‘This is about life and the type of society we want’
WHAT HAPPENS next is up to everyone. The 20x20 campaign was one of the most dynamic and invigorating movements seen in Irish sport in years. Started in 2018 with the aim of increasing coverage of women’s sport by 20 per cent, increasing participation by 20 per cent and boosting attendances at women’s sports events by 20 per cent by the year 2020, it came to a close last week – for now, anyway.
The ravaging effects of Covid-19 on sporting schedules this year militates against a full appraisal of its success, but research accompanying its conclusion illustrated the positive effect that the 20x20 campaign has had on public sentiment and within the coverage of women’s sport.
It also showed the enormous ground still to be covered, particularly in relation to media treatment of women’s games compared to men’s sport.
The enterprise as a whole leaves behind a legacy that requires more than one gender to honour it.
This is no longer about women. This is about a society, a culture, a country, and how the people within it consider concepts like fairness, equity, and equality.
Sport is celebrated because it rewards virtues such as honesty and hard work. Those who work in sport, who profess to love it, who have spent the past eight months lamenting its absence from their lives, know what the 20x20 movement was about.
And they will understand, too, that what makes them love sport should make them lend their support to the idea of fair play, irrespective of gender.
Women’s sport has never known concentrated support of the kind generated over the past two years. Maintaining the push needs many shoulders now, male and female.
‘This is just about life, and the type of society we want to have,’ says Sarah Colgan, who founded 20x20 with Heather Thornton, with whom she founded the creative agency Along Came A Spider.
‘It’s not about women in sport, and it’s not about girls getting those benefits, even though that is a part of it. All of us would hope that in 10 years’ time there isn’t a version of anything where women are less valued.’
The concept of equal treatment for women’s sport was given fresh prominence this past week by the intervention of the Women’s Gaelic Players Association.
They published the results of a survey that revealed the material differences between men’s and women’s GAA players. And reaction to that survey excavated some ancient attitudes, too.
The WPGA survey, with 534 respondents, found that the majority of players pay for their own medical and physio treatments, as well as their own gym fees. And 93 per cent receive no travel expenses.
Ladies football and camogie have their own organisations, but links with the GAA are well established and inter-county players are in receipt of Government grants – but at less than a quarter of the value of the men’s scheme.
And this is where an old refrain was heard. Women’s football and camogie don’t generate anything like the same revenue from gate receipts or sponsorship that the men’s competitions do.
This is true, but consider the implication of that statement.
It was spouted this week by the predictable mouthpieces, the selfstyled straight-talkers who seemed to believe they were settling this debate for all time.
However, does the fact that men’s football and hurling enjoy greater popular and commercial support justify athletes who commit dozens of hours a week to representing their counties losing money to play their game? Is it simply a question of commercial might? Is that reason enough to leave women’s sport starved of coverage?
There was an interesting take on this from Brian O’Driscoll at an online conference held last week to mark the closure of this chapter in the 20x20 story. He said he was taunted online for selling out to ‘feminazis’ when his participation in the event was announced.
That is a helplessly idiotic take, but it is merely the extreme end of an argument that relies on some distorted idea of Darwinism, that sport should be a survival of the fittest and if games can’t attract fans, well tough.
There are places of more enlightenment in the debate, and O’Driscoll alighted on one of them when he insisted that this is now about men as much as women.
Men need to support the idea of fairness for their wives, sisters, daughters, mothers, but also because it is the right thing to do.
That sentiment barely qualified as a platitude two years ago. That is changing now, both in the willingness of society to recognise the need for change, and in the determination of women in sport to make themselves heard. The WGPA story was a good example.
‘It’s huge progress, in terms of the confidence to stand up and say it, which wasn’t there at this level before,’ says Colgan.
‘If we’re looking now at signing off (from 20x20) and saying goodbye, the most important message we can leave is this notion of, if you’re thinking it, ask it – and at whatever level that is, whether that is something like the WGPA, whether it’s for elite athletes needing to stand up against what they perceive is not right, or against unfair treatment , or whether it’s happening at a grassroots level.
‘When we were doing interviews for our podcast, we were talking about this notion of pushing for answers and asking questions. And I know there were a couple of people who felt protest is what’s needed.’ She offers a small, practical example of how the movement has found support. They got 20x20 flags to send out to sports clubs, and there were 600 requests.
That may not signify a radical cultural heave, but this is not about overnight transformation.
This, rather, is about grinding, vital work. It is about the granular, ceaseless battles that have to be engaged and won.
There were many people waging these tireless campaigns long before 2018 or the founding of 20x20. That their efforts were largely confined to the shadows, and only infrequently brought something in the way of tangible reward, showed the scale of the issue.
And it also showed why a new, bold approach was needed.
‘You can’t create a cultural shift with half of a population,’ says Sarah Colgan. ‘A culture is all of a society.
‘It is never going to happen for women in sport if we don’t have men and women pushing for it.
‘If we’re looking for women in sport to become part of our traditions, our habits as a family, and part of our cultural DNA, it cannot happen if it’s only a women’s issue, and if it’s only being pushed by women.’
Think again on that argument about women’s sport lacking the popular support of its male equivalent.
At its heart is the guileless assumption that nothing ever changes. Men’s games dominate and that’s that.
In this year, of all years, such thinking is pitiful. Change can be abrupt, but it can also be incremental.
However it manifests itself, it cannot be halted. Change is underway in Irish sport, and it is mystifying why some would choose not to celebrate that.
No matter. They will not stop it. The willingness of the Irish people to celebrate a sporting story that went too long untold has become very obvious since 2018.
That story has a great many chapters waiting to be shared.
‘CHANGE WON’T OCCUR UNLESS MEN AND WOMEN PUSH FOR IT’