INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY I SUSIE SMITH

When it comes to advocating for women’s opportunities and greater representation, Water Polo Australia Board is leading from the front.

WPA Board member, Susie Smith said the board has a clear mandate that they want the sport to be inclusive and create equal pathways and representation for women in the sport. 

Smith, who joined the WPA Board in 2018, has a long association with the sport as a former Aussie Stingers player and junior coach, and shares the like minded passion of her peers to get more females taking on leadership roles within Water Polo.

“When it comes to registrations and participation, our sport has good parity with 50/50 male and females getting involved. 

“When it comes to results at the highest level, our Women’s team have excelled and the depth in our women’s pathways programs is strong.

“But as a Board and Executive, the number of women in coaching and refereeing roles was well below par, hovering around 10%. 

“With that in mind, we set out to implement initiatives to get more women into those two key areas, including working with program partners like the Australian Sports Commission, to provide access to programs and empower women to take on leadership roles.

“We recognised that we couldn't keep doing the same thing as we always had and expecting a different outcome… so unless we changed our approach, we weren’t going to make meaningful changes. 

“Advocating change always begins at the top and for us as the Board of Water Polo Australia we needed to lead by example.  We aim to have a balanced skills based board with diverse experience to lead our sport and by having the flexibility of two appointed Directors enabled the board to achieve this diversity.

“That is then reflected in our subcommittees, where we want to change the unconscious bias that had existed within the sport,” she said. 

Smith said the Board and Executive have taken proactive steps to support, aid and identify female talent.

“People like Rowie Webster [triple Olympian] and connecting her with the AIS National Generation 2032 Coach program, supporting Liz Scott [Olympic gold medalist] with her appointment to the Australian Olympic Committee Board, advocating and supporting Nicola Johnson with her international refereeing as well as having her part of the WPA Senior Management Team along with Holly Tyrell, former Australian Team assistant coach Sharyn Arnold heading up our Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement program as well as Keesja Gofers [dual Olympian] managing our alumni program.

“These are just some of the women who we have worked with and supported to take on leadership roles within our sport and also the industry. But there are plenty more.

“And we can’t forget the people who came before who set the tone… people like Leanne Barnes, Pat Jones, Yvette Higgins, and Liz Scott and so many who fought for inclusion in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games which was a turning point for the sport.  

“We know internationally, our sport has a long way to go to start to see parity across key roles within the sport. 

“In Australia, we like to think we’re leading by example.  In the last two years the number of WPA funded female coaches rose from 10 to 45 percent, 38% of our FINA panel referees are women, the highest of any country in the world, the number of AYWPC referees climbed from 31 to 45 percent and the number of female national assistant coaches increased to 40 from 20 percent.

“This shows what we’re doing is making an impact. But we want to do more and want to encourage more women who have a passion for water polo to get involved whether that is at a Club or National level,” she said.