These women are fantastic can-do role models for our girls

OUR so-called ‘Ladies Day’ at the races is sexist, outdated, patronising and a total anomaly in the 21st century. Organisers might note that women amount to more than a decorative detail at sporting fixtures these days.

To put it into context, the Irish women’s hockey team have just reached the final of the World Cup. Regardless of yesterday’s loss to the Netherlands, the statement they have carved into the history books is epic.

Women are fully paid-up members of Ireland’s sporting community today. The fact that the women’s team are self-funded speaks for itself.

They are the first Irish sports team to reach a World Cup final in any sport. The time for tokenism is over.

Each summer we are treated to the spectacle of overdressed women with ridiculous hats, parading around at racecourses in honour of Ladies Day. Such demeaning nonsense.

The driving rain at Galway Races last week highlighted the fairly preposterous nature of hobbling around a race track in silly shoes, in the name of being well-dressed.

More clothes horses will be strutting their stuff at the Dublin Horse Show later this week, also in the name of style on Ladies Day.

It is high time we put this Ladies Day lark at the races to bed.

It is 2018 and we are women not ‘Laydeez’, thanks very much.

While I am all in favour of getting dressed up in whatever way you fancy, I have some significant reservations about Best Dressed Lady competitions.

In short they are rooted in an era when women were not considered equals. They are well past their sell-by date and need to be urgently consigned to the bin as they do not conform to social norms today.

We are constantly telling young girls that it is what is on the inside that matters. Yet grown women put on their best bib and tucker and submit themselves to scrutiny, solely on the basis of their appearance. Meh.

The Horse Racing Ireland website advises ‘smart casual’ and ‘quite elegant’ clothing with a flamboyant hat for those considering entering Ladies Day best-dressed competitions. It advises serious contenders should ‘dress to impress’. Quite.

For young women in particular, this amounts to a very mixed message.

The prize winners and indeed most of the entrants look like a variation on a very narrow, middle-aged and middle-of-theroad style theme. Dressing up for a wedding, Irish style, appears to be the norm. Where are the cuttingedge looks and the ombré dip-dyed hair that is de rigueur today?

It is not hard to notice the absence of young, old, disabled, curvy or indeed ethnically different ‘Laydeez’ strutting their stuff in the hopes of being declared the best-dressed punter.

I took my pony-mad, early-teen daughter to the Dublin Horse Show last year, which happened, by coincidence, to be Ladies Day.

On the way home I asked her opinion of the fashion.

“Awful and embarrassing,” was her reply.

Indeed.

If Croke Park pitched up with a marketing idea of a Best Dressed Man competition, I wonder how well that would go down with the patrons?

Picture men dressed in suits too tight to walk in and winkle-picker brown shoes, topped off with a silly hairstyle, hoping to catch the judge’s eye?

No, me neither.

I wonder would the men pay €225 for a hospitality package that includes a glass of Prosecco and some canapés followed by lunch with half a bottle of wine? Rhetorical question obviously. This whole idea of a ‘Ladies Day’ was originally an import from The Royal Ascot race meeting in the UK in the 1830s. Even they don’t use the term anymore, although members of the public still do.

It is time that we scrapped the Ladies Day event in favour of something more egalitarian and appropriate to the times we live in.

If the organisers of such events must have a competition to bring in punters – and it is their right to do so after all – why not have a Style Day, catering to all and open to both men and women and all of those in between?

In this way we could have the ‘more dash than cash brigade’ compete with the ‘wedding glamour merchants’ while the men can make it up as they go along.

If women are to occupy a more mainstream role in Irish society, we must dispense with sexist tokenism like Ladies Day.

The term lady today is in general used as a ‘lite’ version of women. Originally the term was designed to denote women of status and breeding. That is no longer the case, even if the BBC still insists on referring to our girls in green as ‘the Irish ladies hockey team’.

It goes without saying that our hockey women represent fantastic, modern, can-do role models for our young women today. By comparison, women in satin shift dresses, high heels and flamboyant hats simply do not.

Yes 2018 will go down in history as the year Mná na hÉireann shook off the shackles of servitude.

It is high time the racing fraternity caught up with events outside of the enclosure.

If Croke Park pitched up with a marketing idea of a Best Dressed Man competition, I wonder how well that would go down with the patrons?