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Gender Quotas to be applied to Sports Bodies

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It's not necessarily a bad thing as long as it wouldn't result in people being forced to take roles they are not interested in. If the Minister was really serious about improving female participation in sport he would push for greater exposure for the more popular female sports on the national broadcaster as it is positive images of participation that make a real impression on young people. Record figures at camogie and ladies football games but how often are these women on TV chatshows etc compared to the male counterparts? And some better funding for facilities and coaching wouldn't do any harm either rather than leaving it all on the shoulders of volunteers. Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 12/12/2016 20:41:23 1939759 Link
Replying To MesAmis: "Women make up 50% of us. The levels of sporting participation amongst women are quite low in comparison to men. It'd be a great to try and boost those female participation rates so that more women can get the benefit that sport can bring. I don't know if this will definitely work but I genuinely don't see a downside to giving it a go. The poor oppressed middle class white male in the western world routine doesn't quite cut it for me. This isn't a male v female debate it's about making our sporting organisations work better for us all. Male, female or whatever you're having yourself." Who here has claimed that middle class white men are oppressed . The argument is more that women aren't oppressed (like feminists like they claim they are) and yet they are to be given preferential treatment. In Gaelic Games this proposal shouldn't be necessary as the Ladies Gaelic Football and camogie associations are dominated by women. uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 12/12/2016 20:47:01 1939760 Link
Who here has claimed that middle class white men are oppressed . The argument is more that women aren't oppressed (like feminists like they claim they are) and yet they are to be given preferential treatment. In Gaelic Games this proposal shouldn't be necessary as the Ladies Gaelic Football and camogie associations are dominated by women. uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts:1023 - 12/12/2016 20:47:01 1939760 The 'middle class white man oppression' was just a little aside. It was in response to the posts about women not volunteering while men do as well as other comments I saw today. How is getting more women involved in our sports organisations giving them preferential treatment? It's good for everyone. I don't see why anyone can't see that. It's obvious enough stuff. GAA is organised differently from the other organisations as you said but it's still something worth looking at imo. Personally I'd like to see the GAA, LGFA and the Camogie Association merge into the one organisation and then this 30% quota would be easily reached in anyways. MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13802 - 12/12/2016 20:59:37 1939764 Link
Gender quotas really make my blood boil. Unfortunately there are still some work places that favour men over women but the vast majority of modern day businesses do not look at gender when looking to employ the best person. I employ a pretty even split and to force gender quotas can lead to friction in the long run. TheFlaker (Mayo) - Posts: 8393 - 12/12/2016 20:59:54 1939765 Link
It's another manifestation of the pc b****t that has taken over this country. The best person for the job should get the job. Will they be insisting that 30%of the boards of directors of the ladies Gaelic Games associations will be male? The point has been clearly made that the make up of boards of directors will not impact in any way on girls participation in sport. The boards of directors are there to make decisions in everybody's best interests not just girls. What encourages children to participate is well structured. well organised coaching and competition. There needs to be a pathway from childhood through to adulthood. For many children their first experience of organised coaching and competition happens in primary schools. There is currently a massive gender imbalance in primary schools yet there is no talk of 30% quotas to alleviate that imbalance and bring more men in to the profession. Female academics have argued against it. Resource female coaches and clubs properly and provide a proper pathway from childhood through to adulthood for female sportspeople. RTE needs to be forced to broadcast ladies sport and not just ladies rugby. The more positive coverage there is the more girls will be encouraged to participate. This latest gender quota proposal is just another example of the witless pc nonsense that masquerades as progressive initiatives in this country. Greengrass (Louth)** - Posts: 6180 - 12/12/2016 21:41:02 1939776 Link
I'm just going to call it, if this was applied across the board in the GAA it would be a good thing. My club committee is more than 30 per cent female and it's the best thing that ever happened to us. The club was stagnant 20 years ago but fresh thinking, pragmatism and a no-messing approach, most of which came from the women who have come on board has see the club once again become a force in the community. I've been to monthly county board meetings and a lot of the delegates are an embarrassment. It's an old boys club, like something from a D'Unbelievables sketch. This will never change unless something drastic is done and a quota would do just that. You were brought into this world by your mother and father. There's no better endorsement of a quota than that. 49erroyal (Meath) - Posts: 69 - 12/12/2016 21:54:17 1939780 Link
Replying To 49erroyal: "I'm just going to call it, if this was applied across the board in the GAA it would be a good thing. My club committee is more than 30 per cent female and it's the best thing that ever happened to us. The club was stagnant 20 years ago but fresh thinking, pragmatism and a no-messing approach, most of which came from the women who have come on board has see the club once again become a force in the community. I've been to monthly county board meetings and a lot of the delegates are an embarrassment. It's an old boys club, like something from a D'Unbelievables sketch. This will never change unless something drastic is done and a quota would do just that. You were brought into this world by your mother and father. There's no better endorsement of a quota than that." But you chose to have women on the board.Women are not automatically going to be better than men in every situation ye they may have to be in jobs regardless. Having a rule means you have no choice which is not a good thing as anything that limits choice can reduce quality. uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 13/12/2016 05:31:35 1939808 Link
