They say that sport and politics should never be mixed but in fact they are rarely far apart. This time last week Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Patrick O’Donovan proposed that there needed to be a better approach to encouraging women to take up, or be allowed to take up, positions of leadership within Irish sport.
Speaking at the Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year lunch on Friday he said that he had ‘given the table a good kick’ and that the debate was now under way.
The post award celebrations and festive cheer were put on hold for a large number of sporting administrators who had been called at short notice to an hour long meeting with O’Donovan’s Senior Minister Shane Ross on Friday after which he said:
“I am delighted with the response from NGBs today who suggested several ways of increasing the representation of women in leadership roles in sport. There was a general consensus at the meeting that punitive measures would not assist us in achieving this goal. I look forward to further engagement.”
Consensus can have many meanings and a number of discussions over the weekend suggested that while gender quota’s were generally not favoured there were short periods when they were an essential tool to get clear wrongs put right.
It may have been that some of these views were in the papers which Minister Ross had laid out before him at RTE on Sunday night as the sporting year of achievement was celebrated at the Sports Person of the Year Awards.
Then again it may have been a review of some of the media commentary from Sunday morning which certainly veered between a number of extremes.
Colm O’Rourke devoted his column to an idea which held sway in the 19th century that women were great altogether.
Sure aren’t they heavily involved in many very important areas of his own sport GAA, including the washing of gear and the making of sandwiches.
He opined that “most of these same women are quite happy to do the traditional roles – they don’t want the prominent positions and don’t feel that they are treated like second-class citizens either.”
Just for the avoidance of doubt that is a direct quote from the column, published in the final days of 2016.
Colm could have looked for a more realistic portrait of Ireland in the 21st century by flicking forward a few pages to Eamon Sweeney’s column where he spoke of “my own experience is that girls who like sport are always looking for female role models.”
Nobody is suggesting that women have been deliberately excluded from the management and administration of sport in Ireland but the numbers don’t lie.
Colm O’Rourke thinks it “ludicrous” that women might add to the overall level of governance of men’s sport and equally so that men would add little to the governance of ladies football or camogie.
He’s wrong. A balance of men and women of equal talent, engagement and intelligence adds to the purpose and benefit of organisations across society, including at club level across many sports.
It’s a natural evolution of a society that once believed men and women to have a specific place based on their gender but which has grown up to recognise equality as being a more complex thing.
The excuse that a quota would lead to women being placed on boards as token representatives is insulting on many levels.
The excuse that time may be needed to change the nature of election and progress through the ranks of a volunteer organisation is valid but that’s what needs to happen now.
Financial threats to make sure it happens are not pleasant, sometimes not effective but often serve to make the obvious benefits more clearly seen.
If we asked people not to smoke in bars and restaurants, rather than legislating to prohibit it would that behaviour have changed?
If we asked people not to use plastic bags for their shopping rather than effectively fining them for doing so would that behaviour have changed?
Sport should be for all, regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, a boy or a girl. At present things are getting better but there is still a gap.
There is a ten point gap in participation between boys aged 16-19 and girls of the same age. That extends to a 15 point gap between 20 and 24.
That is a failing of sport and the pace of change needs to be forced so that it does not roll on to another generation.
Almost all good people within sport recognise this. Some of them would question the gender quota, mainly with genuine concerns over the impact it might have in other areas but until other suggestions of equal strength to shake things up comes forward it’s the kind of ‘kick of the table’ that is needed to make sport a more equal place.
