Gender Diversity in Sport Leadership: A Review of United States of America National Governing Bodies of Sport

This article examines the gender diversity within the governance structures of the National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) that fall under the remit of the United States Olympic Committee. This article employs Kanter’s (1977) theory of Critical Mass to examine female representation within leadership positions held in NGBs. By categorising female representation into one of Kanter’s four groups; Uniformed, Skewed, Tilted and Balanced, the article examines whether female inclusion in leadership has any impact on the NGB achieving gender membership benchmarks. Data were obtained from the USOC’s Diversity and Inclusion Scorecard. The results indicate that females are largely under-represented in leadership roles within NGBs. However, the data indicates a positive correlation between female representation in the leadership structure of NGBs, and the ability of the NGB to achieve female membership benchmarks. The study concludes that as well as supporting the ethical case for female representation, the findings highlight a clear business performance case for greater gender diversity