Monday, 4 November 2013

Women on Sporting Boards

A post by Beth

Photo source: www.business21.com.au

Back in the day sporting clubs and definitely board rooms were a male only environment. The suggestion that women should be a part of a sporting board would have caused outright hilarity. However times have changed and women are now not content to sit on the sides lines politely cheering on their muscled men. Women want to be a part of sporting organisations in higher positions than secretary or personal assistant. And so they should! Surprise, surprise women are not as fragile as they were perceived to be in the good old times.  Women are just as intelligent and highly skilled enough to be able to take up positions within sporting organisations that used to be the domain of men only. This blog entry will talk about women’s representation in Australian sporting boards, barriers to them getting there and some programs and ideas in place to assist them.
 
Sporting organisations have been male only places but are now being pressured to conform and allow more women to join their boards.  In Australia only 23% of board positions in National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) are female (ASC, 2013). Of this percentage 37% are CEOs and only 19% are Presidents. The board structure of an NSO is essential to its continued ability to provide the best opportunities for the organisation, so why is it still so hard for women to become a part of a male dominated area of sport? As stated on the ASC website:
 
“Extensive research among leading businesses shows that diverse boards make for better decision-making and more effective organisations.  Companies where women hold at least 30% of senior management positions are significantly more successful and better able to deal with future challenges.” (ASC, 2013)
 
So if this is the case for corporate businesses then why are some sporting organisations so reluctant to allow women to be a part of their organisation? Perhaps it has something to do with a lot of board members being older and more set in traditional ways. Their experience is invaluable for a sporting organisation but it is also important to regularly rotate new board members in to keep the board fresh with new ideas and perspectives. Without change a board could become stagnant and entrenched in the same methods they always use. Incorporating new ideas and changes will benefit the organisation. Having women on the board would add a new perspective as well. Women think differently to men and obviously would have a better perspective of women’s issues that may be occurring within the organisation and be better able to represent them on the board than another male member.
 
According to Claringbould and Knoppers, 2012 “The gender ratio of those in positions of leadership continues to be skewed toward a male majority.” This means that women are still not getting the opportunities that men have of being members of sports boards. Of the 58 sports funded by the Australian Sports Commission 10 have met the new guidelines for having at least 40% of board members being female (Yay for those sports you’re awesome!), 26 sports have only one female board member and six of the sports have no female members (Boo!) (Taylor, 2013). For whole article http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/take-more-women-on-board-lundy-20130226-2f46v.html)
 
Curious I looked up several Australian sporting organisations to see their board member ratio as of this year.


Netball Australia: 7 women, 0 men
Hockey Australia: 4 women, 5 men
Swimming Australia: 2 women, 5 men
Gymnastics Australia: 2 women, 5 men
Football Federation Australia (FFA): 1 woman, 6 men
Cricket Australia: 1 woman, 8 men
Judo Australia: 0 women,  5 men


Just looking at these few organisations clearly represents that women are significantly underrepresented in the structural organisation of Australian sporting boards (excepting Netball). Clearly something needs to be done!

 
Picture source: www.glasslewis.com
 
So what is keeping women from joining the elusive ranks of a sporting organisation? According to the ASC there are several reasons why women are finding it hard to launch into leadership roles. Reasons include a lack of role models, as there are so few women in leadership roles in sport the idea of becoming involved is still very strange and without women to look up to potential employees are reluctant to try and enter into a male dominated environment. Institutionalised structures and recruitment processes may also deter women from wanting to join. Some sporting organisations may be very reluctant to allow people from outside the sport to become members of the board, preferring to recruit new board members from a known pool of current members. This again discourages women from applying unless they are already involved in the sport in some way.
 
Another barrier to women being members of sports boards is that they may not have the knowledge or skills required to be a board member. It is important that women have the opportunity to gain the skills and merit needed to become members of sports boards. Sporting boards have long been dominated by males. It is time for women to have the chance to show that they too have the skills and abilities to be in charge of sport organisations. To counter these barriers the ASC has set up two programs designed to aid women to become members of sporting organisations, these programs are the Sport Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women program (SLGSWP) which in 2013-14 period has been provided with $400,000 from the Australian Government to assist women in gaining the training they need in coaching, officiating, governance and other areas of sport. Linking with the SLGSWP is the Women in Sport Leadership Register which aims to help women gain places on sporting boards. (ASC, 2013)

New legislation from the ASC concerning the governance of sporting boards includes a section on gender balance and an incentive to quickly improve on their governance is that NSOs that don’t comply could risk losing 20% of the funding they receive from the Australian Government. (Women’s Agenda, 2013). For whole article http://www.womensagenda.com.au/talking-about/top-stories/sporting-bodies-told-to-address-board-gender-diversity/201303191849

Another way to aid women in being able to be a part of a board could be the introduction of compulsory quotas that include a certain amount of women members. VicSport interviewed women who are currently board directors and got their opinions on various issues that women face in the sporting world. The idea of quotas received both positive and negative responses. Positive responses included that it would be “an opportunity to break down barriers and improve the confidence of women to apply for the positions with a reasonable and fair chance at being successful in the application” (VicSport, 2013) also having quotas would increase “awareness of the benefits of gender diversity on boards” (VicSport, 2013). Some negative responses included that “positions may no longer be afforded to the best possible candidate” (VicSport, 2013) or that unless the entire board is willing to embrace a significant cultural change then the chances of failure increase significantly. (VicSport, 2013). So quotas could be a good thing for women but they may also become an issue for boards as they may be forced to fill positions with people that are not qualified for the job.

So the unequal ratios of women vs men on sporting boards are slowly being reduced. This is encouraging for many women who wish to share their skills and knowledge to further enhance a sporting organisation. As discussed there are many barriers preventing women from joining sporting boards but with the provision of support programs such as the Sport Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women program (SLGSWP) and information about the benefits of cultural change within boards being provided, the motion is in place to improve the ratios of women on sporting boards.
 
Ideally we want to go from this to this eventually :-)
 
Picture source: www.wescotland.co.uk
 

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