06 Jan Gender Equity in Professional Sports

Posted at 17:16h in Etc., Your Career by

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe shone a spotlight on the need for equal pay for women athletes. Turns out equity is also a problem in the senior leadership ranks.

Gaming information website Casino.org researched the number of women in leadership roles of male professional sports teams in the US and the UK, focusing on the highest-ranking officials on each team, whether the board of directors or the executive leadership.

No American teams had more women than men in leadership positions, and 17 percent had no women at all in top leadership roles.

Basketball proved to be the sport where women fared best, holding 23.2 percent of the leadership roles. On the flip side, ice hockey had the fewest women leaders, with only 18.8 percent of senior officials being women.

The city of Pittsburgh has proven to be friendly to women in sports, as women hold half of the leadership roles at both the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. Here’s the percentage of women leaders at the 10 most diverse teams.



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