‘We need a whole range of different views’: exploring the lived experiences of women leaders in Australian rules football

Abstract

Sport has traditionally been a male-dominated pastime, where the structures and practices within sport have most often favoured males. More recently, the dynamic of sport has changed and the capabilities of women as athletes and employees (including leaders) are being recognised. While there are ongoing explorations focussing on the barriers that women have faced as a minority group in a male-dominated setting, it is also imperative to acknowledge the positive experiences of women as they navigate such a setting. This paper explores the experiences of 26 women working in traditionally male-dominated leadership positions in the sport of Australian rules football. While these women have faced some challenges relating to gender within their roles, this paper, through a third wave feminist lens, will focus specifically on highlighting the positive experiences of, and changes that are evident for, women in traditionally male-dominated leadership positions in Australian rules football.

Keywords:

• Sport
• women
• Australian rules football
• gender
• equality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The terms ‘Australian rules football’ and ‘football’ are interchangeable in this paper.

2 The national women’s league, the AFLW competition, was not yet formed at the time of the initial research.

3 ‘FD’ refers to ‘Football Department’, the area in which that participant works.

4 The glass ceiling is ‘a term coined by Hymowitz and Schellhardt (1986) in the Wall Street Journal, referring to an invisible but unbreakable obstacle preventing minorities and women from making their way to the top positions in companies, however well qualified they might be’ (as quoted in De Anca and Gabaldon 2014, 337).