Heather du Plessis-Allan: Sport NZ's new idea is bad for rugby and women

On this matter of the Rugby Union losing $280,000 because they don’t have enough women on the board.

If you haven’t caught up on it, news came through yesterday that Sport NZ has ordered all the sports governing bodies to have at least 40% women on their boards and if they don’t, they’ll lose funding.

NZR is the only organization out of 65 not to have enough women. It has 9 spots on the board, three are women. If they have one more they’ll be sweet, but they don’t yet. So they’ve lost money.

This is a stupid policy, let me tell you why.

Number one- that money was meant for community rugby initiatives including funding women’s rugby. So Sport NZ has decided having one more woman sitting at the board table is more important than funding women’s rugby.

So worst case scenario would be a bunch of female rugby players out there going without whatever it is they need. Because Sport NZ is more worried about getting a nice middle class lady a board position than it is about them. 

Funny priorities for an organization that exists to fund sports. Not board appointments. 

Secondly- why does NZR actually need more women on the board? The argument you’ll get, which is what we got from the Sports Minister Grant Roberston last night, is that more women equal better quality decisions. 

Really? 

Farah Palmer was appointed in 2016, and Dame Patsy Reddy and Rowena Davenport were appointed in April. Have the NZR  decisions got better since then? 

No. That board still makes shocking decisions even with women on the board. They prematurely appointed Ian foster at the end of last year when they shouldn’t have. Then they allowed all that drama to play out where NZR refused to publicly back Foster. Then they endorsed him through to the World Cup just before he lost to Argentina massively. 

And by the way, there are real question marks over whether there is any actual evidence for this received wisdom that more women equals better decision making. Economist Eric Crampton’s pointed out that when you actually read the academic studies on this, there is no real evidence.

Withholding money from a sports body like this is wrong. And let’s understand exactly what Sport NZ wants NZR to do. They want NZR to sack a male board member so a woman can replace him, and if NZR won’t, they’re publicly blackmailed.

What a cool idea. 

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