Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site
Forgot your password?
Subscribe

Author: Erin Riley

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Breaking the glass ceiling in Australian elite sport

    • Erin Riley
    • 17 November 2020
    6 Comments

    If the up-and-across path isn’t available, it makes it all the more important that there are sufficient development opportunities within sports in Australia. Unfortunately, as women’s professional sport has grown in Australia, fewer women have been given coaching roles.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Harris statue marks a turning point for AFLW

    • Erin Riley
    • 12 September 2019
    4 Comments

    It felt like a turning point. Female athletes and their supporters were saying no, we will not stand by while this happens. That sexual harassment has no place in our game. That female athletes should be able to do their jobs without abuse.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Women still fighting for territory in unequal AFL

    • Erin Riley
    • 19 August 2019

    The AFL's announcement that AFLX would be scrapped after two seasons, despite heavy media coverage, was a strong indication of the league's commitment to women's football. It now needs to follow up with commitments that reflect the increasing scale and importance of the women's competition to the league.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The myth of the leg-up for women's sports

    • Erin Riley
    • 23 January 2019
    11 Comments

    When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Sometimes, it's worse than that: when you're accustomed to privilege, even meagre attempts towards equality can be interpreted as unfair. This attitude is evident not only in conversations about affirmative action and quotas, but in the way we talk about sport.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    The frontlines of voter suppression in the US

    • Erin Riley
    • 02 November 2018
    3 Comments

    In a year when voter suppression has become a key tactic for Republicans' defense of their majorities in the house and senate, Prairie View is once again a perfect microcosm for voter suppression in the United States. Local officials have made it difficult for students to register, and restricted their opportunities to vote.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Our economy is failing families

    • Erin Riley
    • 10 April 2018
    11 Comments

    As I drop my daughter at daycare at 6:30am, to be looked after by someone else who I then have to pay, to go to work to earn enough money to pay our rent and daycare, I am struck by how much our system is failing families. It was a failure of my own empathy that I only came to understand this after I experienced it personally.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    AFL women's league may threaten not boost diversity

    • Erin Riley
    • 05 September 2016
    4 Comments

    The lower wage for players in the AFL women's league has serious equity implications, beyond the clear discrepancy between men's and women's wages. In order to train three times a week, many players will be required to relocate closer to their clubs. This puts their day jobs in jeopardy, meaning only those who can afford to change jobs or take time off can afford to play. This has the potential to seriously skew the playing group towards those who are from higher socio-economic status.

    READ MORE
  • MEDIA

    Time to retire 'magical negro' trope from Aussie sport

    • Erin Riley
    • 29 February 2016
    16 Comments

    Sports journalists shape narratives. There is drama intrinsic to sport, but the sports journalist draws it out, identifying heroes and villains, and slotting each performance into a broader arc. The power to influence the way the public understands a game or player ought to be wielded carefully. Too often, it is not. This is best demonstrated by the ways in which commentators and journalists speak about Indigenous athletes. A simple superlative can be loaded with more than a century of cultural baggage.

    READ MORE