Farah Palmer is well placed to write about issues in women's sport. The Otago Daily Times columnist, mother, university lecturer and former long-serving Black Ferns captain contributed these thoughts to our series.
There was no one reason for playing rugby, and some of the choices I made were subconscious rather than conscious if you want to get all Freudian with this.
I probably started playing rugby because I wanted to be different, but also to get some attention from my father and maybe because I'd finally found a sport where being unco-ordinated and crashing into people worked in my favour!
At my school of about 300 pupils, girls had many sporting opportunities. With desire and support, they could enrol in swimming, tennis, squash, basketball, football, rugby, cricket, netball or hockey, and the bold and the brave could participate in the usual school sports days like athletics, cross-country and swimming.
I think being brought up in a small rural area meant sport was our entertainment, and everyone (male and female) was expected to get involved.
Rugby, however, wasn't offered when I was growing up and that may have been because there was no perceived demand for it.
Soon after the Black Ferns started to get media attention and international success, a girls' rugby team was established at my old school which proves that role models, media attention, and winning help to spark participation at the grassroots level.
If girls can see themselves reflected in some team or athlete, a whole new world of opportunities is opened to them.
As a result of the World Cup success, television interviews with Paul Holmes, a series of dismal performances by the All Blacks, a few key personalities in the team (think Melodie Robinson, Vanessa Cootes, Annaleah Rush), and strong female leadership in New Zealand politics and business at the time, the 15-a-side women's game had its hey-day in the late 1990s and early in the new millennium.
More than 10,000 girls and women donned their sprigged boots, baggy rugby jerseys and mouthguards to play a sport they'd watched their brothers, fathers, sons, partners, friends, and All Black idols play for years.
Now it was their turn to experience what it was like to use their bodies in a physical way, to understand what it was like to rely on your team-mates to ''watch your back'' and to understand how exhilarating it is to run with the ball, fend off an opponent, score a try, get dirty, and tell tall stories at the after-match about the amazing part they played in the game.
Fast forward a decade and the shine has gone off women's rugby (15-a-side, at least) a little.
It is no longer a novelty. It competes with other sports in a world where more choices and the same amount of time in the day causes us all to multi-task yet struggle to commit and focus. As a result, teams find it difficult to get new players to join their ranks.
The financial crisis and austerity measures have had a huge impact on women's sport in New Zealand and globally.
In rugby, clubs and provincial unions often see the women's game as an added cost they could do without.
Cutting women's opportunities in sport is justified on economic grounds. But just when things looked desperate, rugby sevens is included in the Olympics and women's rugby is thrown a lifeline. Who wouldn't want to be in to win a gold medal?
The interest in rugby for women is on the rise again, but now 15s and sevens are fighting for the same small pool of resources and players. I hope these two versions of the game can come to see that a win-win relationship is possible.
Of course, it is naive to think all barriers for women in sport have been removed. They are still there - they're just better at disguising themselves as ''budget cuts'' or ''low demand''.
Societal expectations still make it difficult for women to put themselves first when it comes to sporting aspirations, and it helps if you have ''sponsorship appeal''. That usually means being an Olympian. being involved in a high-profile sport, being slim but athletic, pretty and attractive, and being non-threatening. Think of the ''Iron Maidens'', the Silver Ferns and Black Sticks women's team for examples of the above.
Maybe when the likes of Val Adams becomes an ambassador for eating red meat I'll eat my words (and a couple of steaks and roasts as well).
The athletes themselves can't be blamed for reinforcing these gendered expectations but often they don't realise how much power they have when it comes to influencing the way they are portrayed, and what messages they reinforce through not only their bodies, but their words and actions.
It is OK to be a feminist and to be proud of being a woman and of what we have achieved so far. It doesn't mean being a man-hater - it is about being informed, proactive, and strong. If we are not going to fight for ourselves, why would we expect anyone else to?
My words to all women in sport for 2014 would be to embrace the ''F'' word and apply some of those gutsy traits we show as athletes in other roles in sport and society. What is there to lose?
