Same Energy For Women’s Sport Week

The energy around women’s sport in Ireland is real—and it’s at a tipping point. We sit down with Nora Stapleton and Bethany Carson to unpack what’s working, where momentum is fragile, and how the “same energy” theme can turn a good week into lasting change. From balanced boards to booming social leagues, the story isn’t just growth—it’s about building cultures where women feel valued on the pitch, on the sideline, and in the boardroom.

We dig into the four pillars guiding progress: active participation, leadership and governance, coaching and officiating, and visibility. Nora shares how funding, mentoring networks, and a renewed leadership framework helped lift board representation to about 48% women—proof that targeted action works. Then we face the hard part: culture. Representation alone doesn’t fix rooms where old habits still crowd new voices. Bethany explores how allyship, education, and practical supports can make meetings productive, coaching pathways fair, and officiating roles more attractive and safer for women.

Visibility remains the toughest nut to crack. Big moments—the Rugby World Cup, Six Nations, and packed domestic fixtures—pull new fans in, but sustainable change needs consistent coverage, smart scheduling, and storytelling that treats women’s sport as sport. We also highlight the rise of social sport—basketball blitzes, Gaelic for Mothers and Others, and more—giving women team bonds without the heavy time ask, keeping them connected to clubs and community. Add in new school resources to spark conversations and you have a pathway that starts earlier and lasts longer.

If you care about moving from momentum to normal, this conversation offers the roadmap: measure what matters, fund what works, fix culture, and keep the spotlight on. Subscribe, share with a teammate, and leave a review telling us the one action you’ll take to bring the same energy this week.

Find out more about what we do day in day out at Sportforbusiness.com

We publish a daily news bulletin and host regular live events on a wide range of sporting subjects.

Subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts from, and look forward to more upcoming chats on leadership and the business of sport.

Our upcoming live events, including our League of Ireland Breakfast at Grant Thornton on February 4th, as well as plenty more, are live on the Sport for Business website, and we'd love to have you join us.

Transcript

Kicking Off Women In Sport Week

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Screen here and putting my little nation on the map.

SPEAKER_02 0:04

It's just, you know, this is a stuff of dreams.

SPEAKER_05 0:35

It's Women in Sport Week this week, running from Monday, March the 2nd, all the way through to next weekend, and we have a series of interviews to run over the next couple of days. We will be talking to Irish rugby captain Aaron King and to Paralympic medalist and world champion Orla Comerford over the next couple of days. But first off, we sat down with uh with Nora Stapleton and with Bethany Carson, who are running the Women in Sport Week and have done wonderful work over the last number of years in terms of making sure that women in sport is never forgotten, never pushed into the corner, and always front and center stage of each sporting body's mindset. So to kick things off this week, here we go with Nora and Bethany. Bethany, welcome back onto the Sports Business Podcast. It's Women in Sport Week coming up now, starting at the weekend, running through an important time of the year for focusing on something where let's face it, we really should be focused 52 weeks of the year. But what is the highlight? What are the things that we're going to be looking at now that will help to actually move that into the central mainstream?

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Yeah, so it's a big, big week in the women in sport calendar. And of course, it is every day of the year, Sport Ireland and its stakeholders are working on pushing the visibility and all the other aspects of women in sport. But this week gives everybody a real chance to give it a boost and showcase everything that's going on. So there's so many initiatives, programs, opportunities out there. And this week is all about showing how to get involved in it and pushing people further.

Goals For Visibility And Participation

SPEAKER_05 2:24

And it's at a very granular level. I know we had a special Olympics meeting yesterday, and I was looking at the whole list of things that are going on in terms of coaching, in terms of the athletes, in terms of uh, you know, sort of education and and everything else. Are there any tentpole areas where you're actually going to be sort of visible across the piece, or are they less important than that grassroots, just getting everybody involved?

