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Opinion

What's the point of the ARLC mandating one female board member?

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Expert
24th November, 2022
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Despite Peter V’Landys and Andrew Abdo making the decision not to attend the Rugby League World Cup final to focus on finalising the collective bargaining agreement, there is still no agreed CBA.

Reports suggest that the ARLC and the Rugby League Players Association are getting close and that a new CBA is imminent.

But the CBA isn’t the only negotiation taking place right now. At the end of next season every club’s licence expires, and currently the club licensing agreements are also being negotiated.

It was revealed this week that one amendment being proposed to the club licensing agreement is the requirement for all NRL clubs to include at least one female on their boards.

This amendment has been called ‘historic’ by some publications.

In 2022 I find labelling such an amendment as ‘historic’ cringeworthy, particularly given some of the steps forward that corporate Australia has taken.

Steeden Rugby League Generic

(Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Given the values that the NRL seeks to uphold it seems a very timid step to be mandating only one female board member for each NRL club.

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Even more concerning is that some publications have suggested that the ARLC has concerns that clubs would push back against such a requirement.

Board directors have very specific legal obligations. One of the most fundamental obligations a director has is to act in the best interests of the company. When almost all of the research suggests that more diverse boards are more successful, I cannot fathom how pushing against diversity is in the interest of any rugby league club.

But which clubs could there possibly be concerns about?

A good starting point is to consider the NRL clubs that are currently without female representation on their boards. There are a couple, including the Sydney Roosters, Canterbury Bulldogs, Penrith Panthers and New Zealand Warriors. I was unable to find a list of the current directors of the Newcastle Knights.

I would be extremely concerned if any of these clubs were concerned about having greater diversity amongst their ranks, particularly when the research all points to the benefits of diversity.

At the other end of the scale, the Canberra Raiders are leaders in this space with three females currently on their board.

There are some that will say that their preference is for boards to be selected on merit – that the best people regardless of gender should be appointed to these roles based on their experience.

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But this merit argument makes a couple of assumptions, the first being that every person on a rugby league board right now is the best person for that role based on their experience.

Have you ever been in a situation at work where someone receives a promotion for a reason other than ‘being the best person for the job’? Perhaps they had a good relationship with the boss, perhaps they were in the right place at the right time or perhaps there was some sort of other bias operating. The exact same situation can occur when it comes to sporting boards.

If rugby league wants to take a ‘historic position’, then I would encourage them to be bold and mandate 40 per cent female representation within the next five years. Now that’s something that could be called ‘historic’.

It is also something that could drive real change, as the research also demonstrates that change really occurs when two to three women sit on a board. At this point gender becomes largely irrelevant and the number of women leads to critical mass.

Anything less than 40 per cent feels absolutely tokenistic and, quite frankly, not particularly impactful.

While V’Landys has said that he wants to make the NRL the premier code for women in Australia, the NRL has gone backwards in the women in leadership space. This is despite really positive steps being made in almost every other area, including women in officiating, women who play rugby league and even women in the media.

Five years ago there were several visible and prominent women involved in rugby league, particularly at club land. Raelene Castle was the chief executive officer at the Canterbury Bulldogs, Marina Go was chair at the Wests Tigers, Rebecca Frizelle was chair at the Gold Coast Titans and Lynne Anderson was chair at the Bulldogs.

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I am currently unaware of any female CEOs or chairs across the game, and it is to the game’s detriment.

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