Sixth annual Gender Discrimination Report sends Australia's sporting bodies to the Sin Bin. "Today's boardroom looks more like a locker room" says Gender Advocate and report author Michelle Redfern
Women working in sport are handicapped by a structural 13.1% pay gap and lack of access to senior roles
Redfern challenges male sports opinion makers to "feel the weight of this injustice" by wearing a bra that weighs 13.1% of the average Australian male body weight
Setting goals is not the same as scoring goals, she adds, as 83% of men working in sport believe gender discrimination is not tolerated in their workplace. "Six years on, this isn't a conversation about gender equality. It's a conversation about match fixing."
Melbourne, 3 December 2024, As Australia gears up for another summer of sport, women working for Australian sporting organisations are carrying a handicap of a structural 13.1% pay deficit versus their male counterparts according to the sixth annual Advancing Women in Sport report.
According to the report, representation of women at every level of sports administration has either plateaued or worsened in the last twelve months, prompting fears that boardrooms are locker rooms.
Chair-level positions for women have reversed all gains made since 2022, directorships for women have shown a steady two-year decline and the number of business and key management posts held by women have also fallen. Only the number of CEO posts held by women have stayed stable. All this, despite more women than men working in sports administration. The gender pay gap currently stands at an average of 13.1%.
Report author Michelle Redfern said: "When I launched this annual report six years ago, I assumed that there would be slow but steady progress towards equality. Sadly, this isn't the case. In fact, things have started to get worse. Sports management teams need to take a leaf out of the players' book and start scoring goals instead of just setting them."
Astonishingly, despite the findings, 83% of men working in sports administration believe that gender discrimination is not tolerated in their workplace.
Michelle Redfern added: "Pay, of course, is only one measure and sadly it's probably the one that is the most flattering to progress. At senior levels in sport, men outnumber women by a staggering 9 to 1. If this was expressed as a slope on a rugby league pitch, women would have to climb 17 storeys to even have a chance of scoring a try."
The report also finds that a mere 16% of sports employers have set a target to increase the representation of women on their governing bodies. Only 13% of sports board chairs are women.
In the preface to the report, Michelle Redfern writes:
"Imagine if you knew in advance that you would only ever come second in a competition.
Imagine if at the start of every game you lost the toss and knew that you'd be running uphill to your opponent's goal or try line for the entire match.
Any Australian sports fan knows that in sports, handicapping is applied selectively and unusually. The handicap in Australian sports administration is carried entirely by women, already grossly underrepresented. They carry the weight, pro rata, of a 13.1% deficit in salary. That's the same as working for a month and a half every year for no pay versus the blokes.
In any sport, if the clear, historic, structural underdog carried 13.1% more weight during competition (and in some cases, much more), there would be public enquiries and legislation to prevent this terrible injustice.
Let's not confuse conversation with action. The tilts on the playing field need to be corrected urgently as matters of fair play and ethics. We've come to refer to this issue as 'gender equality'. Perhaps it's time to call it what it is: 'match fixing'."
Key Facts:
- Women working for Australian sporting organisations are carrying a handicap of a structural 13.1% pay deficit versus their male counterparts according to the sixth annual Advancing Women in Sport report.
- Gender advocate Michelle Redfern challenges male sports opinion makers to "feel the weight of this injustice" by wearing a bra that weighs 13.1% of the average Australian male body weight
- According to the report, representation of women at every level of sports administration has either plateaued or worsened in the last twelve months, prompting fears that boardrooms are locker rooms.
About us:
Michelle Redfern is an award-winning advisor and experienced facilitator. She is a leading advocate for women's advancement and DEI and has been recognised as one of Australia's Top 100 Women of Influence. She has won many awards for her contributions to women in business and sport. Michelle's life work is to help close the global leadership gender gap and help women reach their full potential. She is also committed to helping workplace leaders create and sustain workplaces that work for every human.
