Female Australian rules umpires have outlined their reasons for either quitting or being hesitant to continue in the sport, in a detailed account of both verbal and physical abuse while honing their craft.
In a report published by The Age, several female officials say that abuse from both peers and spectators made them reconsider wanting to remain in the sport.
The experiences were detailed in a research paper by Dr Victoria Rawlings, a lecturer in education from the University of Sydney, and former AFL community umpiring development manager Damian Anderson: Girls and women in Australian football umpiring: understanding registration, participation and retention.
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One anecdote involves a female state league umpire who heard her co-workers talking about her physical appearance, unaware that she was in earshot.
“I openly overheard a group of guys talking about my boobs at training one night… I was walking up the stairs, and I overheard them being literally like, ‘Oh my god, have you seen [her] tits?’ And I turned around and I looked at them, and I was like ‘Are you serious? Like that’s what you’re going to say? That’s what you say at training?’ And it freaked me out a little bit to be like my god, what do you say, like, as a group behind my back?”
Another said she stopped attending training sessions after being made to feel uncomfortable by a coach that would try and talk to her and arrange meet-ups outside of training, while a third said she received unwanted text messages and advances.
“I used to receive messages of nudes that other umpires would send to me,” she said.
“And umpires during games would inappropriately touch me, like when we’re umpiring together and things like that. So, that’s what made me quit that level of umpiring because I thought it was too inappropriate, and I didn’t know what to do about it at the time.”
Eleni Glouftsis, the first female field umpire in the AFL men’s competition, said in the foreword of the paper that she hoped the study would help make the sport more inclusive.
“In reading this research, I felt frustrated that girls and women in umpiring roles are still facing the same obstacles and challenges that I faced almost 16 years ago; I had hoped things would have improved. They certainly should have,” she said.
“Umpires face many challenges – and these challenges are even more complex and compounded for girls and women in umpiring. This research shows clearly what we know through experience – that the umpiring club environment is critical for recruitment and retention of umpires, and more importantly, for their mental health and wellbeing.”
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