Social Sustainability in the Finnish Sport Field - is the field of sport gender equal?

Abstract: The importance of actions towards sustainable operations and corporate social responsibility has increased over the years, and the awareness of the phenomenon has increased. Good environmental-, economic- and social actions are all essential in order to achieve sustainable development. Social sustainability as a part of sustainable development seems to be overlooked or underrepresented area in the field of sport and exercise research, especially in Finland. In this research gender equality is seen as an aspect within social sustainability, and the deeper focus is in it. In Finland, gender equality has gone far, but issues have also raised and for instance women are minority when it comes to decision-making regarding sport and physical activity. This research aims to examine and problematize how and if social sustainability, with a focus on gender equality is perceived and experienced in Finnish sport organisations and their practices. Furthermore, this study examines the role and possible potential of Finnish Olympic Committee’s guidelines regarding equality and equal opportunity in sport. The research follows a qualitative case study approach. Five people working in different Finnish sport organizations participated in the research. Semi structured written interviews were conducted to obtain data, and thematic analysis was used to interpret the data from the interviews. The concepts of social sustainability, gender equality and gender theory by Meyerson and Kolb was applied as a theoretical framework. In the Finnish sport field, social sustainability and its aspects are acknowledged and perceived important regarding responsible actions in and towards communities and society. Organizational practices are perceived equal, but issues are recognized in sport practices and sports themselves. The direction seems to be towards neutralizing gender and seeing and treating everyone as individuals over genders. Guidance is perceived important and useful, but more different level cooperation is hoped, especially when considering larger issues like gendered sports. The imbalanced numbers in representation of genders does not seem to impact on how the practices within the sport organizations are perceived. The main gender issues are caused by gender norms in sport, and in order to shape those, it requires larger push from more powerful operators.