HANNA ZIADY: After all the talk of gender equality society still looks down on female athletes
In the recent Cambridge-Oxford boat races the men’s team received far more media attention than the women’s team
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Though this frequently used phrase was coined by French critic and journalist Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr decades before the women’s liberation movement had officially begun, it nonetheless fittingly describes the way society often views and celebrates men’s achievements over women’s. Take the Cambridge versus Oxford boat races, which took place last Sunday on a typically grey English day on the River Thames. The historic race (it has been an annual sports fixture since 1829) attracts about 250,000 spectators, 20% of who are day visitors to London. Another 7-million watch on national television. There are two first-team races and two reserve races. Happily, Cambridge won all four this year. The first women’s team claimed its third straight victory over Oxford, with the first men’s team claiming a second straight win. But it was the men’s boat that garnered the most media attention, not le...
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