Leaders in Sport Discuss Striving for Gender Balance in July Series
OFI Gender Equality in Sport Online Series
Following the significant interest in the previously postponed OFI Gender Equality Conference, the Olympic Federation of Ireland is delighted to launch an online series which addresses how gender equality can be achieved at leadership level in sport in Ireland. Throughout the four part series leaders from the sporting arena, decision makers and influencers discuss their personal experiences and offer insights into how to ensure that sport is a gender inclusive environment.
Every Wednesday at 2pm TV Presenter and journalist Mark Cagney will discuss the area of gender balance in sport across four different themes; coaching, leadership, governance and portrayal, with the sessions lasting one hour, pre-registration is required for each session – REGISTER HERE for week one.
The aim of the series is to demonstrate the importance of having gender balance at decision making level and to provide concrete examples of how and why having this balance will benefit the wider sporting community. The series is primarily aimed at CEOs, Presidents and the Women in Sport Lead across member federations of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, with a limited number of invitations also made for members of the media and other interested individuals working in this area.
The first edition of the series focuses on leadership within coaching structures and will include case studies from some of Ireland’s biggest names at sports management level. Following that the specific topics being addressed are leadership, governance and portrayal.
Week 1: Focus on Leaders in Coaching
- LISA FALLON Lisa Fallon is the Head Coach of London City Lionesses, who play in the FA Women's Championship. She is the only Republic of Ireland born Head Coach working in the top two divisions of men's or women's professional football in the UK.
- BERNARD DUNNE Bernard Dunne is a retired Professional Boxer. He is a former WBA Super Bantamweight World Champion and also a former European Super Bantamweight Champion. Bernard is currently the High Performance Director for Irish Boxing with the Irish Athletic Boxing Association.
- SALLY CORSCADDEN Sally Corscadden is the Eventing Performance Director for Horse Sport Ireland. She competed internationally for nearly 30 years. Sally took up the position of Performance Manager and Chef d’Equipe for Horse Sport Ireland’s U21 and U25 HP Squads. In 2017 Sally became the Performance Director, Manager and Chef d’Equipe of Horse Sport Ireland’s Senior Eventing Team.
- SALLY JOHNSON Sally Johnson, Performance Director leads, manages and directs the Performance & Technical Department in Gymnastics Ireland and has attended 2 major Olympic events, 2 European Games and 4 Youth Games.
Launching the series, President of the Olympic Federation of Ireland Sarah Keane said –
“It is important to have balanced and diverse viewpoints represented in all areas of Irish society and Irish sport. This series focuses on Gender Equality at the leadership level in sport, and the purpose of the series is to use concrete examples of how organizational structures can be challenged and adapted to support all sportspeople.
“Tokyo 2020 will be the most gender balanced Olympic Games ever, with 48.5% of the athletes being female, which is encouraging. The next step is to ensure that there is a balance across the leadership positions in sport, to make sure that more voices are represented. This series addresses gender equality specifically, but the same philosophies apply across all areas of equality, to ensure unbiased and a more inclusive community.”
