Talking about sport at work should be curbed because it excludes women and is a ‘gateway to more laddish behaviour’, a management chief warned today.
Ann Francke, head of the Chartered Management Institute, made the comments on BBC’s Today programme, stating that, 'A lot of women, in particular, feel left out’ when sports are discussed in the office.
‘They don't follow those sports and they don't like either being forced to talk about them or not being included,’ she said. ‘And if it just goes unchecked, it’s a signal of a more laddish culture and it’s very easy for it to escalate from the [Video Assistant Referee] talk and chat to slapping each other on the back and talking about your conquests at the weekend.’
However, her comments have attracted backlash from female sports fans and commentators, with fellow Today programme guest and sports journalist Jacqui Oatley arguing that limiting sports chat is a ‘terrible idea’.
‘If you ban football chat or banter of any description, then all you're going to do is alienate the people who actually want to communicate with each other,’ she said. ‘It would be so, so negative to tell people not to talk about sport because girls don't like it or women don't like it, that's far more divisive.’
While Francke does not expect sports chat to be banned – just moderated – she does think it makes people – particularly women - feel uncomfortable. In fact, she says the CMI has research to prove both men and women are alienated by discussions around football and cricket specifically. When Grazia contacted CMI about this research, the study in question appears to be a 2017 survey that shows 81% of managers have witnessed some form of gender discrimination or bias in the workplace. There do not seem to be any statistics specific to conversations about football or cricket (as of yet Grazia has only been provided certain sections of the research).
And there are plenty of statistics that disprove the idea that ‘a lot of women don’t follow those sports’. According to 2018 research published on Statista, 37% of 2018 FIFA World Cup Fans are women. Plus, according to GQ another survey by the Premiere League shows 23% of people that actually go to matches – which can be a big financial commitment - are female.
For those women who are fans, they are also likely to be more dedicated than male football fans. Because, according to 2019 research by Hotels.com, 71% of female fans plan holidays around sporting events compared to 67% of men. Plus, more women would cancel a night out with friends or anniversary plans to watch the match compared to men (40% versus 38% and 18% versus 15%).
It just goes to show that, contrary to popular belief, not all women sit rolling their eyes at the mention of a biased referee. As an avid football fan myself, comments such as Francke’s only feel patronising and out of touch. It's a tired narrative women who enjoy sports such as football come up against again and again.
In fact, in a Grazia investigation into themedia portrayal of female football fansin 2018, Dr Stacey Pope, associate professor at Durham University, explained that women are constantly having to prove their status as authentic sports supporters because of these outdated notions.'A
As Dr Pope noted, 'All of these common stereotypes about women as lacking sporting knowledge, that they're only interested in the sexual attractiveness of star players, that they're not as passionate or committed and media coverage just focusing on one type of female supporter, is reflective of these wider issues around women being perceived as always inferior to male fans.'
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