Still Running For The Line

This is my niece Liv on her way to score a try in her first game of girls rugby last week. Warms the cockles, I tell ya. Rugby tragic that I am, when I was at school girls weren't allowed to play. Now Liv can take her love of the game to the world stage if she wants to - but at the moment she will only be paid if she reaches the national level or attracts her own sponsors. Our worldbeating Wallaroos have only received match payments since last year and they pale in comparison to the men's purse. The sacrifice, discipline, training and skill required is the same.

No matter the game or the industry or the debate, it is always the same. And I guess that in a nutshell is why we women keep banging on about equality. International Womens Day shows how far we may have come and rightly honours the many trailblazing shoulders we stand upon. But it is incomplete unless it ackowledges just how far we still have to go. Until the playing field is safe and level, we must continue to draw attention to its gross disparity and the inherent unfairness that remains our society's status quo.

I am so grateful to come from a line of strong independent women who carved their own paths through a man's world. Women who showed me that you work just as hard and expect nothing less. Women who each taught me, in their own way, about my power and what a privilege it is to be a woman. This post is dedicated to Nancy, Kathleen, Barbie and Jackie, whose blood thrums in me.

Woman.

She who breathes life into everything she touches.
She who creates more from less.
She who mothers and nurtures.
She whose proud grace continues to overcome.

Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women
~ Maya Angelou

Words c. Kerrie Basha, 2019