Men are nearly three times more likely to be playing organised sport than women.

An exclusive Newstalk poll carried out by Amárach Research has found that just 6% of Irish women are currently playing organised sport – a figure that rises to 16% for men.

The poll also found that men are far more likely to have played organised sport at some point in their lives – with 72% of men saying they have versus 45% or women.

Participation in sport in Ireland. Image: Newstalk

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, reporter Josh Crosbie spoke to Sport Ireland CEO Una May about ongoing efforts to encourage more women to get involved in sports.

She told Josh that the gap between women and men has narrowed significantly in the last 15 years and insisted, “we are trending very much in the right direction”.

“We are still not 100% there yet, we have work to do and we are focusing on lots of different areas where we want to pay attention,” she said.

“In particular, in terms of age groups, we’re focusing on teenage girls because everyone knows we have a huge dropout [rate] in teenage girls when they move from primary school to secondary school.

“They start to drop out in their droves so we’re putting a lot of focus and attention on that area at the moment to try and grow the number of teenage girls participating.”

“We’re looking at the changing demographics in this country and we need to keep those teenagers in sport now to protect the future of Irish society in terms of physical activity in sports – so that’s important for us as well.”

⚽️ Gender Divide in Sport 🏑

An exclusive @NewstalkFM poll carried out by @AmarachResearch highlights the gaps in sports participation.

Only 6% of women surveyed are currently playing sport. That number rises to 16% for men.

Hear CEO of Sport Ireland Una May on @NTBreakfast pic.twitter.com/Ojmhpqe2Ly

— Josh Crosbie (@JoshCrosbie3) July 28, 2023

The Newstalk survey also found a clear divide in Ireland when it comes to attending women’s and men’s sporting events.

People are over three times more likely to have attended a men’s sporting event (78%) than a women’s event (25%).

Women (27%) are only slightly more likely to have attended a women’s game than men (24%), with people aged 45 to 54 most likely to have done so.

 

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Ms May told Josh that the disparity may be related to the options available.

She said that when you look at attendance overall, Sport Ireland figures show that 18% of men and 16% of women attend events.

Newstalk commissioned the research to coincide with the Women’s World Cup – and found that just 43% of people were planning on watching all three of Ireland’s games.

Republic of Ireland supporters in Sydney ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 Group B match against Australia, 20-07-2023. Image: Mick O'Shea/Sportsfile

Men were more likely (48%) to be interested in watching the games than women (39%).

Of those planning to watch the games meanwhile, nearly half said they would tune out of the tournament if Ireland got knocked out.

Again, men were more likely (53%) to keep watching than women (32%).

Enya Breen during the Tik Tok Women's Six Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Scotland, 30-04-2022. Image: John Dickson/Sportsfile

The survey also found that the majority of people do not believe we encourage young girls and teenagers to play sport to the same extent as boys.

In all, 56% said girls do not get enough encouragement – with 64% of women feeling we need to do more to encourage young girls to take part.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of people feel women’s sport does not get enough funding in Ireland – with 60% of men and 71% of women feeling more funding is needed.

Portlaoise football and camogie player Charlene Duff told Josh we need to do more to promote women’s teams.

“You can see it watching the All-Ireland in Croke Park,” she said.

“The Kerry and Dublin match will be packed out whereas if you go to the girls All-Irelands there will be empty seats everywhere.

“What about if we had promotions to make the seats cheaper.”

Cork’s Ashling Thompson during the All-Ireland Camogie Championship semi-final match between Cork and Galway at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny, 22-07-2023. Image: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Josh also spoke to women in Dublin about their experiences growing up with sport.

“I did athletics from the age of under-12s all the way up to under-18s,” said one woman.

“I gave it up when I started going out unfortunately – but I still go to the gym.”

“We were in a school where there was a boy’s team but they wouldn’t encourage the women,” said one woman.

“If we wanted to play with the boys we weren’t allowed. We were encouraged to do a makeup class - makeup or Home-Ec – and that is only two or three year ago.

“It was so stereotypical.”

If you would like to have your view heard in future polls, sign up for the Newstalk Amárach Research Panel here.