Farrer & Co Women in Sport - Report - Page 15
Commercial clubs lag
significantly behind the
governing bodies for
female representation
Percentage of NGBs and
professional clubs that
have met the 30% target
for female representation
National Governing Bodies
National Governing Bodies
•
•
72% have met the 30%
target and 37% have a
woman in a leadership
position on the board
Women
Men
35%
Commercial Clubs
Professional Clubs
•
•
Only 3% of commercial clubs
have met a 30% target, and 8%
have a woman in a leadership
position on the board
Women
Men
8%
Football: close to an own-goal
• In Premier League football clubs, an
average of 10% of the board is female,
only one club has met the 30% target
and 20% of clubs have a woman in
a leadership position on the board
• No Championship League football
club has met the target of 30%
women on the board. The average
is 5%. Only 4% have a woman in
a leadership position on the board
• For all football clubs taken together,
7% of boards are female, just 2% of
clubs have met the 30% target, and
only 11% of clubs have a woman in
a leadership position on the board.
Rugby and cricket: the current picture
• The average for county cricket club
boards overall is 10% female with all
clubs having less than 20% female
representation at board level. No
county cricket club has met the 30%
target, and just one club has a woman
in a leadership position on its board
• Within Rugby Union’s Premiership
overall, only an average of 10% of the
boards are female, and just one club
has met the 30% target. No club has
a woman in a leadership position on
the board.
Farrer & Co
It is an accepted fact that diverse
boards perform better. As Nick Bitel
notes in his foreword to the latest Sport
England report on this topic, companies
in the top quartile for gender diversity
are 15% more profitable.
With some notable exceptions,
including Tottenham Hotspur and Exeter
Chiefs, it is evident that the biggest
challenge here lies with the commercial
sports clubs, who are lagging behind
the NGBs. But if they can meet that
challenge, the potential future benefits
to these clubs’ business is huge. And
in a sense, they are lucky, in that the
national governing bodies have shown
the way and can point to significant
progress in diversifying their boards.
72%
3%
At a glance
Positive discrimination is illegal, but
positive action is not, and achieves
more equal outcomes
Governing bodies and clubs of
Olympic-recognised sports on
average out-perform other sports on
the gender balance of their boards
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