One striking characteristic of the history of sports in Wales is the bias towards men.  Indeed, the number of women who participate in sports is markedly lower than men throughout the British Isles.  The reasons for this include shortage of time, childcare, insufficient facilities, lack of self-confidence and prejudices associated with gender.

The relationship between sports, the media and financial investment is also a vicious circle that prevents women's sports from competing with men.  Because men's sports have developed sooner, there is much more support for them and they get more media coverage as a result.  This also leads to greater financial investment in men's sports which, along with media publicity, maintains and promotes interest in them.  Moreover, there is little media coverage of sports which are traditionally associated with women, such as hockey and netball.

Despite this inequality, there are a few women, such as Tanni Grey-Thompson and Nicole Cook, who have achieved fame for their accomplishments in their fields and several football and rugby clubs now have women's teams.