Jamaican Women – a step ahead in Sport

Acknowledging Women in Sport – Jamaica (originally written in March 2023, and updated based on Summer 2023 results)

How we have impacted the world

Any global feature on women in sport will showcase the work of a Jamaican. The key areas of success include women who have done well on and off the field of play. 

Track and Field, Football, Cricket, Basketball, Swimming and Netball are just some of the disciplines where excellence has been consistently highlighted. This is exhibited in leadership in the boardroom alongside performances on the field of play. 

For the last five decades, a Jamaican woman has held leadership roles in sport in the Americas, impacting on global spaces. But it was Molly Rhone, OJ, in 2003, who tipped the scale to become the first Jamaican woman to sit as President of International Netball for 16 years.

There is evidence that suggests that Isis Clarke-Reid is Jamaica’s first professional track and field star. She won a bronze medal as part of a relay team at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1938. She went on to do so much more on the track. She died at age 100 in June 2020. 

We know if she was the trailblazer in Track and Field, we now see how that has turned out. The women have continued to “run the world.” We can always click on any search engine and type “Jamaican women in sport” and it would have multiple pages to read. We salute our women. 

Before I move to 2000, I have to mention Esperanza Forbes. In 1982 Forbes was given her credentials as the first ever female referee for football. She qualified to referee in all levels of football. In 1985, she was awarded a medal of honour for her “work. Further research revealed that Forbes was not only the first female referee in Jamaica, but in the entire American continent and rumoured, at the time, to be only the third worldwide. 

Since 2000 

With the game shifting to more commercial models for sport, women were now seeking to be celebrated, achieve equality in pay, sponsorship and visibility. The international headlines were consistently dominated with who got paid more; who had more visibility and it essentially became a numbers game. Women have held their own and globally, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and the US Women’s Football Team took up a lot of that space. Becky Hammon became head coach of the San Antonio Spurs (NBA Team) in 2020, the same year Kim Ng became General Manager of the Miami Marlins (Baseball). 

Back here in Jamaica and the region, more women got involved in executive teams for sport, but very few outside of the boxes. The women essentially provided support as Physiotherapists, Team Managers, Agents, Attorneys; but remained in female-dominated sport. 

Marva Bernard was head of Americas Netball during this period. She left office in 2022; Karen Anderson is head of Jamaica Squash, Jackie Cowan, made it as the first ever woman Vice President of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), she is also President of Jamaica Volleyball; while Marie Tavares became the first ever General Secretary of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA). 

2023 and Beyond 

There has to be a place in the Jamaican Sport Industry that dissects the value of women not just in leadership, but in economic terms. The aspirational and inspirational sides, while good for the psyche of a nation, can only ring true when the real values are measured. We have to create that legacy for the next generation. 

Congratulations to the Reggae Girlz for reaching two World Cups in the last decade. That is an incredible achievement. 

The Sunshine Girls got 3rd  in Cape Town for the World Cup Netball last Summer; while women formed the bulk of the team at the World Championships in Athletics in Budapest. Jamaica won 3 Gold, 5 Silver and 4 Bronze medals – the women won 2 gold, 3 Silver; 2 Bronze of that. 7 from 12…

RIP – Simone Edwards, first Jamaican WNBA Star. 

My Wish 

Let’s tally that value.

Let’s get more women in the game. 

Let’s transform the game. 

Hail to the women who were before us, hail to the women who will join us. 

One Love 

Carole is a Sport Marketer/Author. She has over three decades of work in Sport. 

Track and Field is Jamaica’s top female sport

Monday, February 12, 2024 

Survey says, “we want more netball on Television” 

KINGSTON, Jamaica – A survey sample done over the last two weeks, shows that Jamaicans’ favorite female sport is track and field. While that is no surprise, the same sample said they wanted more netball to watch, whether on television or online. 

A Neilsen report summarised that women’s sport will grow globally. The report said, “from equal pay agreements to amazing comeback stories, record audiences and new media deals, women’s sports are in the spotlight now more than ever. While they often don’t receive the same level of attention as men’s sports, a new Nielsen Sports research project highlights untapped potential and new commercial opportunities for rights holders, brands and media.

The survey was done across eight key markets around the world (U.S., U.K, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia and New Zealand) and found that 84% of sports fans are interested in women’s sports. Of those, 51% are male, which confirms that women’s sports engage a gender-balanced audience.

