Our story
We are a collective of Australian women’s sports advocates, content creators and fans who for years—decades even—have been left wanting more from mainstream coverage of women in sport.
Realising we could achieve more together than separately, we combined our skills, experience and knowledge to create Siren: A Women in Sport Collective.
Siren: A Women in Sport Collective is a not-for-profit organisation.
Our initial goal centred on increasing the coverage of women’s sport in the mainstream media.
Our mission was to elevate women’s voices, alongside other diverse and marginalised voices to deliver feminist content that challenged the status quo of sport media.
Since launching in January 2020, we have:
- Built a highly engaged audience across social media and substack.
- Commissioned hundreds of pieces from writers, photographers and content creators who have been paid to appropriately compensate their labour.
- Hosted networking nights, social events, book clubs, mentoring sessions and workshops online and in person to connect our community.
- Partnered with organisations including Football Victoria, Swinburne University of Technology, Athena Nutrition and League Tees.
- Facilitated work integrated learning opportunities and internships for students from Deakin University and Charles Sturt University.
- Launched our Emerging Sports Writer Program.
- And something we’re very proud of! Established our groundbreaking partnership with the national broadcaster, the ABC, in 2021 to work together on the ABC’s 50:50 Equality Project that aims to increase the representation of women on ABC Sport.
Our work over the first four years of Siren has led us to expand our mission.
Our mission
Our mission is to challenge the status quo of sports media in Australia by creating opportunity and community for women and non-binary people in sports media.
We do this by:
- Creating opportunity for women and non-binary people in sports media through paid commissions, partnerships and programs.
- Building community for women and non-binary people in sport media, as well as allies of women’s sports, through our events and networking.
- Developing resources and creating supportive frameworks for emerging women and non-binary people in sports media.
- Celebrating the work of women and non-binary people in sports media.
- Elevating women’s voices, alongside other diverse and marginalised voices to deliver feminist sports content.
We’re also determined to abolish the culture of free labour around women’s sport.
There are so many passionate people working hard—mostly for free—because they believe women’s sports deserve better.
It does.
And we believe they deserve better too.
Our people
We are:
Gemma Bastiani is an AFL commentator, analyst, researcher and journalist.
Megan Brewer is a multimedia creative.
Kirby Fenwick is a writer, editor, researcher and award-winning audio producer.
Dr. Kate O’Halloran is an award-winning journalist, editor and academic researcher.
Alison Smirnoff is a digital media professional.
Dr. Kasey Symons is a Lecturer of Communication – Sports Media at Deakin University where she teaches and researches sports media and women in sport. Kasey is also an award-winning sports writer.
Danielle Warby is a content strategist and editor.