Recently, a SportsBusiness Journal article (Dec. 8-14 issue) identified the top 50 most influential people in sport business for the year 2014. In this list, four women were included. Why does this matter? For one, a figure of as low as 8 percent illuminates the lack of awareness regarding the influence and impact women have in sport business. My initial question to the editor was, Were there any women on the panel that voted on the list? This is one of the most simple and obvious strategies to demonstrate “good faith” toward inclusion.
In a year when domestic violence was a central issue, it seemed logical (to me) that a new awareness regarding the need to include women’s voices would have emerged. Seeing only four women listed on the list of 50, or 8 percent, should sound off an alarm. How can an industry as broad-based and expansive as the sport industry be so dismissive of the value women leaders in sport have contributed over this past year?
A number as low as 8 percent representation of women leaders most closely resembles the figures attributed to media coverage of women’s sport, which hover between 4 percent and 7 percent. Unfortunately, it also is in the ballpark of the amount of sponsorship dollars allocated to women’s sport. These two areas are separate issues, because in this case I’m pointing to women’s sport, not women working in sport business. Yet this statement also points to an invisible problem: The sport industry does not value women — whether those women are working in the industry, those women are fans, or those women are simply consumers buying merchandise for their families.
The reality is this invisible problem represents a tremendous opportunity. We all know the stats on women as fans of the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. What we pay far less attention to is the value they bring to the sport business. This is not to say that efforts like “Game Changers” that SportsBusiness Journal hosts each year go unnoticed. In fact, this example helps illuminate the problem. In order to demonstrate that women are valued, “special” and separate events are created to focus on women in the sport business. These events and strategies are important and needed, but the goal needs to be bigger and more expansive than separate lists and special events as a gesture of recognition that women contribute and are valued.
The first step of awareness is key. I suggest now that the bar has been set at 8 percent, or four of 50, in 2014; the goal for 2015 should be to double it. Imagine if eight of the most influential sport leaders out of 50 were women. Perhaps 16 percent sounds like a big number. It certainly would demonstrate a new level of awareness that was not pure happenstance but in fact intentional. If this were to occur, it would point to a warming of the climate women experience when working in the industry, and it would mark a shift in culture, where women are increasingly valued for all that they bring to this industry.
Dr. Nancy Lough
Las Vegas
Lough is a professor in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and past president of the Sport Marketing Association.
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