Lewes FC are a club attempting to revolutionise the gender gap in football. Through the excellent budget parity we think we are the first football club in the world where the men and women’s first team budget is the same. The under representation of women in football is scandalous.
Lewes FC quite rightly shout from the roof tops about our budget parity initiative.
But are more quiet about who takes the decisions at Lewes FC, who pulls the strings, who is in charge and responsible.
Here they are.
Ed Briggs, Barry Collins, Charlie Dobres, Stuart Fuller,
John Peel, Eddie Ramsden, Jon Ruben, Galia Omre,
Roger Warner.
Mmmm, oh yes, 8 are men and 1 a woman. The sanctimonious budget parity does not stretch to operational parity. The board is dominated by men who run the club.
There is a ring around the Board of apologists. You know the type. If the Board voted to build a car park on our pitch they would sigh and say ‘well I suppose it is for the best.’ So to pre-empt the excuse that not enough women stand for the Board I give you the Lewes FC constitution. The board of Lewes FC are entitled to co-opt women onto the Board. This is to make the Board more representative.
So here are the Board’s thoughts on co-opting members onto the board. They told me that they felt they had the ‘skill sets necessary’ to run the club. How can you possibly claim a moral high ground and ‘ground breaking’ social and sporting engineering to create gender equality when the board overseeing is nearly entirely made up of men ? If the Board isn’t able to attract and keep a good number of women the Board then surely as the originators and promoters of Equality FC, the Board has a duty to co-opt women into helping the Club especially in the promotion of women’s football in the Club and Town.
What is also interesting, is that only three of the positions working with the women’s first team are female. Perhaps if there were more women on the Board or co-opted on the Board, the Board would be actively seeking more women to be involved generally in the Club; making the Club a true equal community club, rather than having a headline grabbing brand name that doesn’t carry through in other areas.
When we set up the Lewes FC Supporters Trust ten years ago we co opted local councillor and the most influential woman for the last generation in the town Ruth O’Keefe into the top position. We were an amateur fan group but recognised the necessity of being inclusive with a decent mix of men and women. This was ten years before the current Board set up, with great fanfare and national media publicity launched the Equality FC initiative.
It of course lends weight to the argument the male dominated Board are happy to take the credit for a truly innovative venture with the team, that is of media interest. But less interested in really truly converting the club infrastructure into a good and equal blend of the sexes. Has it really been a simple pitch at grabbing corporate sponsors or a genuine attempt to revolutionise our club into a gender equal club ?
We will be addressing the continued institutionalised gender inequality at the heart of the workings of Lewes FC in our next blog. Of the 37 positions credited as ‘management’ role on the Lewes FC website 3 are held by women.
The Rights of Fans. 