City of Vincent to encourage more females to play sport

THE City of Vincent hopes to level the playing field for women in sport.

After a membership audit of 21 clubs revealed only 30 per cent of the 4077 members were female, council this week decided to take steps to even out the numbers.

The City will deliver club development workshops to implement female friendly initiatives, start a marketing campaign that recognises local sportswomen and assess the female friendliness of sports grounds and facilities.

It will also review sportsgrounds fees and charges rebates and look at making programs at Beatty Park Leisure Centre and Loftus Recreation Centre more female friendly.

Even “all inclusive” Loton Park Tennis Club struggles to recruit female members with only nine signed up compared to 71 men.

Sporting clubs have welcomed the City’s action.

Leederville Cricket Club president Dave Proudmore said only a handful of women played for the club as fill-ins.

“The competition doesn’t have a female league; we have a few daughters of players who fill in,” he said.

“We are working on it and we hope that within two years we will have some female teams.

“Any help from the council would be welcome especially with advertising.”

Mr Proudmore said there were more options for women who wanted to play professionally than those who wanted to play socially.

Councillor Alex Cole addressed the issue during this week’s council meeting.

“I think high performance participation is catered for but we often see a drop off in females for those that are not a high level but for recreation or fitness purposes,” she said.

West Coast Splash Synchronised Swimming Club was the only one that has no male members and Triton Water Polo Club and Forrest Park Croquet Club were the only ones to report more female members than males.

Forrest Park Croquet Club President Jeffrey Locke attributed the numbers due to the unaggressive nature of the game and said he would like to see more encouragement.

“The more, the better,” he said.

Mayor Emma Cole said she wished there were more options for her when she was younger.

“As councillor Susan Gontaszewski and I tried to kick and field soccer balls today at Perth Soccer Club on the beautiful new Astroturf and I think my best catch was with my face; we reflected on the fact that perhaps if we had more opportunities growing up to participate in soccer or football we might have had a better go at it,” she said.