Women’s Representation In Management Positions In Ten Romanian Sports Federations

Abstract

In the contemporary era, due to the women’s ascension to management positions more and more often, studying their representation in various organizations has become a point of interest for many authors. Although statistics in recent years have identified an upward trend in the presence of women in leadership positions, it seems that this is true only for middle-level management, while for senior management positions women still have a very small percentage. These percentages are due to the existing stereotypes according to which women have poor professional training and also greater family responsibility than men. The woman’s path to senior management positions is presented in publications as paved with “glass shavings”. When it comes to women in top management positions, studies abound in concepts involving this element, such as: glass ceiling, glass escalator, glass cliff. The most popular concept is the “glass ceiling”, which signifies the possibility of women’s ascension to management positions only to a certain point. In addition, it is still considered that management activities are traditionally masculine, while women are assigned household and childcare activities. The aim of this paper is to approach women’s representation in management positions and the level of management where they are active, in 10 national sports federations from Romania. In the 10 national sports federations surveyed, women had a representation of 20% for the position of president, 18% for vice-president, 20% for general secretary and 30% for federal coach.