More than six months after the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which promised ‘perfect parity’, and in celebration of International Women’s Rights Day, the KYU team invites you to take another look at the key figures on the place of women in sport, to determine whether there has been any positive effect linked to the Olympics.
Imperfect parity but a positive effect on women’s participation in sports and media coverage
Overall, the parity of the Games was upheld, although it cannot be said perfect parity was reached:
– There were disparities depending on national delegations and sports (wrestling, equestrian, football, etc.);
– Only 45% of Paralympic athletes were women.
Nevertheless, these Games were historic, marking the culmination of a long journey towards gender equality: at the 1900 Paris Olympics, the first to allow women to take part, only 22 women were able to compete, representing 2.2% of the total number of competitors. The threshold of 25% was reached in Seoul in 1988, and 40% in Athens in 2004. In 2020, in Tokyo, women made up 47.8% of the delegations.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games have also given women’s competitions greater visibility and media coverage. An ARCOM study showed that 37% of the hourly volume of Olympic and Paralympic Games coverage was devoted to women’s competitions (compared with 56% for men’s sport and 7% for mixed sport). This figure rises to 42% for the Olympic Games alone. Although far from parity, this figure nevertheless represents a clear improvement compared to previous editions. At the same time, the study notes that 18% of speaking time during television coverage of the Olympic Games was ‘occupied’ by female commentators. Women’s speaking time was even lower during the men’s events and during prime time.
In terms of sports participation, the INJEP (Institut National de la Jeunesse et de l’Education populaire) has already noted a small effect from the Olympic Games, with a 5% increase in the number of licences issued at the start of the 2024 academic year compared with the previous year. The effect is slightly greater for women, with an increase of 6%. This seems to confirm that major sporting events, along with greater visibility for female athletes, can have a real impact in encouraging women to take up sport.
Sports governance still under-feminised
Back in 2024, we looked at the governance of sport and noted that by the end of 2022, 81 of the 119 federations recognised by the Ministry of Sport were chaired by men, even when women made up the overwhelming majority of licence holders. At the end of 2024, elections were held and the number of female presidents at the head of one of the 35 summer Olympic federations remained stable – and low. Of these 35 federations, 2 are presided over by women: the FFGym, with Dominique Mérieux at its head, the first woman to hold the position; and the Fédération Française de Lutte, which elected a tandem made up of Lise Legrand and Jean-Carl Fossati as its co-presidents.
Thus, the law passed on 2 March 2022, aimed at democratising sport in France, which required federations to present lists with strictly equal representation of men and women at national level, has had more than mixed results when it comes to positions of greater responsibility. This obligation, which was supposed to apply at local level from 2028, has been criticised by some federations, which are finding it difficult to find enough women interested. Its actual implementation could be called into question in the meantime.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) wants to set an example and has made great efforts to increase the number of women on its governing bodies. In 2023, however, women account for just 41% of IOC members – a 100% increase on 2013.
Women still under-represented in the sporting professions
The feminisation of sport must also be analysed in the professional world. Here too, parity is far from being achieved. The number of female employees in the professional sector is increasing in volume, as significant recruitments were made in the sector, but the proportion of women has fallen, to 35% of the workforce (compared with 37% in 2019).
Women continue to be better represented in certain positions or in certain very specific specialities (‘development of activities’, particularly support and administrative professions, ‘health and care’, etc.). The proportion of women working as sports instructors in clubs is significantly lower (less than a quarter), despite the fact that this profession accounts for 38% of the industry’s workforce. They are also more likely to work part-time and less likely to be in the highest-paid collective bargaining classification groups (17% of group 7, ‘senior manager’). When the structural effects (age, seniority, position of the job in the classification, etc.) are neutralised, there is a pay gap of 4.5% between men and women. The branch’s report also points out that the average score for the professional equality index is lower in the sports sector (78.4/100) than in the economy as a whole (87.5/100).
At the same time, their place in initial training courses is growing very slowly (41% of students in STAPS degree courses, 30% in BJEPS Sport) and their choice of courses and sports remains gendered (horse riding, gymnastics; adapted physical activity and health, education and motor skills).
Conclusion: a positive but largely insufficient ‘Olympics effect’
Major events such as the Olympic Games have a real role to play in encouraging women to become more involved in the world of sport, and this issue must continue to be addressed at future major national and international competitions.
Nevertheless, the ‘Olympic Games effect’ remains marginal compared with the challenges of socialisation, visibility and support for women on a daily basis and from an early age, which explain why they are still not very present in the world of sport.
Sources :
- ARCOM, « La place des femmes dans les médias audiovisuels et numériques durant les Jeux de Paris 2024 », janvier 2025.
- CIO, « Egalité des genres à travers le temps », février 2025.
- INJEP, « Les licences sportives annuelles au sortir des Jeux de Paris 2024 », janvier 2025.
- Observatoire des Métiers du Sport, « Rapport Emploi-Formation de la branche du Sport, édition 2024 », octobre 2024.
- Le Monde, « JO 2024 : les promesses de parité pas encore respectées en lutte gréco-romaine, natation artistique, gymnastique rythmique… », août 2024.
- Le Monde, « Les fédérations sportives au défi de la parité femmes-hommes », octobre 2024.
- Le Monde, « Toujours aussi peu de femmes à la tête des fédérations sportives françaises, malgré la loi sport visant la parité », décembre 2024.
