Yet, she revealed that when she first arrived at Stanford Bridge six years ago, women’s players and management were not even allowed into the main building, which was ‘men only’.

“They used to say, ‘oh, I don’t know about men and women mixing’, and I used to say ‘don’t worry, we don’t have sex at lunchtime, so what’s the chances of us coming in?’” she quipped.

“Let’s be honest, that was part of the fear around that. Of course it (the culture) didn’t change immediately, but with time, and also with our success, that attitude softened.”

Hayes has also got the club to drop terms like ‘first team’ and ‘ladies football’ and revealed there are fines for anyone using such phrases.

She said history and culture are two of the many reasons for the absence of women in coaching.

“It’s the effect of a lot of things that will take some time to change. There haven’t been as many opportunities for women to coach elite players in full-time capacities. As that changes, so will aspirations and that will create role models who will create greater participation. More women having positive experiences in sport means they will stay in it and are more likely to want to give back to it.

“You get the behaviour that you tolerate in life,” Hayes noted. “Even working in the women’s game, I get people going straight to my male assistant and I have to say ‘no, I’m in charge!’

We have to be brave enough. That thick-skinned approach comes with time and support and failure and adversity. We are also not going to get more women coaching until we respect that they are child bearers and nurturers.

"We still treat them like we do men, but we may have to think very differently about how we support female coaches, or at least have a conversation about that.”

Hayes was addressing Liberty Insurance’s annual women in sport symposium, which this year concentrated on coaching and produced new statistics about how few women are involved in sports’ coaching in general.

From a sample of 3,000 adults (one third of whom were in Ireland), it was found that 75% of those coaching senior women’s team are men, even at club level.

Only one in four club teams were coached by women, even though two-thirds of those surveyed felt more female coaches would encourage more young women to take part in sport. Tracey Neville, head coach of British netball, was also among the speakers, who all agreed that for women to progress in coaching, they particularly need strong mentors and allies who will support them when they suffer discrimination or sexism while learning their trade.

Neville pointed out that male coaches in women’s sports also suffer sexism.

“I was one of the first people to make a male coach my assistant and the first thing someone said to me was: “He hasn’t played the sport, what does he know about netball?’ That’s the same perception that women are subjected to in [so-called] male sports.”

The gender disparity in coaching is less noticeable at underage level: 37% of those surveyed said their underage girls’ team is managed or coached by a woman and this was over 50% in the case of GAA.

However, only 20% knew of boys’ teams who were managed/coached by a woman, and less than 10% of men’s adult teams had a female coach/manager.

Smaller numbers of female coaches is regarded as a contributory factor to more girls and women not taking up or staying in sport. Almost 70% of those canvassed felt that more female coaches would encourage more young women to participate and stay in sport.

Also, nearly 40% believed that professional men’s teams should be required to interview at least one female candidate for the position of coach or manager if one is available.

In Ireland, 44% of those surveyed (and 33% in Britain) said they would support extra funding for the training of female coaches.

When it comes to administration, Ireland also has a better sporting gender balance than the UK. Nearly a third (32%) of the Irish respondents said their sports club had a female chairperson or secretary, compared to just 16% in the UK. Over a third (37%) of Irish adults reported watching or attending a female sports event in 2018, compared to just 16% in Britain, while 44% of men have attended/watched a female sports event in the last year, compared to 31% of women.