Working towards a level playing field

THE formation of a new female sports body was touted yesterday as the key to finally allowing women to emerge from the shadows of their male counterparts in Irish sport.

The proposed national body would be a coherent group to represent the needs of all female sports in Ireland.

That may not seem too significant, but such a move would be a major change in policy as the current approach of the Irish Sports Council (ISC) is to cater for all sports, whatever the gender or ability, under the one umbrella.

Fine in theory but the reality is that male sports dominate the landscape in most organisations.

Females are seriously underrepresented at all levels of sport, both on and off the pitch and, consequently, in the media too.

The knock-on effect of that goes beyond the sporting sphere as it has major implications for the general health of Irish society. A change of tack is required, according to a Joint Oireachtas Committee report on women in sport.

"This inequality cannot be allowed to continue," said Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan in Croke Park yesterday at the "Women in Sport" conference.

"Women are being marginalised and major work on policy must be done, perhaps through the establishment of a Women in Sport Committee, to ensure that women can meet their full potential in this area, as in all other walks of life."

Perhaps it's worth noting that the two biggest Irish female sports organisations the Ladies Gaelic Football Association of Ireland and the Camogie Association of Ireland already operate independently of their male counterparts.

Deenihan cited the Women's Sports Institute in the UK and pledged that he would be pushing for an Irish equivalent in the near future.

The report also calls for the ISC to appoint a full-time Women's Development Officer to implement the Brighton Principles, drawn up by 82 countries to develop a sporting culture that enables and values the full involvement of women in every aspect of sport.

Ireland is not yet one of the 82 signatories.

Much of the problem for women in sport, however, is a lack of exposure.

Bad in itself in the short-term, this also means that there is a shortage of female role models for young girls to look up to and dream of emulating.

It's a vicious cycle.

To combat this, the report also suggests other initiatives such as a high-profile Annual Women's Sports Awards scheme, for which a prospective sponsor has already apparently been brought on board for an experimental three-year term.

Of greater concern is the lack of media coverage women's sport receives.

A recent study has shown that female athletes account for less than 3% of sports photographs in Irish newspapers.

"There is a media problem across the world when it comes to recognising women in sport," claimed Mr Deenihan.

"The UK, for example, has very poor coverage of women's sport, Australia too where participation levels are far higher than many countries.

"Women's sports account for about 8% of all coverage there.

"In Ireland, for every 100 sports images in our papers only three of them will be of women. Some of those will even be of a derogatory nature, alluding to something apart from the action or game in question.

"There has been no study done here about TV coverage but, apart from TG4's coverage of the ladies football and camogie, it is fair to say that the coverage of women's sports is poor in this area too."

However, TG4 Head of Sport Ronan O'Coisdealbha emphasised the importance of a focused media strategy from women's sporting organisations to help to raise the profile of their games.

"It is up to each sport to be proactive in generating media coverage, rather than waiting for the media to approach them looking for coverage," O'Coisdealbha said.