In recent times, the Sunshine Girls’ competitions have become more accessible to the national audience, but the respondents still want more. The same audience would still want to see more track and field, with football showing up in the runnings. 

The sample of those surveyed were dominated by females and they were noted to be  in the 41 years of age category and above. 

The survey also highlighted that Jamaican sports fans are consuming sports on multiple platforms to still include newspapers. An overwhelming 61.5 per cent of the sample use traditional and online sources for sport. 

Television Jamaica has been identified as the number one source for sport on television by almost half of the sample. Important to note that almost 4 of 10 have other sources. 

The average consumption per event is up to three hours. 

Jamaica’s women will have, over the next four years, international competitions in football, cricket, track and field, and the netball world championships in 2027. In the next survey update, we will find out who are the favorite female athletes in Jamaica. The group also shared what more should be done to enhance the support for women’s sport in Jamaica. 

The survey sample was taken from tertiary level students, marketers, researchers and sport administrators, based in Jamaica. 

Contact: Carole Beckford 

E: carole.beckford@gmail.com 

Poor Leadership Caused Reggae Girlz 2024 CONCACAF Elimination

by Dr Cecile Dennis

Poor decision-making by the Michael Ricketts-led Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) leadership has resulted in the first-round elimination of Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz team from the 2024 CONCACAF competition. 

Disputes between players and their governing bodies are nothing new, nor are such disputes new to the Jamaican football arena. 

Italian men’s players in 2011, Bolton Wanderers’ players in 2018, Spain’s Women’s World Cup football team in September 2023, and the current Australian netball players’ strike over pay all demonstrate the fragility of player-associations relations worldwide. 

While we cannot avoid labour disputes in sports, we must handle them in the best interest of all stakeholders – players, fans, and sponsors, and consequently protect and preserve hard-earned gains and reputation. 

We have just seen our Reggae Girlz unbelievably crash out of the first round of the 2024 CONCACAF competition,  immediately following their remarkable performance in the 2023 Women’s World Cup. 

The failure of the Jamaican team to perform at expected standards is the direct result of the disruption created by the Ricketts-led JFF team, through two poor yet critical decisions, namely, the termination of the coach whose energy and leadership style created strong synergy between himself and the team, and the ‘suspension’ of the Reggae Girlz who indicated their withdrawal from the team.

In a 2014 dissertation by GC Foster graduate Marlene Campbell examining the factors negatively impacting the poor  performance of the Boys’ Town 2013/14 in the Red Stripe premier league, she highlighted the lack of team cohesion impacted by player departure, as the main factor leading to Boy’s Town’s poor performance and relegation threat in the Premier League competition. 

The lack of cohesion was evident in a Jamaican team comprised of players who had no time to understand each other. Sports psychologists have repeatedly touted that a good player-coach relationship is critical to the team’s performance and that teams synchronize and work collectively towards their victory through the shared knowledge of a transactive memory system they develop through training and playing matches together. 

Instead of considering the greater good of negotiating directly with the ‘Girlz’ at the table, just as the team of negotiators led by former Cricket West Indies President, Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron and Raymond Anderson did with the Reggae Boyz on behalf of JFF during the 2021 impasse, the JFF leadership punched its iron fist to the detriment of the team, fans, and sponsors, ultimately eroding our international ranking gains based on our 2023 World Cup performance. While Spain was able to field an entire replacement team and perform well in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Jamaica could not.     

Good leaders display the type of emotional intelligence that demonstrates deep and thoughtful decision-making rather than emotional, ego-driven actions. The ‘I-am-the-boss’ decisions to terminate the coach and suspend players, rather than foster good relations, ignored basic leadership rules of emotional intelligence, conflict management, and good governance, and certainly disregarded the labour relations rules of due process and equity, defined by FIFA as ‘fair play’. In all cases of players’ impasse mentioned here, one factor remained common throughout – the governing bodies sat at the table to negotiate a settlement with unhappy parties and resolved the issues. 

If Jamaican football is to achieve its full potential it will require the kind of leadership that demonstrates good governance evidenced by competence, strong accountability, timely and effective communication, and stakeholder equity and inclusion. Hopefully, the January 14, 2024, JFF elections will accommodate this very needed change in the sport we all love – football.

Dr. Cecile Dennis is a human resource specialist, an assistant professor, and a former Jamaica national table tennis representative.