Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott once claimed women were “knocking on the door” of Cabinet when he tried to explain why he had just one woman of 19 in his ministry. He said he was “disappointed” by the male-dominated outcome, that he chose, but that talented women were “knocking on the doors”.
Abbott made those comments almost ten years ago, in September 2013, shortly after forming government. But the memory of the “binders of talented women” waiting in the wings that he spoke about, were stirred up again this week.
With hindsight, Abbott’s comments should now seem more than disappointing, given such failures and gender imbalances ultimately put the party on the path to decimation at the 2022 Federal Election.
Recalling Abbott’s comments came following FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s own remarks about “doors”, when fending off questions about the football world body’s response to equal pay and gender equality.
Infantino went one step further than Abbott with the doors analogy: No women are knocking on FIFA’s doors, because the doors are wide open for them to walk right on in, according to Infantino. The problem, Infantino inferred when speaking with reporters over the weekend, is that women need to “pick their battles”. From where he stands, equal prize money for men’s and women’s tournaments is not the battle that should be pursued.
“With men, with FIFA, you will find open doors. Just push the doors. They are open,” Infantino said. “You have the power to convince us men what we have to do and what we don’t have to do.”
Ten years apart and two men leading, and formerly leading, two very different entities. Yet they share one dramatic point in common: the lack of women’s representation in their decision-making bodies, which is ultimately hindering their ability to address gender equality and respond to the needs, concerns and demands of women. Both claim, or claimed, that the lack of women involved in their cabinets will merely be fixed with time, because women are either knocking or have the door wide open to them. And both failed, or are failing, to offer any real plan for fixing the issue.
Abbott had one woman in his Cabinet of 19, Infantino is arguably doing a little better, albeit with the benefit of 10 more years of “progress”. Six of the 36 seats of the FIFA Council are held by women.
Curiously, Infantino shares another commonality with Abbott. The FIFA president has daughters, and was very much prepared to bring up this fact when sharing just how much credibility he has for speaking on gender equality. Abbott’s three daughters joined him on his 2013 campaign trail.
Now in 2023, Abbott is out of politics — at least formally, but will still comment from the sidelines — while Infantino is very much still the boss of football. But with the Women’s World Cup now finished, and Infantino finding plenty of opportunities to offer some terrible answers to questions on equal pay and gender equality in football, the gender equity issues facing the football body are ramping up.
Infantino said “Now is not the time” to talk about equal pay on the eve of the World Cup. He said that people should be “happy” and just enjoy all the tournament has to offer.
With the World Cup over, is now the time to talk about the FIFA Council’s lack of gender equality? Is now the time to ask what FIFA is doing to address women’s representation and pay in the game, and the run-on impacts of what it’s demonstrating, has elsewhere?
FIFA continues to fail to acknowledge the Afghan Women’s Football team, now in Australia. It has done nothing to call out the Taliban in what was once a proud football-loving country. If you’re not going to call out the Taliban, what will you call out?
FIFA’s gender gap in the prize money pool between the men’s and women’s tournaments is shamefully wide, with the men taking a pool that is four times the size of what the female players share in.
And FIFA is clearly failing to issue a clear zero tolerance policy to sexual harassment and sexual assault, given Infantino has said nothing about the matter of Spain’s Football Federation president Luis Robales, kissing the winning team’s midfielder on the lips without consent, live and for everyone to see on international television, in what should have been the biggest celebratory moment in Jenni Hermoso’s career.
The failures of FIFA and the failures of the Liberal party have plenty of differences, but ultimately they share decision-making processes that lack women’s representation.
Any organisation would be wise to learn from them, and to consider what an actual and clear path to achieving gender equity would look like.
Such organisations that are failing on gender equality may find that it actually looks like quotas.
Hearing Craig Foster speak at a Summit in Sydney on Friday, he shared what can be achieved with quotas on boards. As a life member and PFA Champion of Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) — the representative body of the Matildas, Socceroos and other professional players — he introduced a gender equality and Indigenous representation quota at the Board level, which was instrumental in ultimately leading to equal pay between the new national teams, and that pay deal likely contributing to the success of the Matildas this world cup.
Foster took particular aim at the lack of representation on the FIFA Council, saying there is no “path” to gender equality, as Infantino claims, you just make it happen.
As the Liberal party’s example shows, hoping time will fix the issue is not a strategy. Rather, it’s a path to ruin.