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Well, everything's important, but I suppose when you look at the policy on women and sport, there's four pillars there. So active participation, leadership and governance, coaching and officiating and visibility. We're seeing some real progress across leadership and governance and participation. Um but there's areas within that, like for instance, teenage girl participation still has heaps to grow. The adults are doing much better, but can we get better club membership? Can we get better teenage girls? But the visibility, coaching and officiating, we've still got a ways to go. So it just gives us a chance now to really think about that and really look at what are the reasons and how can what are the solutions.

SPEAKER_05 3:32

Okay. And I know that there is a report coming out next week. We'll be talking about that then about the about the visibility side of it and the media side. Um, joined as well by Nora Stapleton, uh, the original of the species, I guess. Where we're at now compared to where we were when you were appointed as the first women in sport lead, how much progress has been made? And is it easier to look back now and think, actually, there's a fair bit of stuff has been done there, as opposed to when you're in the rushes and you're in the reads and you think, oh, will this ever change?

Leadership Gains And Funding Impact

Culture At The Table

SPEAKER_04 4:06

Yeah, so the first policy that Bethany mentioned came out in 2019, and that was kind of built off a lot of research done through 2020 or 2018. So when we kind of look at the various objectives and actions there, like some of the some of the stuff has progressed. So the leadership governance, you know, we we took multiple different approaches to try and go after that a little bit. We knew that we needed more women in leadership roles and at the decision-making tables, talking about sport, making decisions about sport with their male counterparts. Um, and we have seen huge change there, you know, to be fair to national bodies, local sports partnerships, and they do realise that more balanced boards makes better business. Um we've got about 48% now women across the sport sector at the board table. You know, you can't really go much more than that. You want it to be in and around that type of percentage. There are some sports that drop below the 40%, which we know that the government would have mandated, and it was good to get that backing. Um, but at the same time, we didn't really rush it in. You know, we we tried to work with the National Women Bodies Oak Sports Partnerships as a journey towards that. And we have a lot of resources that we've tried to help them with. The women in sport funding um is definitely a massive help. That's obviously been in around four million for the last number of years. You know, over three million of that goes directly into the sports organisations using that. A lot of them would have created leadership programs, um, various networks, mentoring opportunities, you know, really anything they can do to support women and girls in that leadership governance journey. Um, we also redeveloped some of our own resources. We recently launched the Fans Leadership Framework, and which is a lovely toolkit that an organisation can take, they can look at, analyse, and start to take some solutions and actions from that, apply it to their own board, and increase that pipeline of women coming through. So I think in a way we're we're quite proud of what we did in the leadership and governance space, but then when you have women in positions, what we then realize was actually the environment that they're they're operating in may not be as wholesome or enjoyable or as positive as what we we thought they would be. Um, or we we just probably didn't think of it too much, you know. We we relied on the fact that we we want to try and enable ways for women to get to the table. We didn't think about what the table was like.

SPEAKER_05 6:40

Okay. Um is that something though that by virtue of creating that new environment where by now half of the seats around the table are male, half of the seats around the table female, that by itself produces a better table. Maybe it just takes time.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Um possibly it just takes time. Unfortunately, we are hearing stories where women have stepped away because of how they feel they're being treated. Um it's definitely not widespread and it's not everywhere, but it does, you know, raise the point that while we while women are now coming to the table or in the space, what is what's the culture of sport across the various organizations? Um we we still can talk and and still mention that um women are are coming into a space that was designed by men for men. Um and so you know, you don't want to it's kind of like how do you strike a balance between imposing uh you know certain versus collaborating and working together, and and how do you have really enjoyable, healthy cultures where everybody, men and women, just want to see their sport thrive or they want to see their club thrive. Um and sometimes it's uh unbeknown to the person, you know, maybe who who's causing negative energy and things like that are is the issue for women stepping away. Um, but it does come back to the overarching culture and and so in that new balanced leadership framework, um, which we'll you know we'll remind people of next week during Women in Sport Week, but there's a section there on culture because we've realized we won't have to enter into that space and and help national government bodies, local sports partnerships as to um how do we ensure that we've really good thriving cultures and sport in Ireland, and because, as you said, that will benefit everybody, that's it won't just benefit women and girls in sport.

