Women's Boat Race (and equality in sport)

[AnySpookyWolfyFucker]

Sorry if this is old news or been discussed before, but DH drew my attention to this story in today's I.

The Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge is famous, but the woman's event takes place on a different day, a different course and without a full time coach or access to a gym. The men get all the funding.

Enter Helena Morrissey, CEO of Newton Investment, founder of the 30 percent club who challenged the rowing establishment about the inequality. Apparently the VCs of the universities thought the "men would be none too happy if the women started sharing facilities and river access".

So when the (mens) Boat Race lost its main sponser, she convinced her parent company to sponsor the event on the condition that the women's event was given parity.

" The result is that in 2015 the women's crews will line up at Putney Bridge to complete the same 4.2-mile course on the same afternoon as the men. Job done. No committees, no working groups, no endless debate. Morrissey's approach was just to get on with it. "

FA can learn from Morrissey

So that is how change can happen fairly instantly. Of course, such action may not have happened had their not been a woman in the boardroom able to make such a decision.

Thought I'd share the good news story.

"men would be none too happy if the women started sharing facilities and river access"

And that sums it up really doesn't it? It's all about the men and their feeeeelings. Let's not worry about how the women feel about being shunted to a different venue on a different day with no media attention because, well, they have vaginas.

Well done Helena Morrissey. It is a small but vital piece of equality (now they just have to get the same sponsorship and spending from the universities. We live in hope).

That is fantastic news, and well overdue. There had better be good TV coverage of the women's race.

Now for women's rugby, soccer, etc...

Frickin' brilliant.

She's got 9 DC as well according to that article. 6 DD & 3 DS. Love that.

I find this really difficult.

The women, and the women's lightweights, race in the same event as the men's lightweights. The implication is that being a lighter man is the same as being a woman; being a woman is like being a smaller man. They all row the same course as the heavyweights.

Of course I've always wished they could all race together on the same day. And I would still be angry if heavyweights got more notice than lightweights, because I think that is not good.

I'm sorry but it really narks me that this is attributed to Morrisey. What a load of crap! Women I know personally have been working on this for years. It's really shit to make out this was a celeb putting muscle behind it. I honestly dont believe it was.

LRD I don't think that article is implying that Helena Morrisey did all the work/campaigning etc. and therefore deserves all the credit. And she's not a celeb, she's the CEO of the company that sponsors the races. I read that story as Morrisey being someone who just cut through the crap that's continually put in the way of just getting on with implementing changes for the better. The point being plenty have probably been trying to get these changes implemented for a long time and whatever reasons there have been for not just getting on with it, with the various committees charged with considering the implications for the men, the actual change simply took someone (Morrisey) to just get it done without the endless procrastination that seems to follow things like this. Hence the reference to the FA needing to learn a thing or 2 in how to just get on with moving women's football into the 21st century.

I don't know much about boating to be fair, but I think the article isn't so much about painting Morrisey in glory for what she has done, but to highlight what hasn't been done elsewhere and point the finger at those men procrastinators who seem incapable of just making changes.

No you are right LRD. Women have been working for decades for this and not been listened to.

There are plenty of other inequalities in rowing as well that still haven't been addressed despite much campaigning. Women were just lucky in this instance that there was a female CEO who could make it happen. A bit like it is for men then really, under normal circumstances

Hmm so what this means is that the women's and men's lightweights will still race at Henley? Will the women's reserves (Osiris and Blondie) race at Putney too? The men's reserves race at Putney - I would hope this means that the women's reserves will too.

Hmm not sure about the reserves FairPhyllis. Looks like the lightweights are still staying in Henley. I can't find anything to say that the reserves race is also moving to Putney.

They certainly like to keep those hierarchies in rowing!