Improving gender balance on community sporting club committees

Research purpose

Community sporting clubs are often governed by committees or boards, represented by volunteers connected to the club. When clubs have a diverse representation of people on their committee or board, they can better understand the needs of all their members and represent their local community.

This research aimed to investigate the impacts on community sporting clubs of the state level Balance the Board Policy. This Victorian Government policy aims to support increased representation of women on boards across Victoria’s sport and active recreation sector, requiring all recognised Victorian sport and active recreation bodies to have a minimum of 40% women directors on its board to be eligible to apply for the Victorian Government’s Community Sport funding programs.

It included interviews with 14 state sporting association leaders, 21 community sporting club leaders, and surveys from 90 committee members of community sporting clubs.

This research was undertaken by Deakin University, funded through the Change Our Game Research Grants Program. It was released in May 2025.

Key findings

The Balance the Board Policy has supported awareness amongst community sporting clubs about the importance of women’s representation in leadership roles within their club, including on their committee or board.

The research found that clubs with higher awareness of the importance of women's representation in leadership roles strove to enhance the representation of women on their committee. Clubs' willingness to take action was based on their awareness and capability.

Strategies to increase women's representation

Below are a range of strategies to increase women’s representation on community sporting club committees. No matter what level of awareness a club has about the importance of women in leadership, community sporting clubs, state sporting associations and local councils can take steps to increase women's representation.

Community sporting clubs

Community sporting clubs can take a number of actions to improve women’s representation on their club committees. These include the below actions:

• promote women’s representation
• challenge gender norms
• foster intersectional representation
• establish leadership networks and mentorship opportunities for women
• clarify committee roles and distributing workload evenly
• offer flexible options for club meetings.

State Sporting Associations

State sporting associations can support their community clubs to improve women’s representation on club committees.

• communicate the importance of women’s representation to community sporting clubs
• provide resources to support women's representation on club committees
• increase capability and networks for women leaders
• highlight the importance of intersectionality.

Local councils

Local councils can support community sporting club committees to increase women's representation.

• invest in gender, diversity and inclusion training
• support knowledge sharing and leadership transition
• encourage cross-sport collaboration
• provide programs that engage women and girls as players
• ensure equal access to facilities and conduct safety audits.