Solo’s mission gives hope to women’s fight for equality
FRANK BRUNO beguiled with his charm while AP McCoy offered another glimpse into his frightening will to win but there was no doubt as to who stole the show at the OneZero conference in Croke Park last Tuesday.
For over 40 minutes, the audience were held in rapt attention by Hope Solo. The two-time Olympic gold medallist, a confident and articulate communicator, brought us on the journey that has seen her left out in the cold as the USA women’s soccer team prepare for the next World Cup.
Ostensibly, Solo is in exile because she dared to criticise Sweden’s overly-defensive tactics as they knocked the US out of the Rio Olympics. After that game, her 202nd for her country, Solo blasted the Swedes as ‘a bunch of cowards’ and her difficult relationship with the federation boiled over.
The US Soccer federation terminated her contract and suspended her for six months. She apologised, in some cases personally, to a number of Swedish players, but it didn’t matter. Solo believes that something else is at play.
For years, the federation were happy with her brash manner, ‘a loud mouth’ as she calls herself. But when she began to tackle them on equality issues – Solo was one of a number of players who filed a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over wage discrimination – she became a problem.
‘I was a squeaky wheel for years, but rather than get greased, I got replaced after the Rio Olympics,’ Solo explained. Despite her experiences, she wants to remain at the vanguard for the struggle for equality within sport.
Solo, who lost a 16-yearlong endorsement with Nike after the row with US Soccer, was keen to underline that there is value in women’s sport. And corporations need to start to understand that.
There is plenty of evidence this year that backs up Solo’s claim. Here in Ireland, more than 46,000 people came to Croke Park to watch the Ladies football finals with Dublin and Mayo top of the bill. A television audience of over 100 million people watched the cricket world cup final between England and India at Lord’s (although the seats reserved for MCC members were noticeably empty). Euro 2017 was a very successful tournament and gained large viewing figures on Channel 4 while almost 30,000 went to the final between the Netherlands and Denmark. American female soccer players were well aware of their value and that is why they made such a big play for equality. ‘We brought in $20 million for the Federation, the men’s team ran off an operating loss of $2 million,’ Solo pointed out. ‘That proved there is value in women’s sport.’ Solo’s message on Tuesday was that female athletes should use their voice and profile together. ‘Silence won’t change the world,’ she proclaimed. Slowly, but surely, women’s sport is copping on to that. On this side of the world, the Ireland women’s football team won a victory of sorts after threatening strike action over their treatment by the FAI, treatment that equated to the players ‘being like fifth-class citizens, the dirt on the FAI’s shoe’ as the PFAI’s Stuart Gilhooly said at the time.
Having to change in the public toilets in the airport, and sharing tracksuits with underage teams made up a long list of complaints.
Solo praised the Irish women for their stand, ‘They had to put their foot down against the federation to get what is considered basic rights; hotel wi-fi, attire, bonuses. But it never would have happened if they didn’t put down their foot. They realised that in order to get power, you have to take it.’
On the other side of the Atlantic, the US women’s ice hockey team threatened to strike only days before the world championships this April, over conditions. Given that the tournament was in Michigan, and the US were the defending champions, it was an embarrassing situation that was eventually resolved three days before the first game. The US team ended up winning the tournament.
Across sports and across the globe, more and more female athletes are accepting that they can no longer stay silent. And yet, there is still a long way to travel. Only a couple of hours after Solo spoke, Irish rugby player Jenny Murphy was moved to tweet: ‘So much progress made by other nations and we have taken five steps backwards.’
Murphy’s comment was in relation to the advert for a new women’s coach which was posted on the IRFU website only an hour after Solo’s inspirational talk in Croke Park. The position, once full-time, was now part-time and was only worthy of a six-month contract.
The IRFU’s decision to downsize the female coaching role seems so out of kilter with everything else that has happened this year although the union responded to the backlash with a carefully-worded statement on Friday, saying they ‘regretted any upset caused’ and they haven’t downgraded the position as Tom Tierney, the last incumbent, was in charge of both the 15-a-side team and the sevens. They also claimed that the role may become full-time following a strategic review after next year’s Six Nations, although the statement ignored the fact that Ireland will play no Autumn Internationalsl, a move that allowed the role to be ‘part-time.’ Even when a team is doing
well, it can camouflage issues. The Danish team that reached the Euro 2017 final are now on strike, leading to last Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Sweden being postponed, in a protest over equal pay and conditions.
The Norwegian FA is leading the way in after revealing their male and female footballers will be paid the same for representing their country.
The shocking revelations during the inquiry into the racism claims in the English women’s team during the week only reinforced the belief that there should be more women involved in administration and coaching.
The issue of gender quotas, which has already been floated by Sports Minister Patrick O’Donovan, is an awkward one and there is no hard evidence that such quotas actually work. As Solo said in Croke Park, we need to get to a place where coaches and administrators are simply chosen on merit, regardless of gender
In that respect, it was encouraging to see that former Cork camogie star Mary O’Connor has been elevated to the top job in the Federation of Irish Sport only a few months after Sarah Keane, a very impressive contributor to Sport Ireland’s recent High Performance X conference, was given the unenviable task of cleaning up the Olympic Council of Ireland.
Having more female administrators is one aspect that will help this battle for equality (Helen O’Rourke, the head of the Ladies Football Association, is one of the most successful sporting administrators in Ireland).
But women’s sport needs to be seen more regularly. Solo explained that 40 per cent of all athletes in America are women, yet only four per cent of all sports shown on US television is just women’s sport. ‘Where is the balance there?’ she wondered.
‘I’m not even saying there should be parity of coverage, but let’s at least get it up to 20 per cent. I am not naive, the men’s game is fasterpaced, men are stronger, but there is value in the women’s game.’
Looking ahead to the next generation, Solo is optimistic. ‘I have faith in the younger generation, the boys and girls of this generation growing up, there is not as much sexism and they believe in equality.’