League Two side Mansfield Town CEO Carolyn Radford "has always had to work hard to convince those inside and outside Mansfield Town that she is worthy of her job," according to Daniel Storey of the London INDEPENDENT. Appointed at the age of 29 in '11, not only is she the youngest CEO in the Football League but also one of "only two women in her role." A report from Women in Sport in March revealed that the FA "risked losing public funding" because it does not "employ enough women in senior roles." If this "all sounds grossly imbalanced, the figures are hardly surprising." If football’s dressing rooms "are charged with testosterone and littered with chauvinism, typical boardrooms are hardly a vast improvement." Radford: "It's ridiculous, really. I have the qualities. I am a lawyer. I know how to manage contracts. The club has been completely turned around in almost six years. All of those things show that I can run a good ship. But still I am that joke figure who can't do it." Radford -- then Carolyn Still -- was appointed "amid accusations of nepotism due to her personal relationship" with Mansfield Town Chair John Radford, who took over the club in '10. The two got married in July '12. She accepts that "not all" were in favor of her appointment, "and can understand their initial doubts to an extent, but describes claims that she was unfit for the role as entirely unfair." Radford said, "I honestly believe that had I been male then it wouldn't have been an issue at all. It just made me doubly intent to show people what I can do. ... I know that there are other industries that are male-dominated, but none like football. I think one of the problems is that football drives such emotion that people hate you. It evokes such strong passion" (INDEPENDENT, 7/2).
