Lifestyle, Women
Women and Visibility: Keep Showing Up
Keep showing up
More women are taking up running and entering events. When they show up, they show everyone that women deserve their equal place in events. Let’s keep this drive moving forward, with even small signals creating significant change.
Back in the day
What you see is what you get. A whole generation of us has grown up with the background impression that only skinny serious looking men in moustaches, vests and short shorts run races. Seeing race photos of these events when growing up on TV and in the press, sticks in the mind. Add to this, running being given as school punishment for much of this same generation, and you can see how it’s been a mountain to climb for individual women to start running and show up on start lines.
Starting out
Many women have a fear of starting out, as they feel running in the streets can be a very exposing activity. They often feel people are ‘looking at them’. It is only with experience, that we realise nobody really cares what we are doing, and if they are looking, they may well actually be impressed! Of course, there are exceptions where people can be unkind, and so it can be a source of anxiety. Event organisers are therefore right to work on encouraging people to enter and feel welcome and safe. Once you line up at an event, you discover that other runners and spectators are actually very supportive of your efforts to get to that start line.
Starting out in events, many runners, male and female, are nervous about finishing last, still harbouring the legacy images of only fast men running races. So organisers are also doing more to support the tail end of their finishers. Parkrun has surely done the most here, with its volunteer tail walkers ensuring no-one finishes last. The London Marathon recently (Feb 2020) announced numerous measures to ensure runners at the back are supported, including a DJ bus and tailwalkers to support marathoners.
Small steps, big changes
Let’s welcome women entering events, but keep the drive for more equality on the events they take part in.
The move for equal prizes and prize money is getting hold. Larger events and those with elite prize money, like the London Marathon, are usually matched for male and female runners. However there’s still a way to go, and small local races outside the mainstream press have influence too. Even if it’s a slightly larger size trophy or a couple of additional prizes for men at a small event, children seeing the Dads getting more than the Mums, doesn’t do much for positive gender roles in sport.
‘You can’t be what you can’t see’. How many events feature photos of men in vests at the front and women in tutus waving at the back? Let’s get some front running women and tail running men in fancy dress in the mix too. Everyone is welcome, and featuring women in event promotional photos throughout all of the event, would be a good start to make women feel confident they are welcome wherever they run.
The recent (29 Feb 2020) US Atlanta trials were a shining example of more women running to the highest levels. Numerous participants reported being inspired to reach new levels after having seen women in other events hit the qualifying time (under 2:45 for the marathon). They had their own ‘if she can, I can’ moment.
This can happen from the front, through the middle and at the back. To borrow a phrase from an inspirational female US runner Des Linden, let’s “keep [women] showing up” and moving forward, wherever they are or want to be.
