40% of women in sport industry face gender discrimination, report finds

Women in Sport is on a mission to create a 'more inclusive workplace culture'

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A new report conducted by Women in Sport has revealed that 40 per cent of women experience gender discrimination in the sport industry.

The report, titled Beyond 30 per cent - Workplace Culture in Sport, has unveiled the extent to which women with careers in sport experience prejudice.

A survey of 1,152 women and men working in sport was conducted between September 2017 and March 2018 as part of the study, with 42 in-depth interviews carried out with some of participants.

38 per cent of the women stated that they’ve experienced gender discrimination in the workplace, in comparison to a fifth of the men.

Moreover, 40 per cent of the women felt that their gender can have a negative impact on the way in which they're valued by others at work, while 30 per cent have experienced inappropriate behaviour from someone of the opposite sex in comparison to a tenth of the men.

When asked whether men and women in their workplace are treated equally and fairly, 72 per cent of the men believed that they were.

However, when asked the same question, only 46 per cent of women agreed.

Women in Sport hopes that its report can spur an increase in the number of women attaining positions of leadership in sport, in addition to addressing the stark sexism that’s rife throughout the industry.

“Women in Sport is committed to ensuring sport develops, and benefits from, equality,” said Ruth Holdaway, CEO of Women in Sport.

“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."

She continued, stating that although there have been efforts to solve gender discrimination within sport, much more needs to be done.

“We led this research to provide the sport sector with in-depth understanding of the issues that affect women in the sport workplace,” she said.

“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.”

According to the report, less than half of the National Governing Bodies of sport have succeeded in achieving the minimum requirement of 30 per cent of women on the board.