The debate about how the perception of Women’s sport is changing and how momentum can be maintained to achieve true parity of esteem continued over the past 24 hours.
World Cup star Niamh Briggs, Galway Camogie All Ireland Winner Aisling Connolly and Rob Hartnett from Sport for Business appeared on the Pat Kenny show on Newstalk yesterday morning.
You can listen back to the discussion here from 38:45
“We needed to win in order to put ourselves on the map but once that happened the coverage has been great.”
“In the United States research has proven a direct link between sport and personal development. Women who played sport to competitive level through college will earn 8% more through their career, once all other factors are taken into account.”
“Women’s sport is growing, clean and uncluttered.”
The article we wrote yesterday about those who are involved in a sport needing to support it through its biggest days also struck a chord.
Dublin Ladies Football took to social media to say “Excellent article. Well done on highlighting the issue of getting “our own” to come out to support our County Teams.”
It is hoped they can take heart now in a push to get more local fans out on September 28th to support the Dublin Ladies Footballers in their All Ireland Final, and that Cork fans whether living at home or easier still if in Dublin will be inspired by the Camogie win and get to Croke Park as well.
It stretches too beyond Gaelic Games. Southern Fried Hockey, the excellent resource for Munster Hockey picked up on the theme with this article following up on why more club players and young players should get to see matches at a higher level and be inspired by the magic they see in others playing ‘their game’ at a higher standard.
The work of the sports bodies, and companies like Liberty Insurance, Continental Tyres, AIB and Aon all of whom have stepped up with major support for Women’s sport in the last 15 months needs to be backed up on the ground. When that happens change will happen quickly so that sport really can be seen as ‘for all’.
Sport for Business has a campaign ready and waiting to pull together these strands of support and create a framework for how individuals can step up to inspire the next generation. It just needs a measure of financial support for it to be done properly but we hope this will happen over the coming months. If you’d like to know more with a view to helping bring this to life contact us today and let’s see what is possible.
