To learn the gender policies applied in the NSFs of the five countries under study, we developed a questionnaire, “Gender equality in the governing boards of national sports federations of Europe”. The questionnaire begins by asking the directors of national federations if their NSFs boards have implemented measures, plans or policies related to gender equality between men and women. In the event that they have implemented policies, the questions that follow try to find out if the federation has a gender equality committee or an equivalent department.
Subsequently, the interviewees are asked to answer questions related to the opportunities for women on the boards of the federations, such as, for example, if the board of the federation provides training opportunities to support females’ advancement, or if the federation tasks are assigned according to gender. Likewise, the questionnaire tries to find out if the directors think that quotas are necessary to promote the participation of women on the boards.
Also, through the study we try to find out the opinions of the directors on whether quotas are necessary to promote the participation of women on the boards. Through this questionnaire it is also intended to learn the influence of women and men in a series of tasks such as finance, public relations, human resource management, organization of events and competitions, management of social media, sports education, or problem-solving, among others.
It is also intended to collect information on the relationships between men and women when resolving conflicts, and their opinions on the policies implemented in the federation. Another aspect addressed by the study is the impact of gender-diverse boards on decision-making and problem-solving. The visibility of women in the media is another of the issues analysed, and whether the size of the federation is appropriate for its operation.
The questionnaire comprised a set of questions about gender policies adopted by the NSF and a final question about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender discrimination. The descriptive analysis of data showed an increased awareness of gender issues among the directors of the NSFs. Most of them recognized the relevance of gender and diversity policies and their implementation in their organizations.
Most of the questions are closed and adopt a Likert scale, on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means “totally disagree” and 10 means “totally agree”. This questionnaire was prepared in English and then translated into the other four languages of the project (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish). Using the Google Survey application, the questionnaire was sent to all the NSFs in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and the UK. More precisely, it was addressed to all the members of the NSFs boards (men and women).
The choice of including also the men among the respondents was due to the requirement to have the broadest possible knowledge of the perspectives, policies, and measures in the corporate governance boards of the NSFs. The questionnaire was delivered throughout 2021, and then we sent a reminder again at the beginning of 2022 to increase the sample size. In each country, a database was generated in its own language, and later translated into English.
Once all the questionnaires had been translated into English, the data from all five countries were merged into a single database on a SPSS Statistics program, and an alphanumeric code was applied to preserve the confidentiality of the data, and follow the guarantees provided in Organic Law 3/2018 on the Protection of Personal Data and Guarantee of Digital Rights. In order to keep the responses confidential, some questions were also removed from the final merged databases.
A total of 137 participants responded to the survey, 13 from Italy, 19 from Turkey, 25 from Portugal, 25 from Spain, and 55 from the UK.
With this data, we also created a database on the Excel program in the Zenodo repository, and wrote an open-access book entitled, “Analysis of gender equality policies in the boards of directors of national sports federations: an exploratory analysis” (2022). Finally, we publicized this book on the website of GESPORT project.
The reference of the database is: Gender policies in sports organizations. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6946107
The database can be downloaded here: