LESSON WE MUST LEARN FROM WOMEN MAKING HISTORY
Their successes will inspire many others
IT WAS a significant weekend of achievement for two Irish women – and by extension it was a very important time for all Irish people irrespective of gender. Rachael Blackmore and Linda Doyle achieved high-ranking firsts for women in different walks of life that share a dominance by men that has lasted far too long.
When Rachael Blackmore cantered home aboard Minella Times to capture the English Grand National at Aintree, she became the first woman jockey to win in the race’s 182-year storied history. At the same time in Dublin, Professor Linda Doyle was announced as the first woman provost of Trinity College in the 429-year history of that august university.
Both were sparkling achievements. But they also point up how recognition of women in every sector of Irish life, at every level, has for too long been neglected. Some would see academia and horse racing as worlds apart. But both women share a proven quest for excellence and a strong ambition to achieve. And what both these worlds have for too long shared is an unfair domination by men.
Ms Blackmore notably said in the minutes immediately after victory that she felt neither female, nor male, nor scarcely even human.
Since she had added this historic win to the Cheltenham Gold Cup victory last month, becoming the first woman to be crowned leading jockey at that festival, she would have been entitled to a small gloat. But her sheer joy at the win, coupled with her acknowledgement of the folkloric status this race has for all sports fans, endeared her to the multitudes.
Her attitude very effectively showed just how sport belongs to every single last one of us. When the trainer, Henry de Bromhead, was complimented for putting such trust in a female rider, he quickly scotched the idea. He noted that Rachael Blackmore got to ride such prime horses in do-ordie big races because of her proven skill, work rate and burning ambition.
It was a seminal moment for all Irish sport. It sent messages to the GAA, to rugby, to soccer and to the other key sports in Ireland that women can no longer be given second best.
The choice of Professor Linda Doyle to head one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious centres of learning was perforce a much less dramatic affair – but no less significant for all of that.
Like the sporting sector, academia had at very best a patchy record of giving space, opportunity and recognition to women. Worse, there are darker shadows of gender exploitation and discrimination enduring to recent times.
It seems fitting that Prof Doyle proved herself in the field of engineering, a sector slower than humanities to welcome women students. But a prestigious academic background, coupled with practical experience in industry, and holding senior research posts, bode very well for her tenure.
Milestones show the distance travelled and the distance still to go. The successes of women like Ms Blackmore and Prof Doyle will rightly inspire many others as we strive to build an equal society. There is still much for us all to do.