Barriers to Senior Leadership Positions for Women in Sport Management: Perceptions of Undergraduate Students and Insights from their Professors
Abstract
A number of researchers have investigated the barriers that women often face in attempting to reach the senior leadership levels in sport management organizations (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014; Burton, Grappendorf & Henderson, 2011; Forsyth, Jones, Duval, & Bambridge, 2019; Kane & LaVoi, 2018; LaVoi & Dutove, 2012). This research extended the work of Hancock, Darvin, and Walker (2018) and focused on aspiring sport leaders at a different stage in their careers, specifically when they were in the senior years of their undergraduate programs. The researcher used the Career Pathways Survey instrument (P. Smith, Crittenden, & Caputi, 2012) to produce interval data from men and women undergraduate sport management students enrolled in one of nine Canadian universities offering a sport management program. The survey gauges the respondents’ perceptions of the barriers that women may face in order to advance in the sport industry. Prior to the onset of the data collection procedures, the students were provided with a context slide that highlighted the men and women currently occupying President and Vice-President positions in sport management, presented in proportionate ratios. The data were analysed across four themes, namely: resilience, denial, acceptance, and resignation. Once the data were collected and analyzed, a focus group meeting was held with sport management professors from the nine universities to assess their reaction to the results and discuss corresponding strategies to ensure that their soon to be graduates understand the benefits of equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion. The results allowed the researcher to conclude that men and women do not have different career expectations for senior leadership, but they do differ with regards to barriers women may face to reach this level. Women felt more strongly than men that a glass ceiling exists for women as they progress in the field. Women also felt more strongly that women do not accept management positions. The two groups did agree that women are often overlooked for promotions due to social and organizational barriers and that women are resilient in their pursuit for senior leadership. Finally, the professors that teach these sport management students agreed that they needed to continue to heighten awareness and sensitivities in their students on the topics of equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion. They believed that they could do this in their classes, meetings, and mentorship sessions.