Scottish Women in Sport founder Maureen McGonigle gives an insight into how to get more ladies into sport
Getting more of a relationship with women into sports has always been a major dilemma with organisations.
Many finances with business relating to sport have issues funding different disciples which is recognised with UK sport cutting funding for seven sports for the 2020 Olympic Games in Toyko.
Badminton, archery, goalball, fencing, table tennis, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby have all been seen finances cut putting doubt into the potential to make the sport stabile enough for athletes to enjoy as a career.
And as former Scotland swimmer Cameron Brodie said, even for the sports which finances haven't been cut the wage isn’t sustainable to live.
With these cuts on mens’ side of sport - which is more popular - how does this manifest in the womens’ side of the game which only gets 7% of media coverage in the UK.
Maureen McGonigle - founder of Scottish Women in Sport (SWIS), the only organisation in Scotland promoting women - spoke about the struggles she has found since starting her movement in 2013 and its strategy.
Having worked in womens’ sport for over 20 years following her role in the Scottish Football Womens’ Association she said: “The story started after 2012 and the London Olympics.
“Claire Balding was coming out pretty regularly telling me all about the bad statistics around the investment and coverage of women in sport.
“I kept on thinking when I spoke to her do you mean all of the UK, have you scratched the surface of Scotland.
“When I looked into it there were lots of organisations in England for women in sport but none in Scotland. So then I decided I would start SWIS.
“My thoughts on the organisation is increasing the profile and raising awareness. I felt that if no girls knew about what was happening there would be no rise in participation.
“We are a year down the line from the National newspaper agreeing to two-page coverage every week.
“In a week or two Rocksport radio will be starting up and I’m going to be co-hosting a programme which is an hour a week on women in sport.
“My latest project Girls Do Sport working with the University of the West of Scotland we’ve created ten programmes all around different sports so these are the kind of ways we are raising awareness.
“There are real positive steps going forward but there is still dinosaurs out there that need to be changed.
“We come up with ideas and we have reward dinner conferences which are great and they are the only women specific awards because we think the stories are worth telling.
“We want to take men with us. Our organisation isn’t just about women it’s about people who support women in sport so that could be anyone. We’ve had a couple of males who have been nominated for Women in Sport awards. It’s not about isolation it’s about integration.
“You wouldn’t believe that in this day of age a woman can’t play golf and who’s going to deal with that issue unless SWIS is around to ensure their voices are heard.
“I’m just one person with no direct funding from Sport Scotland or the Government so there’s a fine line between running events to cover some costs and working to a strategy which we are doing without brining in money.
“I don’t think I can continue because subsidising this organisation and not getting support from the organisations that I think are clearly aligning themselves to benefit from it.
“I do appreciate funding is tight but I also appreciate Sport Scotland and the Government have a drive on gender equity. We just need to cover salary costs.
“What we really need to do is see more integration in media coverage. The BBC are a prime example in terms of their news bulletins, now very rarely will you hear a report about mens’ sport without it being balance out.
“There’s an awareness now but it’s not happening in every area.
“When you are doing something like SWIS it’s not to change the balance the other way. It’s actually to get the balance. It doesn't have to be 50/50 at this time it has to be a movement towards it and an understanding.
“In Scotland we always seem to be behind. We never seem to be moving forward and I’d like to change that because we don’t appreciate our women in sport in Scotland.”