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!
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)
For more info www.ausport.gov.au/participating/women/get_involved
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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