Attitudes towards female executives in sport organizations.

When the number of women managers are examined in sport organizations, it can be seen that they are a minority. According to the literature, the barriers for women whom want to promote in top managerial positions in sport organizations emerge as “Glass Ceiling Barriers”. The term glass ceiling refers to “the seen, yet unbreakable barriers that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements”. Some of the barriers are related to the women themselves, some to their organizations and some for the society. It is thought that the attitudes which are preventing women in rising to top managerial positions in sport can vary by gender. A survey was used to find out if their are different attitudes towards women which vary by gender. The sample of the study includes the staff of three sport clubs, three sport federations and General Directorship of Sport in Turkey. A total of 557 surveys were included in the statistics of the study. As a conclusion, there is a significant difference between attitudes of female and male sport organization workers towards women managers. Female workers held more positive attitudes towards women than men. All the sub factors which are glass ceiling barriers (women’s multiple roles, preferences and perceptions, organizational culture and policies, lack of mentors, problems in contributing communication networks, stereotypes, discrimination for management profession) are found as barriers effecting women as results of the analyzes.