Since their merge in December of last year the Men’s and Women’s Gaelic Players Association have lined out the importance of the pillar of parity in their umbrella organisation. Their announcement yesterday of gender balance amongst their administration committee is yet another strive towards that pledge.
The new Board of Directors is comprised of six men and six women, including four executive officers, three players and five independent directors.
It also expands on the recently established National Executive Committee (NEC) which proportionally represented the membership of the body in its’ 60:40 male to female ratio.
Merged ✅
Additional core objective of equality ✅
Equitable government funding ✅
New National Executive Committee ✅
50/50 gender diversity on board ✅
Equality sub committee ✅
All of above in 9 months, it’s amazing what can be achieved with great people @gaelicplayers 🙌🏻 https://t.co/bqsLLpc4et— Maria Kinsella (@kinsella_maria) September 8, 2021
An Equality Working Group was arranged by the NEC in which the main objective was to put into reality how exactly fairness between genders was to be achieved.
Aoife Murray (Cork), Neil McManus (Antrim), Louise Galvin (Kerry), Sinéad Aherne (Dublin) and Donal Óg Cusack (Cork) all joined said subcommittee, with an independent chair and additional members to be announced in the coming weeks.
Speaking on the announcement chairman Professor Brian MacCraith reflected on the GPA’s stance for “equality within Gaelic games” and their commitment to “giving an equal voice to both females and males at boardroom level.”
“This move is another example of Gaelic players leading the way when it comes to the equality agenda” he says.
“They voted for this as part of the merger process and players right across Ireland should be extremely proud of the leadership they are showing in this area.”
GPA NEC Co-Chair Maria Kinsella, commented that it was a “proud moment” that further underpins the “principle of equality.”
“It is, therefore, very much a natural progression for the association to reflect the leadership shown by inter county players in our governance structures and board composition” she says.
Fellow GPA NEC Co-Chair, Matthew O’Hanlon, added that while it “is about equality…it’s also about leadership”
“Players have made it clear to everyone involved in our games that the voices of males and females need to be recognised equally” he says.
“We look forward to the day when a gender balanced board doesn’t even merit discussion; it should be a matter of course.”
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