Being a rugby-playing woman from Wales
About Beth Jones-Evans
Ms. Jones-Evans is a Learning Support teacher, and she was a tomboy growing up. Later in her life, she became a professional rugby player who scored a try against Canada in the World Cup. She is from Wales, and these identities and experiences have shaped her into the woman she is today.
What's your favorite thing about being a woman?
She thinks there is quite a lot of bias against women with things they can and can’t do. Therefore, she gets underestimated. Sometimes that can be pretty frustrating, such as when she goes to the gym and needs a new gym routine. If the person doesn’t know her, they look at her. They go, “Oh, she can do this,” they don’t ask. They just assume straight away, and then she is going ok then they will give her some weights which are like super-light because they think, “oh, she is just a woman she won’t be able to do it” then she says, nope, heavier, so that kind of calling people out when they underestimated her. She thinks that is something that she enjoys because it is a way of educating other people about a woman’s capabilities.
What's your least favorite thing about being a woman?
Ms. JE's favorite thing is that people think that she can’t do certain things because she is a woman. They also believe she shouldn’t do certain things because she is a woman. When she thinks back to when she was in college, she started playing rugby. “When women’s rugby was just starting, it was not seen as a sport for women. It was so hard. They had to find places that would let them play. They had to play on Sundays because the men used the pitches on a Saturday. Some clubs wouldn’t let them play on Sundays because they had all the kids games on Sunday mornings, so it was really difficult.”
What was it like growing up as a woman?
Ms. JE was a bit different from a lot of girls growing up. She was pretty much a tomboy; she has an older brother, which is still a joke in her family. When she was growing up, she wanted to go out and climb trees, ride her bike, and do all those things. The way she was allowed to do that with her brother is that she was their crash test dummy.
What would happen was if her brother built a swing, she had to go on it first to check if it was safe. When they went skateboarding on a tricky hill, she would have to go first to check it was safe. That is how she got accepted into her brother and his friends’ gang because it was the stuff she wanted to do.
“I think I get underestimated a lot.”
-Ms. Jones-Evans
Compared to your other characteristics, how important to you is being a woman?
There have been things that have been in her way as she was growing up. She thinks that it adds to her strength as an individual. The fact she is a stronger character is because she is a woman. It is very important to her.”
Do you have any advice for other women?
Her main advice is to remember that women are not the weaker sex. They are strong, if not stronger, than men. It is important to remember that they have that strength inside them. You can do absolutely anything if you put your mind to it, like she did playing rugby. “You can do that if you want to climb to the top of Mount Everest, you can do that if you’re going to be an astronaut. There are no barriers you as woman need to remember. There are no barriers. You can do whatever you want. You can achieve whatever you try.”
“I think I was a bit different from a lot of girls. I was pretty much a tomboy growing up.”
