Male coaches need better awareness when dealing with female athletes

Teaching male coaches different ways to talk to female athletes would help ease gender inequality, says Scottish hockey player Frances Lonergan.

In the BBC Elite British Sportswomen's survey, 65% of those who took part said they had suffered sexism in sport.

Clydesdale Western player Lonergan is among those, despite being in what she considers a gender-balanced sport.

"It's about educating the educators or the coaches, just making them aware especially with girls," she said.

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"It's really important for male coaches to have conversations with girls without it being awkward or weird or a taboo subject.

"Sometimes people can say things, and they don't mean it the way they say it, but the way it comes across can really crush a young girl looking to break into the next level of sport.

"By all means be hard, but be hard and be kind."

As well as 65% of respondents to the survey saying they had suffered sexism, 30% had also experienced trolling on social media.

That figure has doubled since the last survey in 2015 and Lonergan says it has to be addressed.

"You see horrendous things [online] and it's such a shame," she told BBC Radio Scotland's Newsdrive.

"Sometimes girl athletes can sometimes be bigger in build and you can be called things like 'manly' and that takes away your womanhood.

"As a younger athlete I was quite aware of my size, how I looked and how that would come across."