The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Cheryl McKinna was elected President of the University of Melbourne Sports Union in 1978 and then selected as Director of Sport and Physical Recreation in 1980. Having completed a Diploma in Physical Education and being actively engaged in sport at the university, she was concerned about issues of equity and regarded her step into sporting administration as part of an on-going process. She wanted people of all abilities to include sport in their experience of university life and hoped to encourage women to use the sporting facilities more regularly. ‘There is still the attitude that it is unfeminine for women to participate in sport and to sweat,’ she observed in 1978. The first woman to take on the role, she was more qualified in sports administration than any of the previous five holders of the office.