Gender Diversity in European Sport Governance

Agnes Elling, Jorid Hovden, Annelies Knoppers

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351629522
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Gender equality is one of the founding democratic principles of the EU. However, recent studies of the Federation of Olympic Sports in Europe have shown that women occupy only fourteen percent of decision-making positions in sport organizations.

This book presents a comprehensive and comparative study of how various regions and countries of Europe have addressed this lack of gender diversity, discussing which strategies have brought about change and to what extent these changes have been successful. With contributions from leading sport sociologists, covering countries such as Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the UK, it provides a foundation for future policymaking, methodological analyses and theoretical developments that can result in sustainable gender equality in European sport governance.

Gender Diversity in European Sport Governance is important reading for scholars and students in the fields of sociology of sport, sport management, sociology, gender studies and studies of organization, management and leadership. It is also a valuable resource for policy makers in the EU, as well as national sport organizations and activists.

Part I
Mapping the field

Chapter 1
Introduction

Annelies Knoppers, Jorid Hovden and Agnes Elling

Regardless of how sport is located/situated in a society, it is elite sport performance that captures national imaginations and draws attention from the state. The quest for visibility on the global stage means every government pays attention to both women’s and men’s sports, although often more to the latter than the former. The ways in which they do this vary by country. In contrast, the gendering of sport governance and the dominance of males in sport leadership are often invisible or deemed to be of little importance not needing state intervention.

The underrepresentation of women in positions of sport leadership is so common that it is often unnoticed (Claringbould & Knoppers, 2012; Fink, 2016). When it is acknowledged, change is very slow in coming. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) acknowledged this underrepresentation in its 1996 conference on Women and Sport. It established targets that meant women should hold at least 20% of decision-making positions in Olympic sport governance and leadership by 2005. Whereas women currently compose close to 50% of Olympic athletes, the current figures for sport leadership do not come close to 30%, the percentage necessary for a critical mass (Adriaanse, 2016). Similarly, a recent survey by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE, 2015) among all 28 continental federations of Olympic sports in Europe shows women occupy 14% of the decision-making positions. Changes that have occurred have been small, have not always been sustainable, have varied by country and have rarely transformed male-dominated organisations into places with a more gender-inclusive culture.

Overall, it is remarkable how few studies on the topic of gender and governance have been conducted, especially compared to the amount of attention given to other topics focusing on gender such as gender and representation in the sports media (see Elling, 2015). The first available scholarly papers analysing the underrepresentation of women in sport leadership were published in 1984 focusing on Canada (Theberge, 1984) followed in 1985 by an analysis of sport governance in England (White & Brackenridge, 1985). The subsequent available research on gender and sport leadership is extensive and gives insight into factors and processes that influence this underrepresentation (see Burton, 2015, Leberman & Burton, 2017 for a summary of this research). Its general focus seems to be on those working in sport organisations such as coaches, athletic directors and administrators and as such may not always address sport governance.

The gendering of sport organisations may be different than that of boards of governance. The work and selection of boards of directors and managers of organisations differ in various ways. Board members may be appointed or elected to these voluntary positions. Although elections seem to be democratic, they first require that candidates be nominated. Exploratory research suggests nomination procedures in sport tend to be biased towards men candidates (Sotiriadou, De Haan, & Knoppers, 2017). As a general principle, boards are accountable for the overall performance of an organisation. The relationship between boards and the organisations they (supposedly) control is not so straightforward in practice, however. A board may not always be in control of the governance of an organisation. It may act as a rubber stamp for a director or a group outside the board. Andersson and Edenfield (2015) contend that governance involves stakeholders inside and outside the organisation and therefore should also be seen as a political process. A few empirical studies have focused on sport boards as sites of negotiated gender power relations (e.g. Hovden, 2006, 2012) but in general, this area needs more research attention since, as we pointed out in a previous paragraph, changes in the gender ratio on boards have been slow in coming.

Gender inequality in sport governance in Europe

Most of the analyses of gender and sport governance have focused on the underrepresentation of women in the European context, primarily Northern Europe consisting of Germany (Pfister & Radtke, 2009), the Netherlands (Claringbould & Knoppers, 2007, 2008, 2012) and Norway (Hovden, 2000, 2010, 2012; Sisjord, Fasting, & Sand, 2017) and a comparison of Scandinavian countries (Ottesen, Skirstad, Pfister, & Habermann, 2010). Exceptions of research that goes beyond the confines of the European context are comparisons of sport governance and gender in the global context (Adriaanse, 2013, 2016; Adriaanse & Claringbould, 2016; Rintala & Bischoff, 1997; Sotiriadou et al., 2017). Researchers have also examined sport governance and gender in Australia (e.g. Adriaanse & Schofield, 2013, 2014) and the gendering of governance of certain National Sport Federations NSFs such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in North America (Yiamouyiannis & Osborne, 2012). Although this research has produced many insights, there is a lack of comparative and integrated understandings of the persistence of gender inequity in governance positions in sport. Europe is an excellent site to explore similarities and differences across a variety of contexts that paradoxically are also part of a greater whole.

Europe consists of a conglomeration of countries, each with their own constructions of gender, and yet many are bound by the charter of the European Union (EU), in which gender equality including that in decision-making, is a founding democratic principle. Recent policy developments (EIGE, 2015) reveal that the underrepresentation of women or the lack of gender diversity in leadership positions in European sport has become a central issue in the EU resulting in some progress towards more gender equality. Because of its commitment and the heterogeneity of its member nations, the EU provides a setting that enables comparisons that may give insight into strategies for change and alternative ways of researching this issue. In addition, as we showed earlier, Europe also is the home of many scholars who have investigated gender issues in sport governance. Relying on the work of some of these scholars, this book aims to bring together and to compare theoretical and empirical analyses of gendered sport governance practices in Europe.

Most European countries rely on governmental power to govern and regulate society (Walby, 2004). Government uses its power to regulate society. In many of the countries that form a basis for this book, however, sport is seen as a voluntary activity, often part of civil society, and therefore is not to be regulated by the state. In other words, the state tends not to penalise sport organisations for the skewed gender ratios in sport governance. Even in the Scandinavian welfare...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Part I Mapping the field
• Part II Country studies
• Part III Sport-specific case studies
• Part IV Meta-analyses and Conclusions
• Index