Women In Sport Publishes Beyond 30% Report
Women’s sport charity, Women in Sport, has unveiled its latest report, which states that 40% of women working in the sports industry say they still experience discrimination because of their gender.
The study, titled ‘Beyond 30%: Workplace Culture in Sport’, involved 1,152 women and men working across the sector surveyed between September 2017 and March 2018, with 42 in-depth interviews carried out with some participants.
Those surveyed work within the sports industry at companies such as national governing bodies, leisure organisations, county sport partnerships and sports charities.
Of those surveyed, 38% of women working in sport said they had experienced active discrimination because they were female, compared to 21% of men. Meanwhile, 72% of men said they saw no instances of inequality.
30% of women said they had experienced inappropriate behaviour from men, and highlighted problems such as the gender pay gap, feeling undervalued at work, a lack of opportunities for women to progress into more senior roles, and a networking culture that appears to support an ‘old boys’ club’.
The report concluded that there ‘is a need to redress the gender imbalance’, with organisations urged to identify and address the cultural issues that may exist.
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.’
Speaking to the Guardian, Ruth Holdaway, chief executive of Women in Sport, said: “How will we attract women into our sector if 40% feel they’re held back by being female? We’d never been able to quantify that before.
“We’ve shown there is an issue here. Women are experiencing something different from men and it’s preventing them from progressing. Now we can start to build consensus around making that change.”
This research was funded by Comic Relief and Sport Wales.
