ABSTRACT
Much of the sport and leisure management literature on gender has assumed that increasing numbers of women in sport organisations will magically cure organisations of gender-related discrimination (Hoeber 2004). This is a limited approach, for three main reasons. First, as a consequence of this dominant focus on women, gender-related issues are perceived in sport organisations to be a minority, or women’s, concern, thus relegating gender relations to a women-only issue (Shaw and Hoeber 2003; Staurowsky 1996). Second, a focus on women limits our understanding of gender, as men can also face discrimination based on gendered assumptions (Ely and Meyerson 2000a). Finally, the increasing numbers of women in organisations represents a focus on outcome-based research, which encourages increased numbers of women but has little impact on changing the aspects of sport organisations that have made them inhospitable to women. For example, the second International Conference on Women and Sport in 2000 passed a resolution that urged ‘sports organisations … meet the goal of 10 minimum representation of women in decision-making positions by 31 December 2000 … and ensure that the 20 goal [of representation] for 2005 is maintained and attained’ (International Olympic Committee 2000). Despite the powerful and positive tone of this statement, and its sanction by the International Olympic Committee, little has changed within sport organisations over this period. Indeed, within the IOC itself, only 6 per cent of the overall membership and one out of ten Board members are female in 2005 (International Olympic Committee 2005).
