As long as it is AVAILABLE to all then it shouldn’t matter one jot if some ‘category’ of society chooses not to take it up. To have ‘equal’ take-up (I.e. representative in proportion to society) is not a worthy aim in itself. The logical conclusion of such policies is quotas, which is not a good thing in a free society.
Quote Originally Posted by noel View Post
I think there's an important difference between under-representation due to prejudice and bias (ie, certain groups being excluded), and under-representation that is not (ie, certain groups choosing not to take part). I think fell running is pretty open to anyone.
Quote Originally Posted by DrPatrickBarry View Post
I guess if only one subset of the population is availing of the "free service" then that is adversly effecting the other sections of society.

The same is happening in schools, they cannot be favouring boys (via funding,etc) sport over girls sport, even though they would be much more boys wanting to partake and at a higher level.