Gender Equity in Sport Leadership and Management

Despite growing recognition of women’s contributions to sport, leadership and management roles remain heavily gendered. Women occupy a minority of coaching, officiating, governance and executive positions across elite and community sport. Persistent barriers include unconscious bias, organisational cultures that privilege masculine norms, limited access to mentorship and networking, and structural policies that fail to foster inclusive career pathways. Recent efforts by governing bodies and movement towards gender‐responsive policy have yielded modest gains, yet progress is uneven globally. Research highlights the importance of visibility, supportive networks and transformative leadership models in redressing disparities. Intersectional factors such as race, disability and socioeconomic status further shape women’s access to decision-making arenas, underscoring the need for multifaceted strategies that combine policy reform, cultural change and targeted development programmes.

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Gender Equity in Sport Leadership and Management publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in gender equity in sport leadership and management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Contact theory: A social-psychological framework suggesting that increased interaction with underrepresented groups can reduce prejudice, though it may not alter underlying implicit attitudes.

Implicit bias: Unconscious associations or stereotypes that influence judgement and behaviour towards social groups without conscious awareness.

Microaggressions: Subtle, often unintentional, verbal or behavioural slights that convey hostile or negative messages towards members of marginalised groups.

Hegemonic masculinity: A cultural ideal that privileges masculine norms and behaviours, often marginalising those who do not conform, including women and gender non-conforming individuals.

References

1. Beyond stereotypes: The role of exposure in reshaping Children's biases towards women as coaches in sports. Psychology of Sport and Exercise (2024).
2. Gendered microaggressions towards the “only” women coaches in high-performance sport. Sports Coaching Review (2022).
3. A Call for Culturally Responsive Transformational Leadership in College Sport: An Anti-ism Approach for Achieving Equity and Inclusion. Frontiers in Sociology (2020).
4. “I'm a Referee, Not a Female Referee”: The Experiences of Women Involved in Football as Coaches and Referees. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (2022).
5. Gender inclusive sporting environments: the proportion of women in non-player roles over recent years. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation (2021).
6. Workplace Experiences of Women With Disability in Sport Organizations. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (2022).
7. Complicating Gender, Sport, and Social Inclusion: The Case for Intersectionality. Social Inclusion (2017).