Sport for Business is undertaking a full survey of Irish sporting bodies to establish a benchmark for the role of Women in Leadership roles within sport in Ireland.
This was a project we undertook to take on after October’s Levelling the Playing Field conference organised in Dublin by the Departments of Justice and Equality and Transport, Tourism and Sport.
A striking figure to emerge from that conference was that while 44% of competitors at the London Olympic Games were women, they only accounted for 15% of roles in the global leadership of sport.
We are not proposing gender quotas but we do believe that if genuine attention is given to the best person for the job that this will most likely include a minimum number of men and women on each board or executive team.
That has perhaps not been the traditional way but times are changing. Political parties will be fined if not putting women forward as 30% of their election candidates in 2016. In the UK there is a threat of withheld funding for organisations that do not meet minimum criteria.
As we head into a new year we want to know how the gender balance breaks down within the sporting organisations of Ireland.
We have sent a short survey to 40 sporting bodies and will supplement the answers they give with desk research to produce a full report in January.
The responses have started to come in with the first two organisations revealing that one had three Women among its nine Board members, and another that while there was no Board representation, that three of eight senior management roles were filled by women.
We have also asked the views of the organisations of commercial, media and public support for Women’s events in their sport
It is a timely look at an area of real importance given that the Irish Times Sports Woman of the Year takes place in Dublin this Friday.
We wish to thank Liberty Insurance, our partner in the promotion of Women in Sport in Ireland and PwC, our Leadership partner for their continued strong support of what we do.
