500 signatures reached
To: The Honours Committee
Award Honours to mens and womens sports teams equally
We call upon Lord Coe and Sir Bob Kerslake to address the discrepancy in the awarding of honours to successful English rugby teams. In 2003 a well paid and highly resourced men's English rugby team won the 2003 World Cup, as a result all 30 members of the squad deservedly received an MBE, correctly irrespective of individual contribution.
In 2014 the England Womens Rugby team; a group of amateur women from England won the World Cup in a dominating fashion. Many of these ladies worked or studied full time, whilst others had to fund raise to finance their participation. In the recently announced Honours list Sarah Hunter and Rochelle Clark were deservedly awarded MBE's.
We ask the Honours committees to apologise for this error and address it by retrospectively awarding these deserving rugby players whose achievements are no less incredible for being achieved by a group of women.
Why is this important?
Awarding honours in such a clearly gender specific way does nothing to encourage young women and girls to believe that participating in sport will be considered as worthy and respected as that of male participation. Women's sport receives less funding, coverage and sponsorship than men's, by adjudging the pinnacle of Women's Rugby to be so much less worthy of Honour reinforces the status quo.
Any man who believes a girl has as much right as a boy to achieve success in sports and to be recognised for that success should feel the need to sign this petition.
