For those who may not know, Vera Pauw is the head coach of the Irish National Women’s soccer team. A Dutch woman, she came to the job after a successful playing career, and then successful coaching stints with the Russian national side, the South African national side, and US Women’s Soccer League club Heuston Dash. To those who follow women’s soccer, she is highly thought of, and has delivered positive results for the Irish side – most recently a stunning victory in Scotland that was later overshadowed by some esoteric choices of post-match song in the dressing room.
Yesterday, the Irish Times reported that Pauw is facing allegations of misconduct, dating back to her time as head coach of the Heuston Dash.
What kind of misconduct? Well, you probably need to read it for yourself:
Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw has been accused of criticising players over their weight in a report by the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and its Players Association following a joint 14-month investigation into allegations of abuse and misconduct towards NWSL players.
The report alleged that Pauw, who managed NWSL club Houston Dash for a year up until September 2018, “shamed players for their weight and attempted to exert excessive control over their eating habits”, citing players who described her as a “power freak”.
As a result of the report’s findings, Houston Dash issued a statement apologising to players “present and former, who were subject to misconduct by James Clarkson and 2018 head coach, Vera Pauw”.
The context here, for those who may not know, is that women’s soccer in the United States is a much bigger game, domestically, than the male version. The USA women’s national team is, effectively, the female equivalent of France or Brazil – dominant at international tournaments. The domestic league is well attended. Partly, this is because men are drawn, in the US, to American Football or Baseball, neither of which have big female participation.
So, this is a professional sport, and a highly followed one. Not an amateur game, like the GAA.
The accusation against Pauw, then, is that as head coach of a professional sports team, she was too aggressive towards players about their weight, and their eating habits.
This really should not require saying, but say it, we apparently must: If you are being paid to play sport professionally, then your employer and line manager surely has an interest in your physical conditioning? It is not as if Ms Pauw was breaking into the homes of random women to yell at them (allegedly) about their weight. These were professional sportswomen who are required, as part of their job, to be in shape.
The accusation that Ms Pauw “attempted to exert control over players eating habits” and “shamed them for their weight” is, one might think, exactly what a professional sports coach is expected to do. Indeed, even amateur teams in the GAA these days have nutritionists and conditioning coaches and dietary plans for each player. This is part and parcel of elite sport.
So was Pauw… too mean? That does not seem to be the substance of the case. The substance of it appears to be in something called “shaming”.
Shaming is an interesting offence in that shame can really only be felt by the person feeling shame – it really is a subjective reaction. What shames one person may not shame another. It is, therefore, a feeling that cannot be reliably provoked, intentionally. One might try and shame somebody, but if they feel no shame, then there is not much to be done about it.
What’s more, there are times when attempting to provoke a feeling of shame is entirely appropriate. Is this not, for example, the basis on which the entire criminal justice system is based? Criminals, ideally, are supposed to be shamed for their crimes, and to feel shame. It is part of the deterrent. Similarly, in most workplaces, one might hope that the person letting the side down, or not pulling their, eh, weight, might feel some shame. A good leader might even try and provoke that feeling, at times, to get people to buck up.
In any case, this all feels like nonsense to me. If a professional sportswoman can’t be told that she is not in the right shape to compete, without blaming her coach for “shaming” her, she should probably find a new job. And the same goes, obviously, for men.