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Violence, sexual harassment and sexism occurs in sport.

Organisations have a responsibility to ensure all players and staff are safe and an interest in minimising legal risks in relation to equal opportunity, discrimination and harassment. This includes not only challenging sexism, but other forms of discrimination such as racism, homophobia and transphobia.

Young women huddled during a sporting match.

We also know that sport has a lot of work to do. Although participation rates for boys and girls are very similar in community sport, women are often underrepresented in Board and Executive positions. In Executive positions women represent 22% of Board Chairs1 and just 13% of CEOs across more than 60 National Sporting Organisations.2

Female high performance coaches represent less than 15%3 of coaches across Australia in the high performance system and women sport media coverage is often less than 8%.4

The benefits to your organisation

Preventing violence against women and promoting gender equality will benefit your staff and organisation. The below points are a few examples of how your organisation can benefit from doing this work.

  • Attract and retain talent and increase performance
  • Save money and increase profits
  • Enhance your understanding of diverse communities and members
  • Minimise risk and ensure overall staff well being
  • Support positive change and enhance your reputation

Next step

Sport's role in preventing violence