Whether you love it or hate it, there’s nothing that can shift the mood of this nation like sport.
Sport doesn’t just reflect Australian identity; it actively shapes it.
So, if a key part of our sporting system isn’t keeping up, what does that say about us? Are we still holding on to outdated ways of thinking?
Case in point, the continued underrepresentation of women in the most senior leadership roles in Australian sport.
Of the seven major professional and participation national sporting organisations, only one – Netball Australia – currently has a woman as its permanent CEO, in Stacey West.
Stacey has been joined in recent days by Heather Garriock, appointed on an interim basis to lead Football Australia following the departure of its CEO. This grand total of two matches the previous short-lived peak in 2017, when Raelene Castle led Rugby Australia and Marne Fechner led Netball Australia.
If we look to the professional football codes, Jennifer Watt remains the sole woman CEO of an AFL club. No NRL club currently has a woman CEO – and in fact, a woman hasn’t led an NRL club since 2017. That woman? Once again, Raelene Castle.
In the round ball game, only two standalone A-League clubs in Australia are currently led by women, in Caroline Carnegie and the newly appointed Tain Drinkwater at Melbourne Victory and Newcastle Jets respectively.
For anyone counting, that’s four women in permanent CEO roles.
From 52 roles.
In other words, only eight per cent of Australia’s largest sports and teams are led by women CEOs.
For the 40 organisations receiving the most funding from the Australian Sports Commission in 2024-25, only 22 per cent have women in permanent CEO roles.
In 2005, this number was 13 per cent, meaning that in almost 20 years, we’ve only seen a 9 per cent uplift.
The sad truth of recent years is, as many women have left sport CEO roles than the total number in those roles today.
Despite the ongoing transformation of opportunities for women in sport, Australia continues to struggle to appoint and, more importantly, keep women in the highest levels of its leadership.
I put to you, the key issue here is not one of recruitment.
It’s about retention.
These incredible women are, far too often, being pushed out just for doing their job. Undermined relentlessly by a system still struggling with accepting women as leaders.
This trend cannot be allowed to continue.
Some major factors at play here – the dynamics of federated governance structures used across Australian sport, and the reality of workplaces not designed with women in mind, through to unpaid care still disproportionally impacting women, and the lingering influence of our national stereotype of what a leader ‘looks like’ – sadly won’t be fixed here today.
But other aspects driving these women away? Those are fundamentally fixable.
I approached more than two dozen women who have held, or continue to hold, CEO roles in sport to find out what questions they believe the next woman stepping into her first CEO interview should be putting to boards.
What came in was a flood of invaluable guidance, hard-fought learnings, and heartbreak, with themes so universal I challenge every board to ask itself these questions when hiring its next CEO – or keeping its current one.
Question 1. What proactive support do you provide to your CEO?
As one woman offered, when a board steps in to provide a lifebuoy to a CEO in rough seas, it’s often too late. The person they’ve realised they need to support is already half-conscious…or already drowned.
Regardless of the gender of an organisation’s leader, boards can consider at the outset how they intend to set their leader for success. Is it mentoring? Is it access to new networks? Is it by contemplating how they intend to support their general wellbeing?
Question 2. How do you plan to have your CEO’s back when *it* hits the fan?
It doesn’t matter how well an organisation is run, it is only a matter of time until something happens.
Have you reflected on how you did – or did not – have your CEO’s back in a hard time? How, as directors, you managed the inevitable situation when strong characters took aim? Or different opinions emerged?
Can you describe a time when the board actively backed your CEO with a challenging or unpopular decision?
Because if you can’t…why?
Question 3. How would the board describe its own culture?
Just as a board needs to consider how it will support its CEO, it needs to consider what shadow it might be casting.
What are the skills of the board? The gaps? Who are your colourful personalities? Where are your areas of disagreement?
Is there a clear delineation between the responsibilities of the board and the CEO? Is that delineation one that is accepted by all directors? Is it accepted even in times of high stress? Or when areas of personal interest for directors are concerned?
If a CEO moves on – especially one who is a woman – it is too easy to focus on that individual. To point fingers. Reality is, the board’s influence fundamentally shapes that CEO’s experience.
So how can you plan for that influence to be a positive one?
As Australia celebrates women on the field, it must also confront a lack of progress off it.
Elevating more women to executive roles in our largest sporting organisations isn’t just a matter of representation – it’s a necessary step toward a truly inclusive sporting landscape able to realise its full potential.
There is cause for optimism. In Victoria alone, approximately 40% of CEOs of state sporting associations are women. We’re seeing experienced sport leaders securing their first national CEO roles, such as Sarah Loh at Softball Australia and Kim Crane at Paddle Australia. And we’re seeing incredible leaders step into sport, such as Jennie Sager and Emma Moore now leading the WNBL and AFLW respectively.
Now let’s make sure we keep them.
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