Sport has featured more than ever before in the celebration yesterday of International Women’s Day and a new campaign launched in the UK shows how the emphasis needs to progress from talking to doing.

How far we have come was clear from yesterday’s Sport for Business Daily Digest which was exclusively devoted to Women in Sport stories including great work being done by Liberty Insurance, Lidl, Aon, Continental Tyres and Littlewoods.

Read more about the latest Liberty Insurance Research and Ambassador programme

The end game though, however long it takes, is that sport needs to stop being held up as an example of bad practice in terms of gender diversity.

The Olympic Council of Ireland held an event in Dublin last night celebrating Irish Olympians and they represent an organisation which though it has its many issues, is a shining light that men and women can compete in the same arena, on the same night, wearing their national kit and nobody bats an eye.

The Men’s 100 metres and the Women’s 800 metres follow each other onto the track and the TV cameras still record, the crowd still cheers, the world keeps turning.

The UK is further ahead when it comes to taking action.  In Ireland when the call went out in December to increase balance on National governing Bodies there was a massive hue and cry and a rowing back on what was being suggested on timelines and potential penalties.

The latest annual report from UK Charity Women in Sport reveals the in Britain the average representation of Women on boards in sporting bodies has now hit that figure.

A number of bodies that have yet to meet the requirement, including the FA and the RFU face loss of Government support and public funding if they don’t but on Monday the FA unanimously agreed sweeping changes to its Corporate Governance which includes reserving three places for Women on its ten person main board by 2018.

Would progress have happened without the threat? Who can say but the fact that it has, in line with almost every other area of society is a winner not only for women but for all of us.

The Charity has now launched a new campaign ‘Beyond 30%’ looking to increase diversity in leadership, in coaching and in culture.

It has produced a five point checklist on how that can happen:

  • Develop an effective recruitment and retention strategy which focuses on attracting diverse talent and nurturing it.
  • Promote a wide range of flexible working practices with the primary goal of attracting and retaining more women in the organisation, but which will, in fact, benefit everyone.
  • Involve both women and men in achieving the shared goal of gender equality.
  • Avoid gender stereotypes. They limit women to certain roles and exclude them from others.
  • Modernise organisational structures and practices to enable more women to rise through the organisation. This includes reconsidering rigid elections by male-dominated membership bodies which, in practice, have the effect of excluding some women from the board.

Is anything in that list beyond the reach of sport in Ireland?

Save the Date

The third Annual Sport for Business Women in Sport Conference will take place on Thursday November 30th, 2017.

We will be announcing details of the theme of this year’s event in a few weeks time and hope you will join us for the next steps in making change happen for Women in Sport in Ireland.

In 2016 we brought Sally Hancock and Sally Horrocks over from the UK to share their thoughts on how real progress had taken place there.

They were joined by a great athletes panel including Ireland Women’s Rugby Captain Niamh Briggs, Irish soccer international Louise Quinn and Paralympian swimmer Ellen Keane.

Minister patrick O’Donovan shared his thoughts on how Government could play its part and signalled his intent to light the fire that became the call for 30% representation of women on Sporting National Governing Bodies.

What will 2017 hold? Well we promise it will be about doing and that it will cover areas which are both attainable and that will make a real difference.

Let us know if you think you would be interested in playing a part in this event and let’s play a part together in making it happen.

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