Likes and retweets don’t cut it when it comes to tackling equality issue

IN ITS manifesto for last year’s general election, the Labour Party devoted a sentence to gender equality in sport. ‘Labour will require at least 40 per cent representation of women in sport governing bodies, and will push for greater participation in sport by women and girls,’ it said.

This was the most specific commitment made by one of the established parties ahead of the election on this issue.

Fianna Fáil planned to link funding to ‘criteria enhancing female participation in sport’.

Fine Gael, as a party that had spent the previous nine years in government, said by doubling investment in sport and through pursuing the policies outlined in the National Sports Policy, it would decrease the gender gap in participation rates.

Sinn Féin stated its support for the 20x20 campaign and its aims.

Sport does not win elections, and it was no surprise that it didn’t feature as a prominent subject in the promises of any party.

Manifestos are not the same as programmes for government; they are like a dreamer’s journal laid bare for the world, a collection of fancies and promises and poses.

The documents produced by all parties presented solutions for the crises in health and housing, and contained daring visions for a new Ireland – just as they did for the last election, and the one before that, too.

When sport did figure, though, it was unsurprising that it was accompanied by promises around inclusion and equality. Even when paying lip-service to sport, politicians understand that the framework in which it is discussed has changed dramatically over the past decade.

Equality is now central to the discussion. And politicians need to understand that there is an understanding of this issue that goes beyond public posturing.

One suspects that at least one Irish politician now gets this, following the mortifying attempt of a Labour TD to score cheap points.

Aodhán Ó Riordáin is the party’s spokesperson on Education, Enterprise and Trade, but it was coverage of the Ireland-England match last weekend that convinced him to post a tweet that read as patronising, misguided and cynical.

‘I’m sorry @VMSportIE but this isn’t good enough. What does this image tell every girl in the country? There isn’t an Irishwoman alive who knows anything about rugby? Did the #20x20 campaign just pass you by?’ he wrote.

It was accompanied by a screengrab of the Virgin Media studio for the match. The station’s coverage of the game was fronted by Joe Molloy, and included four male pundits.

That a senior politician thought a discussion on gender balance in sport could stem from a screengrab defies belief. One presumes, of course, that it was Ó Riordáin’s intention to stir a meaningful discussion and not just harvest easy likes.

Whatever the motivation, his tweet was heavily criticised, including by the station’s experienced rugby correspondent, who happens to be a woman.

The dangers of using social media to raise complicated, serious social issues appear lost on him.

Last September, Ó Riordáin said – on Twitter – that he supported the removal of To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice And Men from the Junior Cert syllabus, on account of their use of the n-word.

The deputy is a teacher, yet he reached for censorship rather than a deeper analysis of how the books are being taught, and the effects of the language in the books.

Policy should not be shaped by likes or retweets, in any area.

If Aodhán Ó Riordáin is serious

about progressing the issue of gender balance in sport, then he must know that there are more fruitful ways of pursuing the topic.

His party’s promise to increase the percentage of women on governing bodies to 40 per cent was the most considered take on the subject by any party before the last election.

As Dr Una May outlines in this paper today, the target of increasing female representation on boards is just one step of many that must be taken.

It is an important part of the painstaking job of improving gender balance in Irish sport.

There is a role for the media in that, too, as was explicitly recognised in the aims of the 20x20 movement.

No less than any other contributor to the story of Irish sport, the Irish media has much work left to do. But gimmicks won’t cut it. Twitter pile-ons can’t be allowed to pass for debate. Screengrabs won’t improve the standard of the engagement, either.

Thanks to the largely unseen work of many in women’s sport over years, momentum has developed that can now be harnessed to deliver far-reaching change.

That is what matters.