Allyship And Education Across Sport

SPEAKER_05 8:38

And it does matter everywhere, and it matters way beyond the boardroom and the committee rooms as well, because culture is what actually fires people up to not only get involved for the first time, but then to stay involved as well. That we always say when we're you know when we're coaching the girls seen today, it's it's about fun, you've got to enjoy being part of this, and that's 100% culture. So, are all of those conversations, Bethany, that are coming out of the success and then the lessons from the governance issue, are they all being replicated then across the other three areas?

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Yeah, and like it's about how can we provide the supports for both sides of the table as well, so that women feel equipped to deal with those scenarios, and also men want to learn how they be better allies, whether it's sounding coaching, officiating leadership. So it's all about being open and like willing to learn new things and create that environment that's you're all working towards the same goal. So it's just about creating so, for instance, the amount of women in sport leadership programs that are out there, we're seeing allyship programs, Sprite and workshops, and it's all about education and awareness because at the end of the day, we all want to do the same thing and it's develop sport, and so yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:58

And we're in a we're in a spell now, it's weighted it should be women's week, but we've got Ireland against France, it's on the football, and we've we're only five, six weeks away from the Women's Six Nations coming on board, the Legal League, the Central League, and Kaboge, they're all flying as well. So do you think, both of you, I guess, do you think are we in a better position now than we were a year ago? Let's take it as read that we're in a better position than we were 10 years ago. Has this past 12 months seen an improvement in terms of that general sense that women in sport is becoming less of a thing and more of a norm?

Same Energy Theme And Fandom

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Well, I think if you bring it back to the theme of Women in Sport Week this year, which is same energy, there's a real energy about women in sport at the moment. We saw the Rugby World Cup last year, where people who know nothing about rugby wanted to get involved just to support the women's teams. I think it's a really exciting opportunity for people to get involved and to invest in women in sport now because there's a growing appetite and fandom there. And I think that's what the same energy theme is trying to do. It's about asking that question. Like all of the athletes are putting in the same energy regardless of gender. Are we doing the same? And it's asking you that question whether you're creating an event, distributing funding, developing coaches, officials, whatever it is, are you bringing that same energy to the women's game or women's sport? Um, and if not, let's do it. You know, there's a real chance here to drive it and and shout about it and get excited.

SPEAKER_05 11:32

Yeah. And is that are we are we at a point now where rather than saying, oh, somebody needs to do something about this, that we actually need to fit that in its head and say, I need to do something about this as individuals.