But you chose to have women on the board.Women are not automatically going to be better than men in every situation ye they may have to be in jobs regardless. Having a rule means you have no choice which is not a good thing as anything that limits choice can reduce quality. uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts:1025 - 13/12/2016 05:31:35 At the moment every single member of the boards of the FAI, IRFU and GAA are men afaik. That ignores 50% of the population. That undoubtedly reduces quality. These organisations should be looking to get far more women involved at decision making level in anyways without quotas so as not to be picking from the exact same pool every time by limiting themselves unconsciously to half the population. Quotas, or the threat of quotas, might help to focus the minds of these organisations into helping themselves in the long run. MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13802 - 13/12/2016 10:00:49 1939820 Link
Replying To Cuhullain: " Replying To uibhfhaili1986: "[quote=bad.monkey: "[quote=uibhfhaili1986: "[quote=bad.monkey: "Its great idea. Should hopefully get more young girls involved in sport long term Complete bllox if you ask me.What happened to the whole idea of the best person getting the job.* This never existed. Thats the whole point" Actually it does exist in general.Just because it doesn't always work out doesn't mean the idea of the best person getting the job doesn't exist.Most people when they are employed they go through an interview process and the people doing the interview decide to pick the best person for the job from the candidates who are interviewed. Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie are sports dominated by women , how will this change anything when boards concerned with Gaelic Football and Hurling (2 sports women can't play) have women on them?" Actually most people get jobs through knowing someone already in the place of employment. This perpetuates the cycle of gender imbalance already in place. This is quite basic stuff. It is surprising you have such strong opinions on the subject without seemingly having any knowledge of it. Are you seriously suggesting there is no gender imbalance in sport in Ireland?"]Jobs that are advertised are not handed out to someone who knows someone else that works there. Most good jobs are advertised openly. You're just talking bull as usual. There is a gender imbalance in sport because in general men are simply more interested in sport than women.It's a natural gender imbalance and Gaelic Games where women are in charge of womens sports are the most gender balanced sports in the world."]Just listening to SOR this morning and it clearly said the gender balance would be phased in over the next 2/3 years, made up of, 30% male, 30% female and 40% others, best for the job may not be applicable it's the percentages that matters, financial penalties will apply if the percentages are not met. In politics, we the voters have the final say, but in this case appointments will be made by a selected panel."]I think your comments are little unfair, the vast majority of men sit in chairs and support sport i.e. watch it - women generally participate but don't support. Ladies football has huge participation levels right across the country and the social divide it is one of the great female sports in Ireland up there with Basketball. The fact is men do not support womens sport not the other way around. The Dublin Camogie Executive is dominated by men - there is a good representation of women on it but it is their sport. Similarly with Ladies Football and Camogie Inter-county teams they are dominated by men. You have to encourage women and girls to move into these roles, but Ladies football and Camogie have really good participation levels. There are problems with integrating these sports into the GAA proper which if it did happen would at a stroke enable the GAA to meet the Sports Councils criteria. Maybe that will sort out the fixture mess in Dublin between the two ladies codes. arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4954 - 13/12/2016 10:08:35 1939823 Link
Replying To MesAmis: "But you chose to have women on the board.Women are not automatically going to be better than men in every situation ye they may have to be in jobs regardless. Having a rule means you have no choice which is not a good thing as anything that limits choice can reduce quality. uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts:1025 - 13/12/2016 05:31:35 At the moment every single member of the boards of the FAI, IRFU and GAA are men afaik. That ignores 50% of the population. That undoubtedly reduces quality. These organisations should be looking to get far more women involved at decision making level in anyways without quotas so as not to be picking from the exact same pool every time by limiting themselves unconsciously to half the population. Quotas, or the threat of quotas, might help to focus the minds of these organisations into helping themselves in the long run." i just despise the idea of quotas....its completely undemocratic and only creates more negativity...forcing people to do something doesnt help alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 13/12/2016 10:47:27 1939839 Link
The problem with this quaota in regard to the GAA is that you can't encourage girls to play Gaelic football or Hurling. because they're boy only sports. You can encourage girls to play Ladies Football and Camogie, which have their own administration. The govt. should look at the three organisations together when assessing their gender break down. Mickmick (Dublin) - Posts: 104 - 13/12/2016 11:21:21 1939850 Link
