Sport is recognized as playing a relevant societal role to promote education, health, communication, and individual development of a person regardless of their gender, political affiliation, sexual orientation and socioeconomic background.

Their are organisations striving to improve gender equality. The Commonwealth Games Federation are proud to be setting the pace for gender representation and opportunity in sport through their Vision statement. Equality is one of their three core values, and they see their dynamic sporting movement has an important part to play to explore how Commonwealth sport and everyone in their diverse sporting family can better deliver equality for women and girls.

Sport is important in the promotion of gender equality as it can contribute to the elimination of discrimination against women and girls by empowering them and equipping them  with skills and knowledge required to progress in society.

Sport can and does advocate for gender equality, address the constrictive gender norm and provide inclusive safe places.

In recent months issues of gender inequality in sport has gained significant traction all around the world including NZ. The Football Ferns are also paid a salary giving them pay parity with their male counterparts,  recent changes by the canadian government who have set a target of gender equality at all levels of sport by 2035 - putting 30 million dollars over the next 3 years into womens  sport.

New Zealand women punch far above their weight in the international level, so sponsors are now seeking out sports women ahead of some sports men, as their brand representatives.  
There will be equal rights for for image use and this is the first time women team will fly business class representing New Zealand. Interview with Sarah Gregorius- Football fern striker " When you put that NZ football jersey on, No mates if your female you are entitled to the same respect / treatment as males, wonderful such an awesome feeling we are getting recognised now".  

Media has a opportunity to influence how women are portrayed in sport and society. Presently the media often portray women sport in a sexist light by focussing on their femininity rather than their ability and athletic performance.

The sports media do not  give women in sport their due dividends.

It is reported that media broadcasts of netball internationals attract hundreds of thousands of viewers, so could that mean the coverage of other womens sport  would attract the same amount of viewers. A question that the media should be investigating in my opinion.  

In a more positive light, I believe that the New Zealand society is gaining a better view of women in sport now. Athletes like Valerie Adams, Lisa Carrington, Lydia Ko, The Black Ferns 7s, and the Black Fern 15s are recognised for their sporting achievements and their character. These high profile women athletes are certainly empowering our younger generation of girls. This is evident with the young women who are currently making their presence on the world stage - Amelia Kerr in cricket, Risaleanna Pouri-Lane in Sevens rugby, Aliyah Dunn in Netball to name a few.  

"The amount of money we are putting into High Performance Sport New Zealand (over the next four year Olympic cycle) has been set and..looking forward to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics has gone up from where we were and we continue to invest in other non-Olympic codes and their elite athletes and that's still very important but it is completely possible for Sport New Zealand particularly working in combination with other agencies and other groups in the community to be more focused on the whole community so that work programme is there and underway for high performance sport, what this is about is getting a bit of balance back into the programme," said Mr Robertson.