Gender, Governance, and ‘Ireland’: (In)visibility and Symbolism
Gender Equity in UK Sport Leadership and Governance
ISBN: 978-1-80043-207-9, eISBN: 978-1-80043-206-2
Publication date: 27 January 2022
Abstract
This chapter examines the (in)visibility and symbolism of women in sports governance on the island of Ireland, taking as its main empirical focus available data on the boards of government-funded national governing bodies, north and south. The distinctiveness of the Irish case is explained by three factors: the governance minefield, itself a legacy of Irish-British relations and partition in the 1920s, recognisable patterns in gender relations north and south and the functioning of sport as a safe, largely unquestioned and intriguingly vague symbolism for inclusion and peace in Northern Ireland. These conditions have resonance today, not only for women in sport and the approach to quotas, for instance, but that also play out in the delivery of Brexit and the struggles that characterise Irish-British relations more generally. The chapter concludes with a consideration of future challenges and areas for further research.
Keywords
Citation
Liston, K. (2022), "Gender, Governance, and ‘Ireland’: (In)visibility and Symbolism", Velija, P. and Piggott, L. (Ed.) Gender Equity in UK Sport Leadership and Governance (Emerald Studies in Sport and Gender), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 87-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-206-220221006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022 by Emerald Publishing Limited