i just despise the idea of quotas....its completely undemocratic and only creates more negativity...forcing people to do something doesnt help alano12 (Dublin) - Posts:1113 - 13/12/2016 10:47:27 I know what you mean. They are undemocratic. However I think they are a necessary evil to some extent. More women involved in the decision making process can only be a good thing and hopefully quotas can be used as a stepping stone to exploiting the full potential of 100% of the population rather than just the 50% currently being used. I'd imagine quotas used to get us to a situation where quotas are not needed anymore. Also the women that will be selected will probably be very capable individuals that are handpicked rather than just random women plucked from the street and given a role without having a clue what to do. MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13802 - 13/12/2016 11:35:35 1939851 Link
Replying To MesAmis: "i just despise the idea of quotas....its completely undemocratic and only creates more negativity...forcing people to do something doesnt help alano12 (Dublin) - Posts:1113 - 13/12/2016 10:47:27 I know what you mean. They are undemocratic. However I think they are a necessary evil to some extent. More women involved in the decision making process can only be a good thing and hopefully quotas can be used as a stepping stone to exploiting the full potential of 100% of the population rather than just the 50% currently being used. I'd imagine quotas used to get us to a situation where quotas are not needed anymore. Also the women that will be selected will probably be very capable individuals that are handpicked rather than just random women plucked from the street and given a role without having a clue what to do." i think encouragement and adopting a policy focusing on getting more women involved would be a better idea but the quota thing is just so forced and pc driven alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 13/12/2016 11:44:03 1939858 Link
Women are not oppressed someone said in here... amazing news, we better tell the women who actually live their lives that their own lived experiences are just fictions And "women are not as interested in sport as men" is another brilliant one, just top notch insight into the female psyche from HS posters we best just stop the debates now. I don't like quotas, but when the systems are so skewed in one direction then maybe they're needed. Ideally they wouldn't be necessary but "best person for the job" just means "middle aged fella" because when all you meet are obstacles why would you bother getting involved? Gender quotas aren't the perfect solution and they won't work on their own, it needs to be part of a wider strategy in terms of promoting female participation across the board, but it's a welcome start. Better than the FA in England suggesting adding pink to equipment to encourage girls to play. JoeSoap (Donegal) - Posts: 1432 - 13/12/2016 11:56:55 1939859 Link
i think encouragement and adopting a policy focusing on getting more women involved would be a better idea but the quota thing is just so forced and pc driven alano12 (Dublin) - Posts:1116 - 13/12/2016 11:44:03 I'd probably agree that it'd have been great if the GAA, IRFU and FAI could have gotten to that on their own without the need for quotas. It's in their own self interest to do it. Maybe a little push though will do no harm. MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13802 - 13/12/2016 12:03:44 1939860 Link
Replying To JoeSoap: "Women are not oppressed someone said in here... amazing news, we better tell the women who actually live their lives that their own lived experiences are just fictions And "women are not as interested in sport as men" is another brilliant one, just top notch insight into the female psyche from HS posters we best just stop the debates now. I don't like quotas, but when the systems are so skewed in one direction then maybe they're needed. Ideally they wouldn't be necessary but "best person for the job" just means "middle aged fella" because when all you meet are obstacles why would you bother getting involved? Gender quotas aren't the perfect solution and they won't work on their own, it needs to be part of a wider strategy in terms of promoting female participation across the board, but it's a welcome start. Better than the FA in England suggesting adding pink to equipment to encourage girls to play." So should we have 30% male member participation on the boards of directors of the Camogie and Ladie Football associations ? Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6180 - 13/12/2016 12:19:24 1939869 Link
So should we have 30% male member participation on the boards of directors of the Camogie and Ladie Football associations ? Greengrass (Louth) - Posts:4469 - 13/12/2016 12:19:24 Why not? Don't see the harm. GAA, LGFA and the Camogie Association should be all under the same organisation imo in anyways. MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13802 - 13/12/2016 12:26:58 1939871 Link
Replying To Greengrass: "So should we have 30% male member participation on the boards of directors of the Camogie and Ladie Football associations ?" Greengrass, I'd say that central councils of both the camogie association and the LGFA already have way more that 30% of their posts held by men. From this link to the LGFA management committee, you'll see that 9 of the 16 positions are held by men (56%): http://ladiesgaelic.ie/contact-us/management/ football first (None) - Posts: 1259 - 13/12/2016 12:39:14 1939874 Link
i just dislike this forced feminist narrative in the media..its irritating yet constantly getting louder and louder alano12 (Dublin) - Posts: 2208 - 13/12/2016 13:03:16 1939878 Link
Replying To JoeSoap: "Women are not oppressed someone said in here... amazing news, we better tell the women who actually live their lives that their own lived experiences are just fictions And "women are not as interested in sport as men" is another brilliant one, just top notch insight into the female psyche from HS posters we best just stop the debates now. I don't like quotas, but when the systems are so skewed in one direction then maybe they're needed. Ideally they wouldn't be necessary but "best person for the job" just means "middle aged fella" because when all you meet are obstacles why would you bother getting involved? Gender quotas aren't the perfect solution and they won't work on their own, it needs to be part of a wider strategy in terms of promoting female participation across the board, but it's a welcome start. Better than the FA in England suggesting adding pink to equipment to encourage girls to play." So should we have 30% male member participation on the boards of directors of the Camogie and Ladie Football associations ? Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6180 - 13/12/2016 13:08:26 1939880 Link