Can female sport administrators be “ideal leaders”?

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In the article, Sport, women, and leadership: Results of a project on executives in German sports organizations, Gertrud Pfister and Sabine Radtke researched why there are uneven gender ratios within German sport federations. The authors looked at the socio-demography that makes up the “ideal leaders” in German sport federations. The definition of an “ideal leader” does not seem to fit females that are married with children. Data was collected by survey and of the 697 surveys sent out 413 German sport executives replied, 341 males and 72 females.

Socio-demographic traits of reviewed respondents:

• Age
  • Over 80% of the executive board members were between 41 and 70 years old
  • A majority of the females were between 41 and 50 years old
  • On average the women were five years younger than their male counterparts
• Education and Occupation
  • Survey respondents were highly educated and had higher than average income which relates to a higher socio-economic status and the ability to participate in voluntary work.
• Marital status and Family situation
  • 87% of male respondents were married while only 57% of females were married
  • More women than men were divorced and 20% of females were single while only 6% of the males were single
  • 17% of males had no children compared to 33% of females
  • 91% of males responded their partners were primary care-givers for children while only 17% of females responded that their partners were the primary caregiver
  • 41% of female interrupted careers to look after children while a mere 0.9% of males did
• Lifelong commitment to sports
  • 95% of respondents participated in sports during youth and 87% still participated in sport activities
  • Male sport club membership was 32% compared to 20% for females between the ages of 41-60 years
  • Ages 61 and above is 11% and 23% respectively

Obstacles for women to become an “ideal leader”:

• Long terms of office – With no term limit for these executive positions the status quo of older males in office is maintained. Retirement or death is the only way positions open up.
• Recruitment/Election process for a leadership position - The recruitment and election process for these positions require male members to endorse a female for the position, but this can be difficult, unless the position is for the female division of the organization. There are 591 males compared to 106 out the 697 total members which are about 84% males versus 15% female members which put extreme odds against female executives.
• Demand of time required by an “ideal leader” - The demands of time required for office are easier for men to comply with because they do not have to manage the home life and they have time to engage in the “social life” of being an “ideal leader”. The majority of the female population does not meet the expectations that people have of the “ideal leader” because of views of availability of time or close ties with sports for females.
• “Ideal leader” versus an “Ideal mother”- Most of the female executives were single with no children or divorced with older children because this allows for more time commitment to the voluntary position. There were a few women that were married with children in these voluntary leadership positions, but this is only possible because they have a supportive spouse to help with home life.

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p>The study reveals most of the leader positions are filled by older men that are well-educated with high income, are married with a spouse to care for the children, have been involved in sports their entire life and have free time to deal with the demands of being an “ideal leader”.

The purpose of this post is to not depress women about their chances of being in high level sport offices, but to make them aware of the obstacles so that they can be prepared to face them in pursuit of becoming an “ideal leader” for sports and to help eliminate these obstacles for future female sport leaders. This study was done for German sport federations for sport executives in voluntary offices, but this study can relate socially to the United States gender norms as well as sport organizations with paid positions. As of now, a supportive spouse and a slow change of the status quo will allow for more married women with children to be involved in the leadership of sport organizations. This struggle is similar across the world for female sport administrators, but what else can women do to help speed up the change of the status quo and to get more female sports leaders and administrators?

Reference

Pfister, G., & Radtke, S. (2009). Sport, women, and leadership: Results of a project on executives in German sports organizations. European Journal of Sport Science, 9(4), 229-243. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

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