LONDON: A charity organization in the United Kingdom, Women in Sport released a research report titled ‘Beyond 30% – Workplace Culture in Sport’, which presents findings and conclusions about corporate culture across sports organisations in the UK, such as national governing bodies, leisure organisations, county sport partnerships, commercial sports clubs and agencies and sports charities.
The sports sector in the country faces grave issues when it comes to gender discrimination, according to the report. A survey of 1,152 women and men working in the sector alongside 42 in-depth interviews were carried out by Women in Sport between September 2017 and March 2018.
The report claimed that amongst the people surveyed, 40% of women working in sport feel less valued, get lesser opportunities to progress, are paid less for doing the same role as men and feel unfairly judged due to a networking culture that appears to cater to an ‘old boys’ club’.
The unwritten rule of men being better and credible at their jobs due to having played professional sport much more than women, seems to be denying 29% of women senior roles and 34% of them feeling the impact of the same on their appraisals.
On the other hand, 72% of men opined that they haven’t seen instances of bias as such.
Women in Sport asked questions such as “Is workplace culture impeding women’s progression?” and “What can be done to ensure that sports organisations have a culture in which both women and men thrive?,’. Its main aim is to encourage participation of women in the sector, contributing to a gender diverse and as a result, more productive workforce.
Over the past seven years, Women in Sport has monitored the number of women in board and senior leadership roles in the national governing bodies of England and Wales, via their annual Beyond 30% audit. This report is an extension of the same, focussing more on corporate culture.
It ended with the acknowledgement that there ‘is a need to redress the gender imbalance’. It added: ‘To bring about meaningful and lasting change, redressing the gender imbalance alone is not enough. It is vital to also address the barriers within the culture of sports organisations to create environments in which both women and men truly thrive.’
Ruth Holdaway, CEO of Women in Sport, said: “Women in Sport is committed to ensuring sport develops, and benefits from, equality. Our mandate is to ask difficult questions and delve into the unknown to support women who work in sport as well as those who play it. By shining a light on gender discrimination in the sport workplace we are raising awareness of specific problems so that we can work together with the sector to create positive change.
“History, tradition and – in certain sports – a men-only starting point, have all contributed to creating a culture which can feel like a ‘man’s world.’ I recognise that the sport sector is committed to stamping out gender discrimination, but our report has highlighted that where negative behaviours exist deep within the workplace culture they often go unseen and therefore do not get addressed. By bringing transparency to the issue we can now work with sector leaders to change it.
“We led this research to provide the sport sector with in-depth understanding of the issues that affect women in the sport workplace. Now we want to work with sports organisations to build a more inclusive workplace culture, where both women and men can reach their full potential.”
Chris Grant, CEO of Sported, said: “Sport should be at the forefront of positive change, but as this invaluable research shows, we’re almost certainly lagging behind other sectors. At Sported, we’re proud to be working with Women in Sport to help our grassroots member clubs attack negative stereotypes and become more welcoming to women and girls.
“Ultimately, though, it’s about all of us involved in sport taking responsibility. As most people in formal leadership roles are men, we need to work extra hard to ensure that we have an accurate view of the barriers to women’s access and progression, and are taking effective action to remove them. If we’re not an active part of the solution, we’re probably part of the problem”
