UNCONSCIOUS bias, surely that’s something that I wouldn’t get caught up in, after all I am always on the other end of this type of thing, telling people how to avoid it.
Well this is where I come clean and tell you how easily I fell into the trap.
Attending the Scotland v Albania match on Tuesday night it was a great result for the team 5-0 and six points from two games. It was a feel-good type of night, where you had no concern you knew that the patience and skill of the team would ensure the right result.
It was a big day for the new coach Shelley Kerr, who had introduced some new players into the squad and also the back-room staff and after a particularly tricky trip to Belarus picking up the first three points in the Fifa World Cup qualifiers, they now had to deliver at home.
The pressure was on her and the team as expectations were high, however we were not disappointed.
After the game, I was speaking to a member of the backroom staff asking who the new physio was, explaining that I was talking about the blonde woman who ran on to the pitch alongside a the male doctor.
This is where I had to take a step back as I was told that the blonde lady was indeed the doctor and the male, was the physio.
That was that moment when I could have easily kicked myself, just as well as I am not that flexible. A lesson in point for me, think before you speak and stop making judgements.
MANY years ago when I was first working in football, one of the lovely benefits that came my way from representing Scottish Women in Sport on the Scottish FA Council was an invite to all International games and also to the pre-match meal.
Now, I have to say this is where I made history, as the first time I was in attendance at the pre-match meal, I was placed at the same table as the wives of the other members of the council; at that point, women and men didn’t sit at the same table.
Pleasant as the evening was, I wasn’t there as someone’s wife, I was there as a representative from one of the Affiliation National Associations, and a member of the Council.
The next day, taking all my courage in my hands, I made an appointment to see Jim Farry, the then Chief Executive of the Scottish FA.
He was known to most people as Mr Farry and not Jim as that was a line very few people were brave enough to cross. He was a fearless administrator and one of the most recognisable men in the Scottish game.
Girding my loins, I advised him of my unhappiness at the seating arrangements of the night before and surprisingly he agreed that it wasn’t right and changed it for the next game and history was made.
This I believe was a form of unconscious bias, as I believe Mr Farry meant no slight to me, rather he felt that I would be more comfortable sitting with a group of women. At that point I didn’t know the phrase to explain his actions, but now I think sub-conscious bias, fits perfectly.
HOWEVER I am not sure what phrase you can use to explain the lack of coverage of sportswomen in our media.
Last weekend I took the time to count the number of sports pages in one of Scotland’s best known Sunday papers.
They had comprehensive coverage of sport, sorry I should say football, and the whole thing totalled just under 30 pages.
To my utter disappointment and as far as I could see, there was no coverage of women’s sport at all.
This in the week where the wonderful and refreshingly honest Katie Archibald picked up her second medal of the European Track Championships in Berlin with gold in the individual pursuit.
Katie is flying high at the moment and is the running for the QTS Sportswomen this year, having picked up the award last year.
I am perplexed to understand why there is a reluctance on the part of many of our papers to cover the success stories of women in sport and the wider sporting community.
Answers please on a postcard!
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