Gender equality in sports is a critical goal – and an important one for all of us. No one should be denied the joy, fulfilment and lifelong health benefits that sport can provide simply because they are female or a minority. Unfortunately, gender inequality in sports still persists, and is influenced by numerous factors. These include stereotypes and biases, a lack of resources, barriers and needs. It is vital that collaborative organisations and the media play a role in this by actively promoting a more inclusive environment in their sports activities and reporting on them.
The enduring assumption that men are better at sports than women needs to be abandoned. This can be achieved by supporting girls’ participation in sport at a young age, encouraging parents to view playing sports as an essential activity for their daughters and sons, and by ensuring that the image of female athletes is represented fairly and accurately across the media.
While the #MeToo and #SeAcabo movements have helped to bring gender inequality in sports into the public eye, there is much more that can be done. Changing attitudes and perceptions can only be achieved through consistent and targeted campaigning that is focused on the issues that matter to people.
This article aims to fill a quantitative gap in the field by analysing Europeans’ attitudes towards gender equality in sport, using data from Special Eurobarometer 525 (2022). Fuzzy-Hybrid TOPSIS is used to generate a synthetic indicator of attitudes toward gender equity in sport (ATGEQS), and Latent Profile Analysis and Multinomial Logistic Regression are employed to identify the main determinants of these attitudes.