Revealing and concealing gendered organisational practices : an exploration of the gendered effects of recruitment and selection inequities in Australian sport workplaces

In 2006 the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and Arts References Committee conducted yet another governmental inquiry into the ‘Status of Women in Sport and Recreation in Australia’. The enquiry was an opportunity for continued positive discourse relating to all aspects of women’s involvement in Australian sport. However, the inquiries terms of reference failed to address issues relevant to women’s continued inequitable access to, treatment and involvement in the administration and management of sport. Instead, continuance of a misguided emphasis on the systems/structures preventing women’s full and equitable involvement. Instead, using a gender cultural lens there should be an attempt to understand how within and through everyday organisational practices gender inequities are constructed and reproduced because inequities can be buried within norms, practices and organisational culture