Watching Northern Ireland’s women’s football manager Kenny Shiels giving his absurd rationale that the reason his side were battered 5-0 at home by England, was down to women being “more emotional than men” was utterly bemusing and grossly offensive.
His comments are not only unfounded, but are also extremely damaging for women’s sport, because an international manager has fed the archaic gender stereotyping narrative that women are too emotional for the cut and thrust of competitive sport.
With reference to women’s football teams conceding goals in quick succession, he said - “In the whole spectrum of the women’s game, because women and girls are more emotional than men, so they take a goal going in, they don’t take that very well”.