Progress, Fragility And Next Steps

Coaching Pathways And Social Sport Boom

Schools Resources And Community Momentum

SPEAKER_04 11:45

Oh, yeah, I think we we should always say that. Um and again, it comes back to what area of sport we're talking about. You know, it's it's great to mention the likes of fandom and the events and stuff because we know having really strong Irish teams and athletes and major events that that brings with it um an awful lot of visibility, um, of inspiration, motivation, you know, to other individuals. So then how do we how do we get to that stage? Well, we need to have the pathways in place so that NGBs are, you know, have got strong athletes coming through, younger ages up through their various pathways. So everything is is just so linked. Um you asked, like, have we progressed from last year to this year? Um I'm not sure. Like, I think definitely um we have in areas um the conversation, um the conversations are are there, they're positive, they're good. But then I think it's just so fragile. I think you know, we're we're one country, sometimes we can be influenced by other countries, and and things in other countries aren't so good either. So I just think if we if we decide we've done enough, which I've heard from some people, um, we'll we'll slip right back. You know, I think that's how how fragile it is. Suddenly we'll again see less women on boards, we'll see the participation gap widen, we'll we'll see said less effort go into trying to get women on coaching courses. So there is definitely still a need um for a lot for energy for people working in this space. Um and I think we'll probably, you know, we'll we'll probably focus on some areas in Sport Ireland, perhaps. We we know we need to do more in and around visibility, or we need to assist others to do more in visibility because look, we're only one part of the, we're only one piece of the puzzle here. Um it is about everyone, but what we can do is we can advise, we can support, we might be able to give funding, and we can probably host roundtables, workshops, get people working together because the one thing that we are good in women's sport is collaborating and cooperating and trying to find solutions together. So that's on visibility, um, coaching, officiating. Like in coaching, we have seen an increase in the number of women who are on coaching courses across most of the NGBs, I think, but they're not progressing along the pathway, you know. And and that could come back to societal piece where women are expected to have different roles in the home and compared to getting out the door and going coaching your session and stuff. Um, and I think like maybe finish on one area that I am most pleased about is perhaps the level of the increase in social opportunities to participate in sport. You know, maybe you asked me about six years ago. Six years ago, if we're increasing female participation, um it's well, a lot of it is through personal exercise, and that's still the case, but it's woman going, I have half an hour, I'm going to get outside for a run quickly. And we weren't making time for ourselves. Um, but there were no other opportunities either. So you were staying on top of your fitness outside of the club infrastructure network. Whereas now, you know, I messaged this morning going to see if I go out to the social basketball blitz that's happening during Women at Sport Week. They've 24 teams coming to the arena in Tala, the basketball arena. Um, and that's you know, they're now members of a team, they're you know, social members. It's the same we all know about Gaelic from others and others. Like that's absolutely exploded, but it's there are over 600 clubs in Ireland, I think, that have teams. It's international now. You've got teams traveling across the world to play wits. Um, same with social commodity starting off. I know hockey are looking at it, football that are looking at it as well, because we see that women are now so much more aware of our health and how important it is to be fit and to be strong as we progress through our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond. Um, and we don't just want to run, you know, or you know, we want to still stay attached to some of that team sport that we used to have in our youth as well. And so I think that's one of the biggest pieces that we've seen in the last number of years is that you're now still a member of a club, participating in a club potentially.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

This year, we found last year uh the public, the general public, we're getting in touch a lot more. So the likes of schools and just general Simpsons. So this year we decided how can we try and engage schools? So we've created a very simple worksheet for primary schools and secondary schools. So that'll be live from the Sport Ireland website of the Women's Sport Week page. And it's just about exactly that, bringing the same energy to women's sport, creating that conversation, and checking out some really useful resources as totally packaged, ready to just be used in schools, so that's freely available.

SPEAKER_05 16:54

It's so important as well. You mentioned the fact that sport was largely designed by men for men, and men have benefited for 150 years of organized sport from that. But at its heart, team sport and sports participation is about kind of active friendship and it's active socialising. And women have always been good at friendship, probably not better than men, but if we can actually replicate that within sport, there is absolutely no reason. In fact, there's a hundred thousand reasons why we can't let that not happen. So the very best of luck um throughout Women in Sport Week, Women in Sport Year, Women in Sport Forever. And uh we'll we will no doubt come back to this again and again and again. And hopefully every time we come back, we'll move it one step further down the line. So, Bethany Carlson, Nora Stapleton, thank you very much.

Closing Notes And Upcoming Events

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Thanks, Rob. Can I add one weight form whether we program or not?

SPEAKER_05 17:50

You can. If you want to learn more about the work we do in the commercial and societal world of sport in Ireland in 2026, you can do so by visiting us at sportforbusiness.com. We produce daily news bulletins which you can subscribe to for free. And if you wish to subscribe to this podcast, you can do so wherever you get your podcast from. We've got events coming up in Cork looking at the power of sport to drive economic gains and economic benefit, and also at the question of name, image, likeness, and personality, which will be of interest to players, teams, and sponsors across the community as well. Thanks for taking the time to listen to us, and we will see you again soon.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Being here and putting our little nation on the map, it's just, you know, this is the stuff of dreams.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

It's pretty, it's spinning, children, it's 60.