- Sport
- Sailing
- Sydney to Hobart
This was published 3 years ago
‘Unfortunately, I’ve got the stories’: Female sailors still fighting sexism as other sports flourish
As women’s sport continues to grow across Australia, there are places that are “behind the eight ball”, and one of those is the world of sailing according to Australian ocean racer Stacey Jackson.
The Sydney to Hobart is celebrating the 75th year of female participation this year after trailblazers Jane “Jenny” Tate and Dagmar O’Brien joined the race in its second year in 1946.
Jackson is disappointed in how slowly the sport has moved when it comes to equality, while still acknowledging the 75-year milestone was worth celebrating.
"It's poor," she said. "75 years and we are at 10 per cent of women in sailing ... it's such a long period of time."
Jackson raced in her first Sydney to Hobart in 2001 at 18 years old and is one of Australia's most respected ocean racers.
Despite racing in her 13th Sydney to Hobart this year, Jackson said she still faces discrimination in the sport in 2020.
“Unfortunately, I’ve got the stories and I like to not dwell on them,” she said. “I’ve not gotten jobs blatantly ... people have said ‘but she’s a female’.”
“To me, I don’t understand what the difference is.”
In 2018, Jackson skippered a professional all-female crew to second overall in the famous race aboard Wild Oats X – Ocean Respect Racing. Her crew was beaten to the Tattersall Cup by little more than an hour.
"There is no physical restraint," she said. "Often we were 11 women and they were nine men so we made up the weight difference by having two more people."
“Our difference and our point where we would lose in the race every time was experience. It wasn’t that we weren’t physically stronger ... every point in the race we would find a position where we didn’t make the right decision because we didn’t have the experience.”
Stacey Jackson, Clare Costanzo, Juliet Costanzo and Nina Curtis are competing in this year’s race, which marks the 75th year since the first women entrants. Credit: Steven Saphore
The 37-year-old is now eager to see a world in the future where crews have an even split of men and women.
“I don’t think [50/50 equality] is out of the picture at all,” Jackson said. “You see it through the corporate world as well through sport, there has been a lot of changes recently ... but we are behind the eight ball.”
Since the 1946 race, more than 1,000 women have sailed in the Sydney to Hobart. This year’s race will have more than 160 women across the 76 crews.
Jackson said women in sailing face the double challenge of their sport not being generally well-known.
"Being a professional sailor people ask what you do for a living. Normally the follow-up question is, am I in the navy," Jackson said.
“Whereas if you say you’re a professional surfer, people would be like ‘cool’, or you play tennis, cricket, AFL, women’s rugby league, rugby union now. They are a professional sport and they’re a known sport.”
Olympic silver medallist Nina Curtis, 31, who has sailed in two Sydney to Hobarts and is readying for her third, said she would like to see the sport change to be more inclusive.
"There is still so much to be done," she said. "There are huge segments of sailing that are completely male-dominated."
This year’s race will see sisters Juliet, 21, and Clare, 24, Constanzo race on seperate boats for their first Sydney to Hobart race.
"I would very much like to see that change for the Juliets and Clares coming through," Curtis said. "It's a massive fight."
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