Gender equality in sports is essential to achieving a level playing field for everyone who wishes to participate and excel in sports. The prevailing stereotypes of men as superior athletes to women have alienated many girls and boys from participation and led to the glaring disparities that persist in the world of sports today, including: gender-based pay disparities (e.g., US Women’s soccer captain Megan Rapinoe earning forty times less than her male counterparts), lack of women in technical and senior management positions (management and training), gender gap in the professionalization of sport, limited media visibility for female athletes, and insufficient funding for women’s teams.
Many of these challenges can be addressed by taking a holistic approach, addressing all areas of the sports landscape. Bar-Anderson and colleagues highlight the key role of education as a tool for combating gender discrimination, while del Valle et al. examine the underlying structural drivers of gender inequality in school-based athletics and advocate for transformative pedagogical practices. In contrast, Ottogalli-Mazzacavallo et al. delve into the antiquated dichotomy between ‘vigorous’ pursuits reserved for boys and ‘aesthetic’ activities relegated to girls, arguing that this curricular paradigm undermines women’s sports participation.
A recent study uses Fuzzy-Hybrid TOPSIS and Latent Profile Analysis to analyse the Europeans’ Attitudes towards Gender Equality in Sports (ATGEQS). The results show that a substantial proportion of the public endorses the notion that equal opportunities for men and women in sport is a good thing. However, the political divide reveals an ideological split, with left-wing respondents favouring the idea more than right-wing ones. This suggests that gender equality in sports has a political dimension and is subject to rapid social change.