Jack Nicklaus is quoted as having said: “It takes hundreds of good shots to gain confidence, but only one bad one to lose it.” That, in many cases can sum up a female’s introduction to sport and I believe it is one of the contributory factors as to why female participation in sport is so low. It takes just one bad experience, one rogue comment, and a potential player can be put off for life.
Unfortunately, there is more than one factor holding back women in sport, though. This is just an example of some of the many complex reasons that have now been established as having an impact – and why many of us are working hard to close the gender gap.
There is a little chink of light coming through now, with a lot of organisations understanding the best way to encourage women and girls into sport and implementing programmes that overcome these issues. Hats off to all organ-isations who have realised this and are working hard to accelerate change.
One of these is the company Aberdeen Standard Investments. While its product is, of course, finance, not only does it invest in sport through sponsorship deals, it has hosted a gender summit for the past four years, prior to the Scottish Ladies Open, which it supports, to discuss some of the pertinent issues facing women in both business and sport today.
From the co-chief executives – who both attended – to Tracey Neville, head coach of the England national netball team, and Mike Whan, commissioner of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, we heard the thoughts of a variety of sports and businesspeople on some of the issues that have a crossover between the two. Session two asked “What can we learn from business and sport” and questions flowed from predominately a business audience.
The event ended with a reception at Edinburgh Castle, with entertainment from the wonderful Elaine C Smith, who can hit home with some difficult statements, tempered with a bit of humour. She finished off with a song called Wives and Lovers, sung by Frank Sinatra among others. Check out the lyrics as I think this might answer some of the questions as to why women are still fighting for equality in 2018: That is (hopefully) what we used to call entertainment!
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