According to BBC research, 38% of Indians do not enjoy women’s sport as much as men’s, despite the majority advocating for equal pay.
Over 10,000 people were interviewed for the study, from 14 seperate Indian states and were asked questions that included how entertaining they found women’s sport compared to men’s and whether sports women were as good as their male counterparts.
The findings of the study highlighted that a number of old stereotypes are seemingly still prevalent across the country. The Head of Audience Research at BBC World Service, Santany Chakrabarti said, “Our research shows attitudes towards women and women’s sports in India are complex, contradictory and counter-intuitive.”
“The research project shows that real progress has been made in terms of attitudes towards women and women’s sports yet some age old stereotypes retain a hold on the imagination.”
Overall, only 41% said that sports women were as good as their male counterparts and 29% even said that they did not believe women were strong enough to play sport. Boxing, weightlifting, wrestling and motorsports were all deemed unsuitable for females.
Despite these outdated opinions, there is hope that women’s sport in India is on the rise. The Women’s T20 World Cup final was the most viewed sporting event of the week earlier this month, with almost 2 billion viewing minutes in total. With statistics like these, hopefully these old-aged myths that women are inferior or incapable of playing sport will soon be put to bed.