Supporting Women in Achieving Their Goals (SWinG): Moving towards gender equality in sports governance
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference abstract in proceedings › Research › peer-review
Gender equality in sports governance remains a distant goal, with the pace of progress described by some
as ’glacial.’ Gender Inequality is common at all levels of sport governance, including at the global,
organizational-cultural and interpersonal scales. The ERASMUS+-funded SWinG programme represented
one attempt to challenge this inequality by developing of a model for change, and through mentoring and
empowering women to run for election in sports governance. Ten multi-sectorial programme partners
developed and piloted a new, transferable approach to support aspiring women leaders to be elected into
decision-making positions. As part of the programme, a mentoring programme aligned 20 aspiring sports
leaders with 20 women leaders from the business sector over three years across Europe. We evaluated the
programme using a multi-method, naturalistic evaluation approach utilizing data from multi-point semi-structured interviews and focus groups, analysis of administrative records, timelines and meeting records,
and evaluative surveys. The nine intellectual outputs, webinars and written resources produced during the
programme were well received. Moreover, despite significant disruption to the programme and many
elections due to COVID-19, many programme goals were achieved. Only two mentees did not progress as
intended, whilst eight were elected to decision-making positions and a further six moved towards this goal.
Notably, mentees’ initial misgivings were assuaged by mentors, who often had different perspectives on
barriers to election. Although change was primarily enacted at the interpersonal level during SWinG, future
work will focus upon challenging the wider socio-cultural context of gender inequality in sports governance.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Why Does Sociology Matter? : The Role of Sport Sociology in Interdisciplinary Research |
Number of pages | 1 |
Publisher | European Association for the Sociology of Sport |
Publication date | 2022 |
Pages | 213-2013 |
Article number | 266 |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Event | EASS and ISSA World Congress of Sociology of Sport: The role of sport sociology in interdisciplinary research - Tubingen, Germany Duration: 7 Jun 2022 → 10 Jun 2022 https://issaeass2022.com/ |
Conference
Conference | EASS and ISSA World Congress of Sociology of Sport |
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Land | Germany |
By | Tubingen |
Periode | 07/06/2022 → 10/06/2022 |
Internetadresse |
Links
ID: 320868545