INCREASING WOMEN ADVANCEMENT IN SPORTS LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIA THROUGH MENTORING

Abstract

The 1975 United Nations international women’s year and the 1995 Beijing conference set the stage for equality between women and men in all sphere of life. In Nigeria, women are marginally underrepresented in leadership positions in sports sector despite the 1975 United Nations and 1995 Beijing conference declaration on removal or elimination of all forms of discrimination and obstacles to women active and equal participation in all spheres of life. Full participation of women in key decision making in sports has not been achieved. Very few women in Nigeria serve as directors, coaches, officials, members of Sport boards and at other strategic positions in Sports sector. This paucity of women in leadership position within sports sector are probably attributed to several socio- cultural roles of women like parenting (procreation and care of the children and family), religion, male dominance, and women’s poor perception of their abilities. Mentoring strategy need to be adopted as catalyst to encourage women to vigorously pursue careers that will afford them the opportunity of assuming leadership roles in the field of sports. This paper examined factors that negatively influence women leadership and factors that positively influence them. The paper highlighted on mentoring as a tool for facilitating and improving on women leadership development. The paper discussed types of mentoring and reasons for adopting mentoring as a possible solution to dearth of women in sports leadership roles. Some suggested roles of mentors and skills needed for effective mentoring were enumerated. Some recommendations were made to help develop future women leaders in sports.