Sport Australia boss Kate Palmer says it's time to smash the "merit trap" of overlooking female for executive or coaching jobs in sport, adamant a new program can reverse male-driven culture.
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Sport Australia and the AIS launched a new talent program initiative on Friday, asking female sports executives and coaches to apply for positions in the inaugural intake.
It is hoped it will be the trigger for change given just 15 of 160 accredited Australian coaches were female at the Rio Olympic Games two years ago.
"Women are not the problem, the system is the problem," Palmer said. We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't think we could create change. If you set a target, we will aim for that. And it's not just us, it's the whole system making change.
"I would like to see for the Paris [Olympics in 2024] that that number is very, very different. I would say for me, that's a measure of whether our organisation has been successful or not. A really key measure."
Palmer and Swimming Australia chief executive Leigh Russell spoke at the World Class to World Best conference at the AIS on Friday to detail their vision for the program.
Female candidates will be eligible to apply for the talent program, with positions available for 16 executives and 16 high performance coaches for a 12-month opportunity funded by the AIS.
"It's an immersion program, so they will spend periods of time with experts in leadership. It's about exposing them to a range of different experiences, different people and exploring their own leadership style," Palmer said.
"Actually identifying how they may shape their future. For me, that's the most exciting part."
Palmer said there had been a gross under-representation of female executives and coaches and that major sports had expressed their willingness to work with Sport Australia on making change.
But the state of the AFLW highlights some of the major problems female executives and coaches face. The competition's 10 coaches are all male.
The woman who led Adelaide to the inaugural premiership, Bec Goddard, quit her position because she was unable to secure a full-time coaching job.
Goddard is now an assistant coach for the Canberra Capitals and is back in the capital working for the AFP, and said: "gone are the days when I coached for a bottle of red wine when my male colleagues got paid."
Palmer wants the view of female leaders to change in every position, where women represent 22 per cent of board chairs and 13 per cent of chief executives across 60 national sporting organisations funded by the AIS and Sport Australia.
Russell is the first female chief executive at Swimming Australia after stepping into the role earlier this year.
"The main hurdles in sport really are the system. For many years we've had a system that promotes people on merit, what we know now from research and individual experiences in sport is that merit is a trap and we need to look more broadly," Russell said.
"There definitely has been change, but when we talk about the first of anything ... it's all fantastic, but we need to scratch beneath the surface to make sure real change is happening.
"Otherwise we can get a little bit deluded that the first woman is going to be followed by another 20 women. That's just not happening. What we need right now is action rather than words."
Palmer added: "This program is designed to start breaking that ceiling. The data [on female coaches and executives] is unacceptable, quite confronting I must admit.
"We know 50 per cent of the population is female and we should have equal representation. The talent is there, but where is the pathway for talented women in executive leadership and coaching. It's not about fixing women, but looking at the system."
