Feb. 15, 2023

Donna Gall, Professor, School of Media, has been championing women and sport for years.

Her documentary Play Fair delved into the subject and featured some of Canada’s top female athletes, such as four-time Olympic gold medalist in hockey Hayley Wickenheiser, champion rower Silken Laumann and Katie Willis, who helped get women’s ski jumping into the 2014 Olympics.

The film inspired Dr. Gall to do her PhD on media coverage of women’s sport.

She’s passionate about the subject. And that’s why Dr. Gall went to Ottawa to provide recommendations to The House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women, which is working on a study about women and girls in sport.

Dr. Gall told the committee that there needs to be more stories about women and girls to make sport safe and equitable.

The committee launched the study – looking at how to create an environment to encourage girls and women to participate in sport – after hundreds of athletes spoke out about abuse in the aftermath of Hockey Canada’s response to allegations of sexual assault.

Chaired by Karen Vecchio, the Shadow Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, and MP for Elgin-Middlesex-London, the committee heard from concerned citizens, experts and organizations between November 2022 and January 2023. Their report to Parliament is expected this spring.

Dr. Gall said that when she was making her documentary, women were reluctant to speak about abuse. That’s changing now, following the #MeToo movement and high-profile sexual abuse cases coming to light.

“I believe these stories of abuse have the power to change sport,” Dr. Gall said. “But we also need positive stories to show us what sport can be for women and girls in Canada.”

Dr. Gall’s recommendations also included more funding for prime-time media coverage of women’s sports, for scripted and documentary content and for digital storytelling to help athletes share their own experiences.

National sport networks dedicate about four per cent of their 35,000 hours of annual coverage to women’s sports, according to a 2016 study by the Canadian Women & Sport Foundation.

Dr. Gall pointed out to the committee that, of the 97 Historica Canada “Heritage Minutes” videos about significant people and events in Canadian history, only one of the 12 episodes on sport is about female athletes.

“I loved what Dr. Gall said about Heritage Minutes,” MP Vecchio said in an interview. “It’s time to look at the expansion of women and sport and to bring it to the public.”

Kurt Muller, Dean, Faculty of Communication, Art & Design, agrees that significant change is needed, and that advocates such as Dr. Gall are needed to make it happen.

“In my conversations with Dr. Gall, she has stressed that if we want to change the culture of sport, we need to change the discourses that create that culture,” he said. “The expertise, passion and commitment of media professionals like her is crucial to that process. We are extremely lucky to have Dr. Gall at Seneca.”