make your mind up is it?

NB: this post was written well before the Covid-19 outbreak

A lot of sports programmes – predominantly football ones, historically the domain of male only presenters and pundits, now feature female contemporaries. 

And rightly so.

After all, women play or partake in sport at the highest level and their input is as welcome as any man’s and quite often provides a different angle or opinion.

But just the other day I heard of a speech by the head of the Chartered Management Institute Ann Francke, who opined that talking about football in the workplace should be banned as it is not inclusive to women.  Women, she complained, are often left out of such conversations and feel side-lined by their male colleagues as they discuss last night’s match.

whatever next???

Oh please.  Get a grip.

For starters, what does that say about the excellent female sports presenters.  Also, not every bloke is interested in football.  Many absolutely hate it.

Her comments to me do more to encourage gender stereotyping than discourage it and say to me that women are only interested in talking about women’s things (whatever they may be) which of course is utter nonsense.

So, while we’re at it, let’s ban any analysis of the current affairs in soap operas or the merits of a particular brand of make-up in the office or tea room.

Her comments were stupid and ill thought out.  Perhaps she should stick to doing the ironing.