Glass ceiling or grass ceiling? Get up. Get moving. Summer is here!

8/11/2010: Glass ceiling or grass ceiling? Get up. Get moving. Summer is here! Well don't just sit there, summer is on its way and it's time to get moving and do something! This week I am all about sport in the workplace, particularly when it involves women because next week is the launch for Sport for Women Day 2011.

On Wednesday morning more than 500 women and leading athletes will be participating in a Zumba fitness class at Sydney Olympic Park to mark the launch of Sport for Women's Day, which will be held next year on March 6. You can register for this great cause online already at www.sportforwomenday.com.au.

I am particularly inspired because a few weeks back, I was lucky enough to attend the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games 10th anniversary dinner. I shared a table with greats such as Michael Klim, the Awesome Foursome rowers and the stunning beach volley ball girls Sarah Maxwell, Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook. It was great to hear their story face to face. I also got to watch that amazing race again with Ian Thorpe. It was very inspiring.

I'm also probably more consumed than usual with sport this week because I've got a rotten chest infection and the antibiotics are wreaking havoc with my "gym and swim" routine just in time for my surf lifesaving proficiency test. I tried to do it last weekend and got as far as the hill near the car park before I realised I wouldn't make it to the water's edge without needing my own rescue plan — let alone do the run-swim-run in less than nine minutes! I retreated to the couch at home, where I enjoyed a video and cuddles with my nine-year-old son — at least he was happy!

It's a good reminder to you business owners out there to take care of yourself. Remember, if you go down many are affected.

And do we have a problem with sport and gender? Well I think so. When the Associated Press named its top 10 female athletes of 2009 two were racehorses.

And since 2005, Australia has been listed as No.1 on the World Health Organization's list of obese nations. Almost 50 percent of Australian adults are considered overweight or obese. Not counting our youngsters who are living a more sedentary existence due to stranger danger fears and the rise of the internet as a social past time.

"No complacency for us," I hear you say, and if that's the case I commend you — particularly if you are female. We are after all the sporting nation. At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, women made up 45 percent of Australia's team and won more than half our gold medals.

In contrast, our women's sport coverage is almost invisible. The latest data indicates women's sport coverage in the media accounts for just 2 percent of total sports broadcasting on television, 1.4 percent on radio and 10.7 percent of total sports in newspapers. The signs are there that professional sport is still male-dominated.

A recent article by Elizabeth Broderick, the federal sex discrimination commissioner, once referred to research study by University of Technology, Sydney, that showed only 21 percent of board directors of national sports organisations in Australia are women. Do we have grass ceiling as opposed to a glass ceiling?

Here are some quick sport and exercise points and facts:

• Working out improves your waistline and your bottom line.
• Exercise equals good health which equals better performance at work.
• Expending energy with sport increases your energy for everything else.
• Increasing your metabolism and circulation helps you find solutions and creative ideas to problems.
• Team sports teach commitment to others, as well as the task.
• Team sports teach the willingness to shoulder responsibility rather than pass the buck.
• Sport enables an increase in self-confidence, self-esteem and improved decision-making.

So let's get moving girls and boys and show the world we are a nation of movers and shakers. After all, unlike the UK where I grew up, we have no excuses about the weather.

On a side note to help demystify some of the confusion of social media, I'm speaking at an event called Not Just Another Social Media Breakfast Seminar on Friday, 12 November at The Observatory Hotel in Sydney representing Taurus Marketing in partnership with Beyond Digital Media. Joining me will be Tim Molloy, MYOB's Online Evangelist and Iggy Pintado (Author, ‘super-connector’ and marketing specialist) For more details and to register, click here.

To view Sharon's blog on ninemsn, click here.

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