Photo proves why gender quotas are a must in sport

THE opening of the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown was a red-letter day for the local community, but you wouldn’t guess it from the official photographs.

Thirteen men, mostly middleaged and in suits, including Sports Minister Shane Ross, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar and the Taoiseach were snapped together posing up while there was not a woman in sight at the state-of-the-art sport facility.

So much for all those notions of encouraging girls and women into sport or even to pay a visit to this world-class facility.

Olympic winner Derval O’Rourke was quick off the mark, tweeting: ‘If I tweet that this picture is odd, is Twitter gonna give out to me?’ It didn’t. The picture is a sobering reminder of how women are still invisible in certain walks of life, even when they are involved at so many different levels.

It also strengthens the case for gender quotas in sporting bodies, an idea that is currently under discussion, with potential sanctions in the form of cuts to funding for organisations that don’t meet the quota of 30% female representation on their boards by 2019.

Predictably, the proposal met with a backlash when it was announced before Christmas, with many dark warnings about how the future of GAA would be thrown into jeopardy if women had a say at board level.

But a picture tells a thousand words and this one sums up elegantly and forcefully the obstacles facing women in public life and why something has to change for their benefit in sport.