Equal leadership in sport

1. Why do we need 50% women in leadership? 

If women who understand the value of sport had been 50% of the decision makers from the start, what would sport look like now?  

• Would women have agreed to their own sport being chronically underfunded compared to their male counterparts? No.  

• Would they have allowed a sport to ban them or exclude them in other ways? No.  

• Would they have built a sporting culture that worked around the lives of a balanced family, meeting the needs of women as well as men, and sharing the joy equally? Absolutely.  

• And would any woman have ever designed a kit which involved white shorts? Again, no.  

Having the right women and the right men around the table, people who all understand the real value of sport, would have ensured that equality was built in from day one. Girls and boys would be playing team sports in equal measure up and down the country, in local clubs and at school, and it would be an entirely normal part of growing up. 

Women’s lived experience must be an equal part of the decision-making process within sport. We will continue to perpetuate the exclusion of women and girls from sport until this happens. 

We must ensure that women, as half the population, are half the decision makers in sport. Our work shows that a 50:50 team at the top of an organisation creates the most positive, productive and inclusive culture overall. 

2. Who is leading sport?  

Quite simply, the small number of women in senior coaching and leadership roles in sport is unacceptable. Across the biggest sports in the UK, nearly all senior posts are held by men – including for many women’s teams. A recent count of leaders in the top twenty sports by participation in England showed that across the key roles of CEO, Chair and Performance Director just 17% were women. Recent research looking specifically at men’s football, our national game, showed that 40% of Premier League clubs and 83% of English Football League clubs had all male boards. These roles are vital not just because they are amongst the most senior but because of the impact they have on setting the culture of an organisation, and by extension of sport as a whole.  

Across the wider sports landscape, the picture is similar. According to data from the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity, just 18% of companies in the sport and physical activity sector are run by women whilst 28% of directors of companies in the sector are female. Equal leadership in sport is not just International Federations and National Governing Bodies but is the business of sport too. We need women designing kit, running facilities, developing training, opening gyms and everything else that makes up the full range of activity across sport.  

3. What needs to change?

It is still the case that the great majority of unpaid work in the home falls to women, whether that be caring, cooking or cleaning. Women are conditioned from their early girlhood to expect to carry this responsibility, and men are conditioned as boys to expect them to. Our research with midlife women showed how this pressure mounts. Its draw on their time deprives women of time for joyful exercise and makes it more difficult for women in all sectors to progress at work. We need to see cultural and systemic change across society to fully address this. 

There is much that sport could do to get its own house in order, and if sport gets it right it can have a wider impact on society. At a time when society is finally waking up to women’s sport, there has never been a better opportunity for sport as a sector to show that it is committed to women being involved in the boardroom as well as on the pitch.  

The federal structures that govern many sports from grassroots levels up are outdated, and lead to expectations which, arguably, don’t work for men or women today. With participation in these structures making up the first steps on the ladder for many leadership roles, they must be fit for purpose and must enable women to thrive. The principle of creating systems and culture that make women feel like they belong must be at the heart of change. There is no point in appointing a woman to a role in a culture that is so hostile she will not stay in it. So crucially, initiatives that aim to get more women into leadership roles must focus on the attitudes and understanding of those currently in power, as well as within the system, rather than those who aspire to join them. Cultural change is tough, and it takes a long time, but it is the only way that meaningful improvement will happen. 

4. No excuses: it’s time for 50%  

There should be 50% representation of women in leadership positions within sport. Governments across the UK should introduce this as a requirement for any and all public funding going into sports organisations. The Australian Government has recently announced that it is doing exactly this: requiring equal leadership for all national and state level sports organisations as a condition of Government funding from 1st July 2027.

We believe that the Codes of Sport Governance, that recipients of government funding across the UK must operate within, should:   

• Require a minimum of 50% female representation on boards of sports and leisure organisations that receive public money as a mandatory condition.  

• Require measurable action plans from grant recipients, for both board and senior staff roles, with targets that organisations can report against and that are closely monitored by the sports councils, with consequences for those who fall behind.  

5. Women and girls belong in sport 

All of this matters, because sport matters to women and girls. 

Sport can transform lives. It can give girls and women resilience, courage, self-belief and a sense of belonging. However, it is still the case that it is normal for women and girls to miss out disproportionately on the joy, fulfilment and lifelong benefits of sport throughout their lives.    

Women and girls are less active at every stage of their lives. The gender activity gap is wider than it’s been since reporting began. Inactivity levels among women have increased, with 27% of women doing less than 30 minutes of activity a week. There is a particular gap around team sport, with just 3% of women taking part. When it comes to children, 22% fewer girls than boys take part in team sport.  

The result of this can be seen in the staggering physical and mental health inequalities that women face. 90% of those hospitalised with eating disorders are female. Self-harm is more than twice as likely in young women. Two million women in England and Wales have osteoporosis. Half of women over 50 will break a bone because of this disease, compared to 20% of men.  

Women and girls are suffering because of the gender play gap. But it doesn’t have to be this way.