Addressing Gender Inequity in Australian Sports Leadership: A Postfeminist Policy Paradox

Abstract

Despite the growth in women's sport, decision-making positions in sports organizations remain dominated by men. This paper examines efforts to improve gender balance in roles of leadership using two Australian governing bodies as case studies. To understand how organizations address gender disparities in leadership and high-performance coaching roles, we analyze public-facing strategies and data collected through interviews with participants working in these organizations. Our findings capture how plans and practices tend to frame gender inequity as an individual problem rather than as an institutional or structural one, reflecting core features that scholars explain as postfeminist. Specifically, initiatives primarily focus on enhancing the skills and professional experience of individual women rather than addressing institutional structures that perpetuate gendered forms of inequality. Accordingly, we argue, a policy paradox emerges in that gender equity initiatives can enshrine practices and values that prevent the realization of gender equity, because they direct attention away from institutional issues that contribute to and maintain gendered hierarchies. We conclude by reflecting on how these observations reveal a regulatory pathology, which presents additional challenges for redressing these inequities in sports organizations. Show more