Breaking through the rugby glass ceiling
It has taken more than a century but finally a woman has joined the upper echelons of New Zealand’s rugby heirarchy. And as we report today, New Zealand Rugby’s newest board member Farah Palmer’s first priority is to win over the nation’s mums.
Dr Farah Palmer has a 4-yearold daughter who wants to play rugby. New Zealand Rugby’s newest board member, the first woman to serve on the organisation’s board for the more than 120 years of its existence, hopes other girls do too and, crucially, that their mothers let them.
It’s fair to say that Palmer’s daughter probably has a head start. Palmer, 44, was a Black Fern for more than 10 years. She captained the team for the last nine of those. During her career she won three World Cups and lost only one match in total.
In 2014, eight years after she retired from playing, she was inducted into World Rugby’s Hall of Fame as one of the best women players in history.
This year the New Zealand women’s provincial championship was renamed the Farah Palmer Cup in recognition of her achievements.
The former front rower was born in Te Kuiti and raised in the farming community of Piopio — a few kilometres from Colin Meads. She studied at Otago University and now lectures at Palmerston North’s Massey University. She knows about the game.
She also knows about leadership, winning and diversity.
This week she was elected to replace Maori representative Wayne Peters. Nominated by the Manawatu union and seconded by Hawke’s Bay, she was voted in unanimously by New Zealand Rugby’s 26 provincial unions, and the sigh of relief from New Zealand Rugby’s chairman Brent Impey was almost audible.
Impey has made it his mission to see the organisation’s board more reflective of New Zealand society, and he believes it was getting the point where having at least one woman was a non-negotiable.
“There are some of our sponsors who have very strong diversity policies themselves and while there is no actual threat in terms of sponsorship [to NZ Rugby] I believe over a period of time that would be inevitable,” Impey told the Herald on Sunday.
“NZ Rugby can’t be out of step with where the rest of society is going and I think that’s being recognised.
“Of 155,000 players, 21,000 of them are women. It’s my personal view that, particularly around women’s sevens and the Olympics, it can become the No 1 women’s team sport in this country. It’s just inconsistent to have those numbers and those ambitions without that group being represented at the governance level.”
Enter Palmer, a woman who had to think deeply about wanting to put her name to a rugby competition but who felt the time was right to mix it with an allmale board.
She told the Herald in July of the cup with her name engraved on it, won for the first time by Counties-Manukau: “I did say ‘can I sleep on it?’ and I went home and asked my partner and my family what they thought, because I didn’t want to put myself out there if I thought it wasn’t something people thought was appropriate.
“I had a little think about it, and I thought ‘it’s not about me, it’s about women in general and seeing themselves be acknowledged in sport’ so I was really supportive of that.”
It’s difficult to think of a better qualified board member. Palmer, who studied physical education at Otago University before also graduating with a doctorate in philosophy, has done extensive research on gender and diversity issues in sport. Maori issues are also close to her heart, and one of her longer-terms goals is to improve the overall health of Maori rugby, including the exploration of commercial and sponsorship opportunities. In an interview with the Herald after she retired from the game 10 years ago, Palmer said the media also had an important role to play in levelling the playing field for women in sport: “We should be seeing action shots of women’s sport rather than the pretty, posy ones,” she said. “We should be taking it just as seriously as men’s sport, rather than trivialising it or getting distracted by sideissues. “Media have a massive influence on the accessibility of sport, and that applies to women’s sport as much as anything.” She said she would take a collaborative approach, and there is no doubt that after the scandals that have tarnished New Zealand Rugby this year, including the Chiefs’ stripper controversy, there is a genuine need for her input and a new way of looking at things. There is also a steely determination to make changes. “I do like to ask questions that maybe no one else has asked, and I do like to challenge things that I think need to be challenged,” Palmer told TVNZ. “I’m in there now so I can rock the boat if I want.” Palmer enters her role knowing that women’s rugby appears in good shape in this country, but has huge potential for improvement. One of the biggest boosts was the New Zealand team’s silver medal at the Rio Olympics in August, an achievement that made the likes of Portia Woodman household names. The subsequent failure by the men’s team highlighted the women’s success, and they capitalised by touring New Zealand in a roadshow titled “seven cities in seven days”. Palmer was thrilled to watch the team interact with girls in Palmerston North, knowing that better role models would be hard to come by. “I do believe that with sevens going to the Olympics, that it’s definitely raised the profile of sevens,” she said. “It has been around for a while. A lot of what I guess you would call converts from other sports to rugby started with a sevens pathway, so I can definitely see it would appeal to a wider group of girls and women who perhaps are a bit nervous about going to the 15s game, which is a bit more physical.
“It’s about getting mums over their fear of the game.
“I know many fathers who love the fact their daughters want to play rugby, and encourage them.”
Mums are a harder sell. “They tend to do a lot more of the taxiing around to sports events. For instance, I’ve got a 4-year-old daughter. She knows that I played rugby before I was a mum, so when I ask her what she wants to play when she grows up she says ‘I want to play rugby’.
“It’s about having those role models, and being more visible.
“My hand has been itching to go up for a while but it hasn’t because of where I was at in my life with my young family and also because I thought, if it was going to be a woman, there are lots of other women out there who have the potential to be great board members.
“I do see this as opening the door to encourage other women to put themselves forward for board positions at provincial and Super Rugby level.
“I wouldn’t like to think that I will be the one and only representative of diversity on the board.
“My approach would always be about taking a long-term view. I wouldn’t expect to come in and instantly make change, that’s not how I operate. It’s about working with people, it’s about bringing other people along with me. So I don’t think I’m going to be the one and only solution.”
Asked whether a woman’s election on to the board was cause for celebration or annoyance, given it has taken so long, Palmer was in no doubt.
“I’m excited. I’m not annoyed. I think it’s wonderful to see that New Zealand Rugby has acknowledged that it’s more than time to do this kind of thing. It was 111 years for Ireland to win [against the All Blacks], I don’t think they were annoyed about that, they were ecstatic.
“A lot of women around New Zealand and globally will be celebrating this. I can only see this being a positive.” In a profile on Palmer by the New
Zealand Rugby Almanack, former teammate Anna Richards gave a tribute that suggested Palmer’s influence on the game here could continue to be significant.
“Farah was an awesome captain because not only was she a great player but she did an amazing amount of work off the field,” Richards said.
“Farah’s work behind the scenes in planning and pulling us together as a team was immeasurable. I am sure Farah went in to bat for us countless times with the NZRU and management. She was always genuinely concerned about every member of the team.”