Pressure through the threat of withheld funding is being brought to bear in Britain on sports governing bodies that do not have sufficient representation of women on their boards.
The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation has called for a target of one in four board members to be women by 2017.  The figure is taken from a major report on the governance of Britain’s largest companies which called for that target to be reached by 2015.
The Foundation published details of board composition earlier this year which showed British Cycling, lauded though it is for performance, has no women on it’s board.  The Rugby Football Union and the Football Association have only 6% while the governing bodies of Athletics, Cricket and Tennis have 11%, 14% and 17% respectively.
Women’s sport in general presents some of the greatest opportunities for growth and international achievement here in the coming years.
The creation of role models for young women to stay in sport through their teenage years will have benefits for the health of the nation and our competitiveness on the fields of play.
There is not enough financial investment made in women’s sport and there is not enough attention given to it either in media or in discussions around commercial partnerships.
One of the drivers for such discussion to take place is for women to take a greater representative role on sporting bodies.
The implementation of coercive measures and formal quota’s in order to qualify for full funding is hardly the optimum way forward but depending on the willingness, and the hard evidence of such willingness, of sports governing bodies to recognise equality at every level, it is a path which may be needed in order to ensure that representation reflects society’s broad mix in a real way.
This is a subject which Sport for Business will return to in the coming weeks and months.  If you have a view on the issues raised or would like to add to the debate, please fell free to get in touch.
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