How to achieve gender balance in boards of sport organizations.
Subject
Sports - Management ; Sport organizations - Management ; Women's rights ; Equality ; Women - Employment ; Αθλητισμός - Διοίκηση και οργάνωση ; Αθλητικοί οργανισμοί - Διοίκηση και οργάνωση ; Γυναίκες - Δικαιώματα ; Ισότητα ; Γυναίκες - απασχόλησηKeywords
Gender balance ; Sport boards ; Gender balance initiativesAbstract
The purpose of this master thesis is to examine how to achieve gender balance in boards
of sport organizations. To investigate this the researcher investigated which gender balance
initiatives existed today, the success rate of them and how many of the boards that were gender
balanced today. The research was limited to Norwegian sport organizations. The study aims to
produce a list of recommended gender balance initiatives that should be implemented to
improve the gender balance. An overview of the existing literature on the historical and social
perspectives on gender balance, myths and truths about gender balance and gender balance
initiatives was undertaken. Afterwards the study was carried out by interviewing six Norwegian
sport organizations and a review of second- hand data. The interviews discovered which gender
balance initiatives the organization had implemented and their experience with them. Then
followed an analysis of the gender balance performance of the different organizations and a
discussion where the experience from the sport organizations either substantiated or
undermined the existing literature. The results of the interviews showed that some of the
organizations had implemented many initiatives, while other struggled stating why they thought
having gender balance was important. There were connections between having implemented
gender balance regulations in the bylaws and having a gender balanced board. Other
connections were that those who could not address why they worked on gender balance, the
number of initiated initiatives and the gender balance in the board. However, there were also
connections between having a skewed gender distribution in the membership and an unbalanced
board. The recommended initiatives included making a strategy which outlines why and how
to work with gender balance and implementing regulations in the organization’s bylaws among
other things.