Gender relations in Scandinavian sport organizations – a comparison of the situation and the policies in Denmark, Norway and Sweden

Abstract

This essay examines the under-representation of females on executive boards in sport in the Scandinavian countries at all levels except the sports club. Hitherto, there has been no comparative research at all in Scandinavia on this subject. The explanations of this under-representation are linked to individual actors as well as organization-centred perspectives. The similarities and differences in Denmark, Norway and Sweden are explained in the light of gender policy in society at large and within the respective sports organizations. This gives plausible explanations for why female Danish sports leaders are less concerned with equality questions than their male counterparts. This is different to the situation in Sweden and Norway where women are more concerned with equality questions than the men. Equal opportunity plans in Sweden and quota schemes in Norway seem to have had an influence on attitudes towards equal opportunities in sports organizations.

Notes

¹ Ministerium fûr Städtebau und Wohnen, Kultur und Sport des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, The Challenge of Change.

² For technical reasons, the response rate in the Danish study refers to the whole sample, which included the four main organizations (DIF, DGI, DFIF and Team Denmark) and the members of specific committees.

³ This is a questionnaire sent by e-mail to all participants in the survey. A licence is necessary to use it. For the respondents it is easy to fill in, and the data is transported directly to SPSS.

⁴ Ottesen, Habermann and Pfister, Kvinder på toppen – om kvinder, idræt og ledelse. Første delrapport; Ottesen, Habermann and Pfister, Kvinder på toppen – om kvinder, idræt og ledelse. Anden delrapport; Ottesen, Habermann and Pfister, Kvinder på toppen – om kvinder, idræt og ledelse. Tredje delrapport; Skirstad and Rimeslåtten, Norske idrettsledere; Habermann, Kvinnor på toppen – om kvinnor, idrott och ledarskab. Första delrapport; Habermann, ‘Kvinnor på toppen – om kvinnor, idrott och ledarskab. Andra delrapport’.

⁵ In Denmark and Sweden, questionnaires were sent to all senior women officials above club level as well as to a randomly selected sample of an equal number of men. In order to make the results comparable, only the leaders in the executive boards are included in this study. In Norway, the questionnaire was sent to all women and men on the boards, but more women than their share of the membership responded. (Response rate in Denmark: 49% women and 51% men; in Sweden: 53% women and 47% men; and in Norway: 37% female and 63% male).

⁶ It should be noted that some are members of both organizations.

⁷ The same person can be a member of several clubs/federations.

⁸ Individuals can be members of more than one organization. The organizations and their differences are elaborated in other essays in this volume.

⁹ See Hirdman, ‘Genussystemet’, 106.

¹⁰ Hornby, Wehmeier and Ashby, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 1040.

¹¹ Østerud, Goldmann and Pedersen, Statsvitenskapelig leksikon, 116.

¹² See Stinchcombe, ‘Social Structure and Organisations’.

¹³ Sweden has most female presidents (13%), followed by Norway (8%). In Denmark, the proportion of female presidents varies from zero in the DFIF to 22% in the DGI. In 2007, both Sweden and Norway had female presidents in their umbrella organizations.

¹⁴ Tienari et al. , ‘Gender and National Identity Constructions’.

¹⁵ A significant difference.

¹⁶ On the different societal gender roles see, for example, Anttonen, ‘Civil Society’; Tienari et al., ‘Gender and National Identity Constructions’; Lewis, ‘Gender’; Lister, ‘Gender, Citizenship’.

¹⁷ Anttonen, ‘Civil Society’.

¹⁸ Hernes, Welfare State.

¹⁹ Lister, ‘Gender, Citizenship’.

²⁰ Karvonen and Selle, Women in Nordic Politics.

²¹ Denmark adopted the Equal Pay Act in 1976 and the Equal Treatment Act in 1978. The same act was established in Sweden the following year. Denmark subsequently enacted three more laws: the Act of Equal Opportunities for Men and Women on the Appointment of Members of Public Committees, Commissions, etc. in 1985; The Sex Discrimination Act in 1988; and the Act on Equal Opportunities for Men and Women with respect to the Appointment of Members of Certain Executive Committees or Governing Bodies in 1990.

²² Borchorst and Dahlerup, Ligestilling som diskurs og praksis.

²³ For a short time, quotas were imposed for European elections.

²⁴ Dahlerup, Women, Quotas and Politics.

²⁵ Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds.

²⁶ Leira, Welfare States.

²⁷ Tienari et al., ‘Gender and National Identity Constructions’.

²⁸ Trangbæk and Jørgensen, Dansk idrætsliv bind 2.

²⁹ Trangbæk and Jørgensen, Dansk idrætsliv bind 2, 148.

³⁰ The courses which started in Norway by Anne Thidemann were also translated into Danish.

³¹ Fasting and Skou, Developing Equity.

³² Lippe, htpp://www.idrottsforum.org/reviews/items/lip-ger_poulsen_trangbaek..htlm.

³³ Fasting, Kjønnsroller og idrett; Fasting, ‘Idrettspolitik og kvinnepolitikk’; Skirstad and Rimeslåtten, Norske idrettsledere.

³⁴ http://www.norskidrett.no/t2.aspx?p = 26797. This version was enacted in 2004.

³⁵ SOU, Varannan Damernas, 19.

³⁶ Riksidrottsförbundet, Tiden hjälper till – men räcker inte, 14.

³⁷ Riksidrottsförbundet, Kvinnor och män innom idrotten 2003.

³⁸ Riksidrottsförbundet, Idrottens jämstalldhetsplan.

³⁹ To our knowledge, little has been done to date to study the problem at the level of the local clubs. One exception is the Danish study of the Skovlunde Sporting Association (‘Skovlunde Idræts-Forening’), published by Laila Ottesen in 1986 and 1989. Further exceptions are the 1999 and 2001 Norwegian studies of sports clubs by Seippel and Enjolras, Frivillighet, and Seippel and Enjolras, Norske idrettslag 2003, as well as the 2003 study by Seippel, Norske idrettslag 2002.

⁴⁰ See Anttonen, ‘Civil Society’.

⁴¹ Fasting, Kjønnsroller og idrett; Bonke, Tid og velfærd.

⁴² Borchorst and Dahlerup, Ligestilling som diskurs og praksis.

⁴³ Borchorst and Dahlerup, Ligestilling som diskurs og praksis