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Over the past decade, women’s leadership programmes have become one of the sport industry’s most visible responses to the underrepresentation of women in leadership.
The logic seems straightforward. If women are not advancing into senior roles at the same rate as men, perhaps they need more training, more confidence, or more leadership skills.
But where does this assumption come from?
It reflects a long-standing tendency to locate the problem in women rather than in the systems shaping career progression. If women are underrepresented in leadership, the assumption is that they need more development to compete. Many leadership programmes have been built on this premise.
Yet scholars have increasingly questioned approaches that focus exclusively on developing women without addressing the systems in which they work.
A new evaluation of SportsPro’s New Era programme suggests that the greatest value of women’s leadership initiatives may have little to do with leadership training at all.
Instead, the programme’s greatest contribution may have been something far more practical: giving talented women access to the people, networks, and opportunities that transform careers.
The study conducted by researchers at The University of Queensland, explored the experiences of women and non-binary sport professionals who participated in New Era, a year-long programme combining mentoring, networking, visibility opportunities, and leadership development. Participants consistently described gains in confidence, career progression, professional identity, and industry visibility. Many of the programme’s most highly valued experiences centred on access to influential networks, sponsorship from senior leaders, and opportunities to build visibility across the sports industry.
What makes these findings interesting is that they challenge conventional assumptions about leadership development.
When most organisations think about developing leaders, they focus on skills, workshops, courses, certifications, and competency frameworks. These all matter. But New Era highlights something equally important: leadership development is not simply about what people learn. It is also about who they know, how they are recognised, and whether they are given opportunities to be seen.
The programme’s success appears to stem from three interconnected elements.
The first is connection.
Careers are built through relationships. Participants repeatedly described the value of mentoring relationships, peer networks, and access to senior leaders. These connections provided advice and support, but they also opened doors to opportunities that might otherwise have remained out of reach. In an industry where many leadership opportunities emerge through professional networks and trusted relationships, connection matters.
The second is recognition.
Many participants spoke about developing confidence, a stronger personal brand, and gaining a clearer sense of themselves as leaders. Importantly, this was not just self-belief but came from recognition by others. Seeing women in senior leadership positions, engaging with respected industry figures, and being invited into influential conversations helped participants imagine new career possibilities.
The third is visibility.
Leadership potential is difficult to recognise if nobody sees it. Through speaking opportunities, articles, podcasts, conferences, and industry events, participants were given platforms to showcase their expertise and perspectives. Visibility matters because talent alone is rarely enough. Careers are often shaped by reputation, exposure, and the ability to demonstrate capability in public settings.
Taken together, these findings suggest that effective leadership development may be less about ‘fixing’ women and more about creating environments where talented women can connect, be recognised, and be visible.
This distinction is important because many of the barriers women face in sport leadership extend beyond individual capability. Participants in the study described structural and cultural challenges, including exclusion from influential networks, assumptions about what a leader looks like and organisational environments that limit progression.
The study did not suggest that programmes like New Era can singlehandedly solve these problems on their own or transform organisations or the wider sport sector. Rather, it underscored the importance of creating conditions in which women can build relationships, develop leadership identities, broaden their influence, and champion one another’s progress.
This matters because leadership careers are rarely determined solely by expertise. They are also shaped by who knows them, who believes in them, and who is prepared to advocate for them and open doors to new opportunities.
That may ultimately be the programme’s most important contribution.
Professor John Cairney is currently Head of the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland and will commence as Dean of the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan in August. Dr Sharon Hinton is Executive Manager of the Office of 2032 Games Engagement at the University of Queensland. Both served as researchers on the New Era Evaluation project.
New Era is a year-round programme and community connecting, championing, and celebrating the women and non-binary executives defining the future of the international sports industry. To learn more about the programme, click here.