Is “Bias”​ blinding us to opportunities?

The Authority Gap – Why women are still taken less seriously than men and what can be done about it.

On the latest episode of the #WinHappy podcast I chatted with political and economic journalist, broadcaster, non-executive director and author of the best seller, The Authority Gap, Mary Ann Sieghart.

Her life experiences and three years of extensive research brought her to writing this book and taking on the challenge of closing the gender gap.

Mary Ann wants men to listen so when I reached out to feature her on the podcast she agreed.

We had a lively discussion including areas where there might be a different type of authority gap when it comes to men such as parenting.

It’s a big issue, that I suspect we will always grapple with..

Click the link here to enjoy the show!

All episodes of the podcast are available on all the usual podcast apps as well as Spotify.

I’m interested in what you think..

Greg

At Fuzion Communications we produce the Win Happy podcast as well as many podcasts for clients.

Choose to Challenge – International Women’s Day

On international Women’s Day 2021, there is a particular theme that was calling women to action with a very proactive ask, “Choose to Challenge” which came with an explanation:

A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change – So let’s all choose to challenge!

With this “call to action” there were some other specific asks of women as outlined further in the IWD website:

How will you help forge a gender equal world?

• Celebrate women’s achievement.
• Raise awareness against bias
• Take action for equality.

Within Fuzion we encourage a challenging environment for all of the team, which is part of our core values, Bravery.

In every job description that we write, you will see it written and to us it is an important attribute, every bit as important as the basic skill sets required for each role.

We challenge each other, our opinions, our views and our ideas and we will challenge our clients to think differently and not to be afraid to disagree when we believe something is going in a wrong direction – you get that with us!

So, with all of that in mind I asked the team to record an episode of the Win Happy podcast to mark this years International Women’s Day, to discuss the theme and the different elements and to see how they felt about them.

For the record, I did offer to pass the hosting duty to anyone else and in the spirit of Fuzion, everyone, male and female were invited to participate but due to workload issues (and maybe a little shyness!) this episode featured Dee (Deirdre Waldron), Suzanne Meade and Niamh Lawlor who are all part of our Communications team.

The conversation was really interesting and revealing.

The team loved the “bold” call to action and spoke about how women can often be more reluctant than men to challenge.

They spoke about emotional leadership, a huge strength that women can bring to any organisation, Dee’s work and initiatives as President of Network Ireland, the huge role of mothers and friends as influencers, that men should be part of the conversation and not excluded, and thankfully they have not experienced bias in their careers.

However, they did acknowledge that the industry that we operate in might lend itself to that.

It makes for good listening.

Click on the link here or search for Win Happy on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts – we will be there!

For the record, some of the very best people that I work with are women and if I thought for a second that they were not prepared to challenge there would be something very wrong.

Just this morning on our weekly “hello” Monday morning team Zoom call, we had a very robust conversation about an opinion that I shared and they came at me in force!!

….if I told you what it was, I could have a busy day getting nothing done except arguing!

So today, I salute the brilliant women that I work with and the many brilliant women that I deal with on an ongoing basis. In particular, I salute my mum who is just incredible, such a positive driving force – you have no idea!

#ChooseToChallenge 

(you won’t find me wanting!)

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion Communications who offer Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

Ladies Sport in the Irish Media: 20×20 Campaign

Over the past few weekends, and of course the next couple of weekends to come, we have been lucky enough to see some fantastic displays of Gaelic Football and Hurling on our National broadcaster RTÉ and of course, the newest addition, Sky Sports. 

However, there’s not a sign of a ladies GAA game to be shown.

A campaign presented by the Federation of Irish Sport is on a mission to create a change in the Irish public and media’s perception of women’s sport. 

The 20X20 campaign is calling on the Irish public to get behind women’s sport to increase media coverage, boost match attendance and to grow female involvement in sport by 20% at the end of 2020. 

Since the start of this campaign, people have been sharing their support on social media by using the hashtags #20X20 and #ShowYourStripes. With over 8,000 followers on Instagram, it is clear that the Irish public are getting behind the drive to end the gender bias which is presented in female sports in Ireland.

But, why do we need to campaign for this equality?

Large international companies such as AIG, Investec, Lidl and KPMG are regularly and actively showing their support for ladies sport.

With AIG as the official sponsor for Dublin GAA, they provided all of the Dublin teams with new, limited edition jerseys for a select number of games over the summer with the 20X20 logo as the main feature.

This was a major boost for the campaign with the logo being shown a number of times on National television. The ladies footballers wore the limited edition jersey against Waterford in the All-Ireland Senior Championship on July 13th.

The Dublin Senior footballers also wore the jersey on July 13 during their All-Ireland SFC Quarter-final Group Phase 1 against Cork and the camogie team sported the jersey on July 20 during their All-Ireland Senior Championships Group 2 match against Clare at home.

Another huge moment for the 20X20 movement was the 20X20 banner which was proudly displayed in Croke Park recently before the All-Ireland Semi Final between Dublin and Mayo. However, the 20X20 campaign isn’t the only major player in the efforts to support ladies sport, well GAA in particular.

From the beginning of this campaign, it has been amazing to see National broadcasters and online media such as RTÉ Sport, Off The Ball (Newstalk), Sports JOE and HER.ie show their support for ladies sport in Ireland. 

However, they are our “National Broadcaster”, and surely they have an obligation to fill by providing their support and showing equality to ladies sport and GAA in general.

In my opinion, the real champion supporters of this campaign are the smaller club and county channels such as the “WeAreMeath” and “TalkAGoodGame” podcasts and the Hogan Stand social media accounts. 

Looking back at some of the recent phenomenal display of GAA, from both club and inter county championship, both men and women’s games were equally broadcast and commented on. TINY background teams (no more than four people) are able to commentate and share results and opinions from almost every game which took place in the Meath Football Championship over the weekend. Surely this is a step in the right direction to gain the credit and support which is well and truly deserved in ladies sport in Ireland. 

In 2015, Lidl commenced a three year partnership with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA).

A men’s Gaelic Football or Hurling Championship final sees Croke Park at capacity and typically receives 1.3 million TV viewers. It is hugely visible through multiple sponsorships and advertising.

Ladies Gaelic Football enjoyed no such support. It was largely not televised and fan turnout is significantly lower (under 30,000 at Championship Final- just about filled the lower tier of the stand).

Although the Lidl campaign was to primarily lead to more sponsorship for ladies teams, when working hand in hand with the 20X20 campaign, they have drastically changed the opinion of the Irish public towards ladies sports by achieving more sponsorship, media coverage, social media “chat” and attendance at games.  

However, even though a lot has changed in ladies sport, there is still a lot to be done.

To see more ladies games covered on RTÉ would be the ultimate goal rather than just on TG4, but the media is slowly but surely showing more support for ladies sport, be it through smaller, local club podcasts to larger online and national media outlets.

Keep fighting for ladies sports and #ShowYourStripes!

Abigail 

Abigail Shaw is a PR Executive with Fuzion Communications, a Marketing, PR , Graphic Design and Digital Marketing agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland