Issues of gender in sport leadership: reflections from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Globally, a gender gap in sport leadership exists despite global reforms, leadership and key strategic actions. This paper reports on the leadership dimension of the 2021 follow-up study to the 2014 baseline study on gender leadership and participation in sport within southern Africa. It reports on changes over time in selected sports (athletics, basketball, boxing, football, and judo as recorded in the 2014 study, with the addition of netball in the 2021 research) and within five countries (Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe). A purposively selected sample group completed an online survey (N = 41), followed by structured interviews conducted with 45 decision makers from relevant government entities and national sport organisations. Findings indicate that Covid-19 had little effect on leadership composition across organisational types. Government entities spearheaded ‘gender reform’ with 47.7% female representation at the executive level. National Olympic Committees had 24.1% women in leadership and national sport federations 27.7% with the latter showing an increase of 6.7% since 2014. Men dominated in sub-committees (62.2%) and emerged as leaders in netball – a sport featuring 98% female participation. Key recommendations address the gender gap in sport leadership from the regional level.

Keywords:

• Leadership
• sports
• Southern Africa
• gender
• organisations

Acknowledgements

The author hereby acknowledges the support of NIF and particularly Kari Fasting and Diane Huffman, who shared valuable knowledge from the 2014 study. I wish to thank AUSC Region 5 staff for excellent logistical support and funding.

Disclosure statement

There are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 Fasting, Huffman and Sands. ‘2014 Report’. This was the first research within the southern African sport sector undertaken in collaboration with the African Union Sports Council Region 5. The 2021 study is a direct follow-up to this study and serves as an impact assessment of the strategies implemented as per the 2014 report recommendations (IOC 2018, reporting gender status and recommendations for change).

2 IWG Women and Sport (2020, 2021), key policy and strategic documents setting a global agenda for assessing progress on previous action plans (United Nations 2021; UN Women n.d.).

3 Fasting, Pike, et al. (2014), reporting on global progress (1994–2010) and progress by the Women and Sport Movement (2006–2014).

4 Author interview, Representative, Zambia Athletics. August 7, 2021.

5 Author interview, Representative, Zimbabwe Boxing, July 30, 2021.

6 Author interview, Representative, Lesotho Netball, August 27, 2021.

7 Author interview, Representative, Malawi Basketball, August 17, 2021.

8 Author interview, Representative, Football Lesotho, July 26, 2021.

9 Author interview, Representative, Lesotho Athletics, July 30, 2021.

10 Author interview, Representative, Zimbabwe Athletics, September 9, 2021.

11 Author interview, Representative, Lesotho Athletics, July 26, 2021.

12 Author interview, Representative, Zimbabwe Boxing, July 30, 2021.

13 Author interview, Representative, Zambia Athletics, August 8, 2021.

14 Author interview, Representative, Lesotho Football, August 27, 2021.

15 Author interview, Representative, Lesotho Basketball, July 17, 2021.

16 Author interview, Representative, Malawi Basketball, September 7, 2021.

17 Author interview, Representative, South Africa Athletics, August 5, 2021.

18 Author interview, Representative, Lesotho Boxing, July 30, 2021.

19 Briefing of European Parliament, ‘Gender Equality in Sport: Getting Closer Every Day’, European Union, 2019.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 according to the Memorandum of Agreement between the University of Johannesburg and AUSC Region 5 of April 2021.

Notes on contributors

Cora Burnett

Cora Burnett is a professor at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and Director of the UJ Olympic Studies Centre, the only such centre in southern Africa. She has published extensively on sport for development, physical education, and sport stakeholder mapping. She lectures on sport-for-development and has led several international, regional and national seminars across different African countries addressing issues of gender, youth leadership, employability, poverty and development, public violence and stakeholder configurations.