Background: Research has long demonstrated the barriers and challenges that women encounter in the senior leadership of sport (Burton, 2015; Elling et al., 2019; Evans & Pfister, 2021). This includes issues of access to networking opportunities (Katz et al., 2018; Wells & Hancock, 2017), with ‘old boys’ clubs’ being highly prevalent across sport leadership and governance. These homophilous networks work to advance the careers of men whilst excluding women from key decision-making arenas. Building from the importance placed upon networking within broader management scholarship (Benschop, 2009; Berger et al., 2015), our aim was to expand insight about the mechanisms of gendered networking within sport organisations.
Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 British senior postholders (six men and six women) across different international federations (IFs) to provide detailed insight into the role and workings of gendered networking for career advancement in international sport governance.
Results: We present a ‘5 P’s typology’ that represents participants’ (gendered) reflections on the strategies and mechanisms that characterise networking in international sport governance: profile (building a strong networking profile); place (accessing influential networking spaces); personal (influence of gender and other social characteristics on networking experiences and outcomes); professional (agenda-driven networking on behalf of an organisation, nation, or social group); and power (knowing who key influencers are and focusing networking efforts towards these individuals).
Conclusion: There are complex and nuanced ways in which networking plays out in IFs across the ‘5 P’s’, which makes it a challenging and inequitable practice to effectively carry out. Underpinned by sociological theories, we provide practical advice for prospective networking training to not only benefit individual postholders and organisations, but also make international sport governance more inclusive as a whole.