In all the commentary on the Oireachtas Golf Society (OGS) – or as I prefer to think of it, the Oh For God's Sake (OFGS) dinner – it's surprising that there was so little focus on the most visibly dysfunctional thing of all. How few women were there.
Former Fine Gael senator turned consultant Imelda Henry was one of a handful of about six so far reported to have been in attendance. So was former Fianna Fáil minister of state with responsibility for older people Áine Brady. She went with her husband, Gerry, "a former Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare and a local auctioneer", according to reports.
Otherwise, according to those same reports, women mostly attended in the quaint, no-further-elaboration-required capacity of "and his wife". Dara Calleary was there, "and his wife" Siobhán. So were former Fianna Fáil minister Noel Dempsey "and his wife" Bernadette. Fianna Fáil Senator Paul Daly "and his partner" Bernie were there. Hotel owner John Sweeney "and his wife" Treena came along. Only two "and their husbands" have so far been named among the attendees. One was Brady; the other was Senator Jerry Buttimer's, Conchobar Ó Laoghaire.
Wearily familiar
The obvious, lazy retort to this is that fewer women choose to play golf, and fewer choose to go into politics, ergo fewer at the dinner. We’re wearily familiar with this argument, trotted whenever the number of women returned to the Dáil fails to top 25 per cent. See also the arguments: Fewer women choose to lean into their career; fewer women choose to be the breadwinner; fewer women choose to watch sports or participate in them; fewer girls choose science. Fewer women choose to play golf, too – so much so that any woman who rises to the top in her club may find the qualifier “Lady” attached to her captaincy.
The "fewer women choose" shtick may have an air of what Stephen Colbert calls truthiness, but in reality, it's a self-fulfilling trope that happens to suit men. (Except in the case of golf. They can keep that.)
How many women with a demanding job have the luxury of playing golf on a weekday before going to a networking dinner?
Men are entitled to their predominantly single-sex leisure pursuits, of course, as are women. There may even be other, more inclusive societies operating under the auspices of the houses of the Oireachtas yet to be revealed at the time of writing, but I think it’s safe to assume Saturday’s paper won’t be full of revelations about how the Oireachtas Book Club shamelessly breached the pandemic guidelines.
Even if it hadn't happened on the precipice of a second wave of Covid-19, there's something unedifying about elite gatherings of powerful men – current and former decision-makers and advocates including an EU Commissioner; a Supreme Court judge; a Government Minister and various other influencers in the oldest meaning of the term – rubbing elbows over beef and salmon, with an unspoken nod-and-wink attitude to what the public might make of it all. Covid loves to party, Dara Calleary said the night before the golf dinner. So do boys' clubs.
Caring responsibilities
An interesting question is whether more women would have attended the dinner if we weren’t in the midst of a pandemic? I doubt it. How many women with a demanding job – and the tapestry of caring responsibilities most of us have acquired by midlife – have the luxury of playing golf on a weekday before going to a networking dinner? Let alone during an economic crisis? Let alone during a pandemic?
If we don’t now start an honest conversation with ourselves about the invisible structures and systems that keep women at arm’s length in public life – golf course networking being just one of them – it won’t just be a lost opportunity for women, it will be a lost opportunity for society.
The same week we learned about the golf dinner, an international study looking at 194 countries found that female-led ones coped better with Covid-19
Elite clubs of like-minded, powerful people are bad for all of us, because they have a way of divesting their members of personal responsibility and fostering groupthink – so they end up making statements such as, “I was even reassured when I heard there was going to be a Government Minister in attendance”; or “the organisers and the hotel had been assured that the arrangements put in place would be in compliance”.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is well aware of the problem with boys' clubs in particular: she instructed the Government to suggest a man and a woman as candidates to replace Phil Hogan. Before her intervention, most of the names in the mix were men.
The same week we learned about the golf dinner, an international study looking at 194 countries found that female-led ones coped better with Covid-19. The study looked at overall death rates and compared like-for-like countries with one another: Ireland's performance was mapped against that of New Zealand, for example. Countries led by women – including Germany and New Zealand – suffered half as many Covid-19 deaths on average as those headed by men, as well as fewer cases, the research conducted by the universities of Liverpool and Reading found.
Acted faster
To be clear: these countries aren't doing better against Covid-19 so far because they have women leaders. They're doing better because they have leaders who acted faster and more decisively than their contemporaries. And because they have better policies, better communication, rely more on information sharing. The qualities that helped those women leaders rise to the top in mostly male dominated environments are good qualities to have in a crisis. "In almost all cases, they locked down earlier than male leaders in similar circumstances. While this may have longer-term economic implications, which we cannot test here, it has certainly helped these countries to save lives," researchers Supriya Garikipati and Uma Kambhampati noted.
We’re still absorbing the implications of the golf society dinner. But one thing is already perfectly clear. Boys’ clubs have no place in a modern, diverse society. It’s time to dismantle them.