Joanne O’Riordan: Removing the hurdles for women in sport still a pressing priority

Globally, International Women’s Day was celebrated yesterday, March 8th, as per usual.

Naturally, it’s my biggest working day of the year, not only highlighting women’s efforts in the workplace, earning respect in a male-dominated environment, and asking what companies can do every year to facilitate women with a disability and integrate them into society. Year after year, it can be the same thing and, quite frankly, it’s starting to get slightly draining.

International Women’s Day was initially set out as a day for women to highlight their issues from the early 1900s. At that time, it was freedom to work, the right to vote, pay conditions and a lot of things we take for granted. The idea was for unions, NGOs, society, and many other outlets to demand better for women daily.

Upon reflection, of course, things have got better. From a sporting point of view, the Irish women’s national team achieved equal pay just a few years after infamously protesting their working conditions and telling the dogged FAI to keep their damn boys’ tracksuits.

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Then, we have the actual movement for amalgamation within our national game. Mary McAleese, only the second-ever woman president of Ireland, presides over the committee to bring the three organisations together. Our women’s cricket and rugby teams have gone professional, with the cricket team qualifying for the recent Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa, and all-rounder Orla Prendergast making the team of the tournament.

Some sporting organisations have chosen International Women’s Day to highlight the women within their ranks, from coaches to athletes, administrators to CEOs. Some football clubs have turned purple for the week, the colour most associated with International Women’s Day.

And yet, things feel so forced, so thrust upon us, it’s almost like some companies are doing it just to appeal to the masses. ‘Look at us, we support women, and you should too’.

Somehow, implementing the actual supports takes much longer than coming up with the witty taglines for International Women’s Day. Take athletes or people participating in sports going out on maternity leave.

In rugby, Holly Wood continued officiating to an extremely high standard, only signing off on her maternity leave over the weekend at Twickenham while 6½ months pregnant. Aside from officiating, she also decided to design a maternity leave policy for women in rugby, both playing and officiating, for the RFU in England.

Even in football, most players are reluctant to get pregnant due to short-term contracts and very few services provided by clubs. Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, the Icelandic striker, took Olympique Lyon to court over how they handled her maternity leave. Worse, this club is famous for giving women very similar treatment to their men’s teams, with everyone able to access facilities, physiotherapists, services, nutritionists, and everything to keep athletes equal.

Funnily enough, at the women’s European Championships last year, Iceland had the most mothers on the pitch, with Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir, Dagný Brynjarsdóttir, Sif Atladóttir, Sandra Sigurðardóttir and Elísa Viðarsdóttir, leading the way for mothers who are also athletes.

At home, irrespective of an amalgamation, hurdles are still ever present. The lack of buy-in from sports teams and kit manufacturers to design dark shorts and women-fitted kits is an absolute disgrace.

Then there’s the attitudes faced by so many within committees when trying to develop a One Club policy, a policy designed by the GAA with the hopes it can be a model to look at for future amalgamation.

Readers of this paper haven’t fulfilled life’s prophecy if you haven’t served on a sporting board. Cut-throat politics doesn’t begin to describe it, especially if you’re coming up with innovative ways to bridge the gap between men and women.

Some companies are putting their money, time, and effort where their slogans are. Ironically enough, the quiet companies during International Women’s Day probably do the most work behind the scenes.

Using International Women’s Day to only highlight the goodness in your organisation is a missed opportunity for focusing on what needs to be done.

During an International Women’s Day organised by the Third World Women’s Alliance, a radical women of colour collective, performer Joanne Miyamoto apparently received a rapturous response when she sang, “We don’t want a piece of your pie, we want to bake our own”.

That sentiment rings true to this very day, especially in women’s sports, with the discussion of amalgamation and furthering the rights of women in sports.

Chances are they’re pretty happy to keep their head down and just play, officiate or administrate.

When hurdles are placed in front of them, prohibiting them from doing their job, issues start to crop up. It’s not about taking from others. It’s about removing hurdles rather than applauding the many women who have jumped them.