Farrer & Co Women in Sport - Report - Page 20
England women’s cricket team holding the ICC Women’s World Cup Cricket trophy outside 10 Downing Street, August 2017.
Positive action will
tap true success
Words by Katie Lancaster
The protections provided in sex
discrimination law are not specific to
women. They could equally apply to
men, but as an employment lawyer
advising sports sector clients, I have
never known a case where a man was
challenging a situation on the basis of
sex discrimination, even though it is
theoretically possible. The main issue
of gender equality in sport is that of
a lack of women in leadership and at
board level.
Discrimination is not necessarily
direct discrimination, and it is rare
for there to be a single act of direct
discrimination. However, you do
typically see a combination of a
number of issues that ultimately
demonstrate to an individual that
a situation is not fair and that this is
connected, for example, to their sex
or their race. Often, this may be due
to subconscious bias, but it can still
constitute discrimination.
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We need to start asking
where candidates are being
drawn from; how they
get recommended for
a position; and identify
where people in leadership
roles are meeting other
people in leadership roles.
The cause of unequal treatment
is commonly the culture of an
organisation. Cultural change is
therefore a very important part of
achieving more equal outcomes.
When we think about leadership roles in
organisations, it is unlikely that someone
has been told they will not get a position
because they are female. It is likely to
be the smaller things: the “fit”; the way
the applicant’s experience was treated
and assessed; and whether those making
the appointment feel “comfortable” with
the candidate – all, incidentally, often
textbook examples of subconscious bias.
To counter such issues, we need
to start asking where candidates
are being drawn from; how they get
recommended for a position; and
identify where people in leadership
roles are meeting other people in
leadership roles.
That is not just true of gender
equality, but is an issue for diversity
in general. People do recruit in their
own image and are comfortable with
people who move in the same circles.
As we think about the composition
of a board, the risk of getting the
balance wrong is not a legal one.
To look at another sector, the view
that the Financial Conduct Authority
(FCA) takes here is interesting.
The FCA concludes that where a
board is all white male, that may be
actually high risk, because everybody
Women in Sport – Levelling the playing field
