How to achieve gender balance in boards of sport organizations.

Abstract

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine how to achieve gender balance in boards of sport organizations. To investigate this the researcher investigated which gender balance initiatives existed today, the success rate of them and how many of the boards that were gender balanced today. The research was limited to Norwegian sport organizations. The study aims to produce a list of recommended gender balance initiatives that should be implemented to improve the gender balance. An overview of the existing literature on the historical and social perspectives on gender balance, myths and truths about gender balance and gender balance initiatives was undertaken. Afterwards the study was carried out by interviewing six Norwegian sport organizations and a review of second- hand data. The interviews discovered which gender balance initiatives the organization had implemented and their experience with them. Then followed an analysis of the gender balance performance of the different organizations and a discussion where the experience from the sport organizations either substantiated or undermined the existing literature. The results of the interviews showed that some of the organizations had implemented many initiatives, while other struggled stating why they thought having gender balance was important. There were connections between having implemented gender balance regulations in the bylaws and having a gender balanced board. Other connections were that those who could not address why they worked on gender balance, the number of initiated initiatives and the gender balance in the board. However, there were also connections between having a skewed gender distribution in the membership and an unbalanced board. The recommended initiatives included making a strategy which outlines why and how to work with gender balance and implementing regulations in the organization’s bylaws among other things.