‘Avoiding trouble? A narrative- discursive approach to sexism and women’s identity work’ Stephanie Taylor 8 May 2015

Women stage counterattack in chess sexism row THE GUARDIAN Tuesday 21 April

Nigel Short: ‘I never said that women have inferior brains’ ‘Women have all sorts of skills where they are superior to men’ 3

Nigel Short: ‘Why should they function in the same way? I don’t have the slightest problem in acknowledging that my wife possesses a much higher degree of emotional intelligence than I do. ‘Likewise, she doesn’t feel embarrassed in asking me to manoeuvre the car out of our narrow garage. One is not better than the other, we just have different skills. It would be wonderful to see more girls playing chess, and at a higher level, but rather than fretting about inequality, perhaps we should just gracefully accept it as a fact.’ 4

‘The comments have been derided as sexist and ignorant by the chess community.’ 5

Sue Maroroa: ‘There is an attitude within the chess community that women are worse than men. It’s just like any old boys’ club which is dominated by older men who still have that attitude, ‘Oh, she’s a girl, so she can’t play.’ 6

Amanda Ross: “She must have brought her man brain. Let’s just hope Nigel didn’t crash his car on those days, trying to park it. At least this resolves the age-old debate as to whether there’s a direct link between chess-playing ability and intelligence. Clearly not.” 7

Rita Atkins: “I teach a lot of chess to schoolkids and I think it is to do with the fact that girls shy away from aggressive competitiveness at a young age whereas young boys are very competitive. I think that is the main reason why girls don’t get into it as much when they are young, and so don’t get to competition level.” 8

‘education and employment’ contribute to ‘re-designating young women as subjects of capacity who will refrain from challenging existing gender hierarchies as they come forward to occupy a position of visibility’ (McRobbie 2009, p. 72) 9

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