Leadership Representation and Experiences of Women in National Sport Governing Bodies
Abstract
Leadership representation and experiences of the past, current, and future women leaders are important themes to sport researchers and policy makers today. Adopting a multilevel perspective, the dissertation expands a nuanced understanding of why women are lacking in leadership positions in national sport governing bodies. In particular, the purposes of this dissertation are to: (a) examine the relationship among sociocultural factors, institutional factors, and the representation of women in leadership positions within national sport governing bodies; and (b) highlight the lived experiences of the past and current women leaders in both national and international football governing bodies.
To achieve this, I conducted three independent studies and organized the dissertation into five chapters. Chapters I and V were comprised of the overarching introduction and discussion of the dissertation, respectively, to answer how each of the three studies associated with one another. In Chapter II, I examined how cultural values influence gender dynamics in national Olympic committees (NOCs). In Chapter III, I extended Chapter II by exploring additional institutional influences, such as economic development, democracy, and religion in a country. In so doing, I provide more fruitful societal explanations and cross-national comparisons in terms of the gender imbalance in leadership representation on NOC boards. Finally, in Chapter IV, I focused on the lived experiences of women in the past and current leadership roles in both national and international football governing bodies.
While each of the three studies provides distinct insights, the overarching message of Chapter II through IV indicates that economic, sociocultural, and political factors as well as gender stereotypes play a role in shaping different representation and experiences of women in leadership positions within sport governing bodies across countries. In particular, findings suggest that researchers explore the potential impacts of other societal factors. For example, researchers can include more than one factor in each of economic, sociocultural, and political influences in connection with women’s representation in sport leadership. Examining the recent version of Hofstede and colleagues’ (2010) cultural values framework, legal aspects, and geographical factors would be a great contribution. Moreover, researchers need to examine the glass cliff phenomenon across various levels of sport governing bodies and should extend investigations to other types of sport organizations.
Finally, the findings address practical implications as well. From the cross-national perspective, government expenditures and plans inform gender initiatives across institutions within a country. Sport policy makers and practitioners should note that democratic functioning, participatory environments, and ideological values from religious freedom could foster a vibrant and diverse leadership landscape within national sport governing bodies. Concerning the glass cliff and gender biases in sport, women professionals or leaders in decision-making should be aware of potential risks in new leadership assignments during times of crisis and downturn. This will eventually protect both themselves and sport governing bodies, but navigate high-risk situations to achieve their growth and ensure gender diversity goals and practices of their organizations.
Subject
Leadership RepresentationCultural Values
GDP per capita
Democracy
Religion
Glass Cliff
Gender Bias
Football
NOC
Sport Governing Bodies
Citation
Ahn, Na Young (2020). Leadership Representation and Experiences of Women in National Sport Governing Bodies. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /193046.