household names, but the point of this list is that many of them operate in the background, making decisions about where the money goes, which sports appear on TV, toughing out negotiations, or even making sure your footy team gets on the field in the middle of a pandemic.”
The Sydney Morning Herald head of sport Ian Fuge said: “We want to mark International Women’s Day with a significant project that recognises the importance of women to sport in this country, not only as participants but as administrators, decision-makers, policy-setters and influencers.”
“It was no small task to narrow down an impressive field to a meaningful top 50 and we decided the best way to do this was to draw on the expertise across the Nine ecosystem in a collaboration between Wide World Of Sports, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.”