Images of female leadership in sport

Images of Female Leadership in Sport. Female leadership represents a scarcity in sport as well as in most other male dominated institutions. The research body on leadership indicates leadership skills often associated with “heroic” masculine traits, but seen as gender neutral. I will in this paper highlight images of female leadership reported by male and female leaders in the top echelons of Norwegian sport and discuss in which ways and why leading women in male dominated structures may make a difference. The paper is based on a study of gender relations in sport leadership. The study consists of 16 qualitative interviews among executive board members of Norwegian sports federations. One male and one female board member from 8 of the biggest federations were selected. My theoretical framework includes approaches employed in feminist organization sociology analyzing the gendering of leadership. The discourses related to images of female leadership seem to indicate that both male and female leaders had experienced that female leadership most often made a difference. Most of the informants agreed on most of the characteristics of how female leaders relate to and handle their positions, but the explanations linked to women’s different approaches to leadership differed and were shaped by gender. Men often explained different characteristics and approaches as a result of personal skills, experiences and choices, while women explanations in most cases highlighted different approaches caused by cultural and structural inequalities.