|
The Working Ladies in Western Province :
Anonymous
Ever since the ladies started playing bowls, they have always been expected to play most of their bowls during the week. This was quite natural and accepted in the past as bowls was mainly an elderly person's game - working gentlemen being more in the majority. Bowls is also considered to be one of those sports where a couple could play the same sport and belong to the same club. Most ladies that did play in the old days, did not work. Their men were the bread winners. Those were the good old days ! So this made sense that the men were given green and rink space to play most of their club or provincial competitions over the week ends. It also made sense that the ladies played most of their competitive bowls during the week, and week-ends the ladies kindly made tea and delicious sandwiches for the men folk. If a lady did work, well it was just tough and hard luck - if you wanted to play most competitive bowls - particularly provincial competitions, you had to take leave or just miss out. Like a lot of ladies that did work before and play bowls, as they did, you must just wait till you give up working and then come in and join the majority of non working lady bowlers during the week.
As time has gone on, we came to the 80's. Cost of living has gone mad and most people want to live a better life than the past generation, so to achieve this, most people have to work. Gone are the days of the man being the bread winner and the woman stays at home looking after children. In this day and age, bowls has also began to attract a slightly younger generation - but now 90% of them work. In the Western Province, any man that joins - we can offer him all available competitions. But the ladies - if it comes to provincial competitions - oh no, you must pick or choose or just lose out unless you are prepared to take your very precious leave of course. However, we can offer them kitchen, bar or umpire's duties. Is this right ?
Major provinces - such as Gauteng & Natal have realized this problem and have changed to accommodate their new and working ladies. But NOT Western Province. The fight for equal rights has been going on for 4 years now, and WPBA will just not bite !! Being fully aware it is totally unconstitutional, they insist that the ladies must vote on the issue. Unfortunately in the Western Province, most of the playing ladies are non working and are therefore not willing or interested in changing with the times. They say the working ladies are in the minority so why must they change to please these few. Therefore should WPBA insist that the ladies vote at club level, very obviously things will remain as they are. No change. Gender discrimination continues in WP !!
What one finds very amazing is, WPBA and Bowls SA, are asking each playing member to try and bring in more people to play this wonderful game. All provinces have formed development committees. Western Province Development - do we attract mainly men and the elderly or retired women ? We don't have much to offer the working lady. The time and effort put into coaching the school kids and any new bowler - are we honest and tell the females, "sorry girls and ladies, not all provincial competitions are played over the week ends. If you want to play in most of those, you will have to take leave or just lose out" ? And our selectors - how do they fairly select the working girls if these girls cannot be permitted to display their talents in provincial competitions. Sadly, the keen and competitive working lady is taking all their precious leave to play in most of the WP provincial competitions. A lot of them are bringing back honours to their clubs and province - to which the non working ladies belong and benefit. How long does WPBA and the non working lady bowler expect this to go on for ? Must we wait for the game to die or do we change our outlook and attitude. The answer is very obvious. WPBA must enforce change and have a re look at their whole bowling structure and calendar. Lets stop these old ways and discrimination and give each and every playing member an equal opportunity of participating in all competitions.
|
|
