Women in elite sport and exercise medicine face inequality, harassment

Women physiotherapists and doctors working in elite and professional sport are paid less, get less work and face more harassment than men, an Australian-first study by La Trobe University has found. While gender inequity or harassment for sport and exercise medicine (SEM) practitioners in elite sport has been perceived for a long time, this is the first comprehensive study of women’s experiences in the field.

The study, published today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, surveyed 223 people, 68% of whom were physiotherapists, 61% working in elite sport, and an almost equal number of men and women.

Study lead, Dr. Sallie Cowan, Senior Research Fellow at La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, said the results highlighted a hard truth, “It’s hard to be a woman in the elite sport and exercise management workplace.”

“Women physios and doctors working in elite sport in Australia experience significantly more gender inequality and harassment than men. They also work less paid hours per week and less paid weeks per year than men,” Dr. Cowan said.

“Men are also more likely to work with men athletes—reflecting their dominance in Australian SEM roles—and roles with men’s teams are commonly considered more prestigious and are better paid.”

The report says the under representation of women in sports leadership is a significant problem that exacerbates/reflects gender inequity, enables gender harassment and discrimination, and undermines the participation and aspiration of women and girls in the sports domain.

It highlights cultural, structural, organizational and personal barriers to women entering and sustaining SEM leadership roles, including gender stereotypes, inadequate childcare, inflexible working hours, hierarchical structures, and a lack of appropriate training and mentoring.

“While some of these barriers also present challenges for men, the impact of those barriers is disproportionately greater for women who spend twice as much time as men undertaking childcare and unpaid household work,” the report says. “Women SEM physicians world-wide perceive significantly more disrespectful attitudes, have their judgment questioned and are sexually harassed more than their men counterparts.”

Study participants highlighted their own experiences of discrimination within the industry. “I have applied for many performance roles and have lost every one of them to males, many less qualified than myself. This includes roles with women’s high-performance teams. I’ve heard female athletes refer to their medical team as ‘the boys’ club.’ The female athletes have asked for female health professionals (or at least one) and have an entire medical team of males,” says a 37-year-old woman working in elite sport.

“I have in the past felt a bias towards ‘women work with women’s teams and men work with men’s teams.’ In general, in the AFL system, the sports med team is paid approx 50% less than the men’s program staff,” says a 30-year-old woman working in elite sport.

“I am white heterosexual male and accept a decent percentage of my career success is due to privilege that others may not have had,” says a 52-year-old man working in elite sport.

“You have to work twice as hard as a female to show that you are competent,” says a 44-year-old woman working in elite sport.

Dr. Cowan said the longstanding gender inequity and harassment in the SEM workplace must be acknowledged, and organizations need to do better to break the cycle so the pattern is not repeated for future generations. The report calls for affirmative action to eliminate gender bias in the sport and exercise management workplace.

The authors say elite sporting organizations must:

• Recognize and address gender harassment in the workplace
• Set targets for gender equality
• Say no to gender pay inequity
• Establish formal and transparent recruitment processes for equitable access to SEM careers in elite sport