‘We need to be judged on sporting ability – not looks’

Next Monday, 3 March, will see the commencement of the fifth Women in Sport Week.

A Sport Ireland initiative as part of the visibility pillar of its Women in Sport Policy, the aims of the week are to celebrate every female involved in any role in sport and to promote and highlight the ongoing work of organisations, stakeholders and clubs.

In an ideal world, there would be no need for such a week and there would simply be people in sport, but of course men’s sport has had such a head-start that there are huge inequalities and only a concerted effort can close the gap.

While she would be too modest to ever shout it, Mary O’Connor is a perfect example of the difference in how male and female sports stars are perceived. Twelve All-Irelands across both codes for Cork – including the rare distinction of captaining winning sides in both – and four All-Star Awards, as she has, represents quite a haul. A man with such an honour-roll would be a regular sight on our TV screens, possibly have a popular podcast on the go and probably be known mononymously, like Henry or Gooch.

Development

As the chief executive of the Federation of Irish Sport, which represents more than 100 national governing bodies (NGBs) and local sports partnerships (LSPs) around the country, Mary O’Connor is well-placed to assess how women’s sport has developed in recent times. To borrow a famous general election slogan, it’s a case of a lot done and more to do.

“You’re always cognisant of the old adage that there’s nothing harder on your laurels than resting on them,” she says.

“When the National Sports Policy was created in 2018, it set out various ambitions and then we had the 20x20 campaign, which lit a match.

“The policy led to Sport Ireland bringing out their own Women in Sport Policy and that has resulted in real growth in women’s participation.

“You’re always going to have challenges with retention when it comes to different age cohorts and life-stages – for instance, the challenge we have around teenage girls participating in sport is still there.

“There’s a lot going on to examine what retention looks like and how you can retain females in some kind of sporting activity throughout their life.

“It is heartening to be going around the country and seeing girls carrying sporting equipment, whether that’s a hockey stick, a hurley or having a ball in their hands, and a lot of work will have been put in behind the scenes to get them to that stage.

“In 2019, only 24% of people on the boards of national governing bodies or local sports partnerships were women, whereas at the end of 2024, we were at 41%. That’s important, because we need visibility and also to show that there is a diversity of thinking.

“It’s layered – there are different reasons why women and girls do or don’t participate in sport, and that’s not just playing but also coaching, administration, sitting on boards, and a lot of it is to do with confidence or being shown a pathway. There’s a lot of work being done on that front within organisations.”

There are of course various ways of assessing the health of women’s sport – participation at all levels or the improvement in quality of the elite practitioners or an increase in attendances.

“It’s all-encompassing, really,” Mary says, “because women in sport is still in its infancy, compared to men’s.

“The IRFU is 150 years old this year, whereas last year the LGFA only celebrated its 50th anniversary.

“Sport Ireland’s Women in Sport Policy has four headings – coaching and officiating, active participation, leadership and governance and visibility – and they all need to inter-link with each other.

“You don’t want to take anything for granted, thinking, ‘Oh, of course they’re going to participate,’ – they’re not, they need to be given a good introduction, via primary schools and getting the fundamentals right and that goes back to what’s available for them and where.

“Investment in sports infrastructure is massive, really important. When I was growing up in Killeagh, it was either Gaelic games or nothing, whereas now girls have the opportunity to do gymnastics in my area, basketball, soccer, volleyball, athletics.

“Having that diversity is so important, because different people will like different sports and what we want is to give women and girls the opportunity to participate in sport in a meaningful way.

“Meaningful can be a different thing to different people, too – it is so layered, it’s not an easy solve because there are so many things to take into account.”

Ultimately, there is a responsibility on all stakeholders to do their bit, not least the media with regard to how women’s sports are portrayed.

“What you want is to have women in sport judged on their technical ability rather than how they look,” she says.

“There was a picture of David Clifford kicking the ball and his leg was way up in the air – the comments were admiring his prowess and technique and so on. About two years before that, there was a picture of an Aussie rules player named Tayla Harris in a similar pose and the commentary was completely different.

“We did a study with Maynooth University regarding the coverage of women’s sports compared to men’s. We need male allies but we also need our NGBs to report more consistently. You will hear that people aren’t interested in reading about women’s sports but we can refute that now, because we have evidence.

“People are interested if it’s put before them in a consistent manner. Previously, you almost had to over-achieve to get coverage – you look at the women’s hockey team a few years ago, they had to get to the World Cup final in order to receive any real level of attention.

“Inequality still exists but I think people are making an effort. You just need to keep pushing the envelope. For women in sport, it’s a lot more difficult to achieve that visibility than it is for men.”