Helen Grant: deplorable comment highlights work left to eradicate sexism
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Version 0 of 1. More work must be done to eradicate sexism in sport following the “deplorable and disgraceful” comments by a Northumberland County Football Association official towards a female referee, according to the sports minister, Helen Grant. John Cummings, the Northumberland FA vice-president, was this week suspended for four months by an independent regulatory commission after telling a female referee in March that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen and not on a football field”. Lucy May, a referee development officer, had asked about the possibility of officiating in the North East Sunday League at a workshop event. On Thursday, Grant and a number of high-profile figures attended the inaugural Women’s Sport Conference at Lord’s, aimed at improving the gender balance in sport. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s women and sport advisory board, established in September last year, also published an interim report into the development of women’s sport, which was presented at the event. However, despite the significant progress Grant believes has been made, she says much more needs to be done. Regarding the case of Cummings, 70, who is set to appeal against his FA ban for “abusive and/or insulting language”, Grant said: “That was a disgraceful comment and the FA were absolutely right to take a firm line. I think that was deplorable and disgraceful and I’m glad that the FA have taken a strong line on this. It just shows that while there is a lot of progress being made there is still work to do.” The DCMS’s report, which will be published in its entirety next spring, aims to “make women playing sport and working in sport the norm”. The organisation Women in Sport, formerly the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, worked together with the government to stage the inaugural conference in London that included speeches from Judy Murray, Marion Bartoli, the Sport England chief executive, Jennie Price, and the RFU chief executive, Ian Ritchie. The five key areas that the government has targeted for improvement are the profile of women’s sport, media coverage of women’s sport, increased commercial investment, more representation in leadership positions and greater recognition for female sporting achievements. The report cites research by Women in Sport that states 43% of girls believe there are not enough sporting role models for females. The research also shows that more than half of all boys and girls agree there are more opportunities for boys to succeed in sport. Grant said: “When I was growing up as a kid in Carlisle sport was a real force for good. It has a huge impact on people’s lives, it gave me my confidence and self-esteem. It can give you teamwork, leadership and discipline. For that reason I’m determined that as many people as possible have the same opportunities. “We want more women and girls participating in sport. At the minute we’ve got more young women aged between 16 and 25 participating at least once a week, more than ever before, but there is still a two million gender gap between the number of women doing sport and the number of men doing sport. I want that closed.” She added: “We all need to work together. We’ve got athletes, administrators and politicians here today. We’ve got sports governing bodies. This was a snapshot of the progress that we have made so far.” Sport England, the organisation responsible for grassroots sport across the country, on Thursday announced a new campaign, #thisgirlcan, to encourage more women to play sport and become more active. |