Kenny Shiels’ comments about ’emotionally imbalanced women’ were outdated, inappropriate and inaccurate

Read the following and diagnose at which point your irony detector goes off the scale: Kenny Shiels, the Northern Ireland women’s national team coach, was speaking in the heat of the moment in his post-match press conference on Tuesday evening when he blamed female players for conceding goals in quick succession because they are “more emotional than men”.

When Kilmarnock manager, Shiels was banned for four games after a radio interview in which he reacted angrily to questions by accusing Celtic of having control over disciplinary processes in Scotland. That came less than six months after Shiels was also banned for four games for accusing a fourth official of fabricating evidence. Kilmarnock lost their Scottish Cup quarter-final that season after conceding two goals in seven minutes.

Shiels’ next job, at Morton, ended after a 10-2 defeat during which his side conceded twice in less than four minutes on three separate occasions. For a period in that job, Shiels skipped his post-match duties because they made him “emotionally imbalanced” and he could not control himself to avoid offering candid opinions.

Of course, none of this is really the point. We do not need to analyse the myriad ways in which Shiels is guilty of being an oaf, as fun as that particular pursuit is. It is its own quod erat demonstrandum. Shiels has since apologised for the comments – and rightly so. But he cannot undo them.

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His stereotyping is common. There remains – albeit now thankfully eroded – a perpetuated myth that women are more emotional than stoic, level-headed men. That stereotype is grounded in the way a patriarchal society portrays men as superior to women and seeks pseudo-evidence for the maintenance of that status quo. It helps to fuel gender myths and sexism. Those myths are used to delegitimize the opinions of women.

And, unsurprisingly, it’s nonsensical. In a study last year by Scientific Reports, researchers concluded that male and female participants’ emotions fluctuated at the same rate. This is not a surprise. Anyone who believes otherwise has simply been hardwired by cultural norms to buy into the inaccurate stereotype.

In sport, that matters because emotion – and certainly over-emotion – is viewed with understandable reservation: chaotic times call for cool heads. On Wednesday morning, Women in Football CEO Yvonne Harrison offered anecdotal evidence that women within sport leadership roles often struggle to make progress because when they speak out they are often suspected of relying upon emotion over logic. Men in the same position with the same views are credited with being bold or ambitious.

Shiels on Tuesday

“I thought they were struggling a wee bit at times to open us up until the psychology of going two up.

“In the women’s game you’ll have noticed if you go through the patterns, when a team concedes a goal they concede a second one within a very short period of time.

“Right through the whole spectrum of the women’s game, because girls and women are more emotional than men, so they take a goal going in not very well.”

He added: “When we went 1-0 down we tried to slow it right down to give them time to get that emotional imbalance out of their heads. That’s an issue we have.

“It’s not just in Northern Ireland, but all countries.”

Shiels on Wednesday

“I wish to apologise for my comments made in the post-match press conference last night.

‘Last night was a special occasion for the women’s game in Northern Ireland and I am proud to manage a group of players who are role models for so many girls, and boys, across the country.

“I am an advocate for the women’s game and passionate about developing opportunities for women and girls to flourish.”

More important in the case of Shiels is not that he holds the misguided belief but felt empowered to publicise them.

A football manager’s rough remit is to improve their teams. That can be done through coaching, training, tactical expertise but also through instilling a team spirit via your own means of motivation. That is particularly true at international level, where you have less time with players to prepare. Imagine being a Northern Ireland international and hear your manager say that. Would you – could you ever – believe that your manager understood you as an individual or as a group if he was making such sweeping statements about your gender?

The intent is not to vilify Shiels; hopefully his rapid apology reflects that he accepts that his comments are outdated, inappropriate and inaccurate rather than simply a reflection of the subsequent backlash. But that backlash was itself appropriate. Only by shouting down those who perpetuate myths can we hope to eradicate them.

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