The aim of this thesis is to identify and evaluate the current state, difficulties and opportunities of gender equality in leadership and governance across international sports federations (IFs). In this regard, the effectiveness of the existing initiatives and measures are analyzed with the end goal of developing a framework that can be applied by IFs to accelerate the change process toward balanced gender representation in top management.

Throughout this paper, the topics of gender equality, leadership and governance as well as the current initiatives and measures by IFs in these areas were evaluated based on previous research and industry reports. In a further step, in-depth insights from IFs were gathered with an online survey as well as semi-structured interviews with experts from the field. By combining and comparing all the collected data, the impact and effectiveness of the current guidelines and measures in gender balance representation in management positions at IFs were analyzed.

According to our findings, specific recommendations within the three levels of the framework are provided: Macro: - define a clear strategy and targets (analyze "as-is", define "to-be") - monitor and control gender equality progress - provide more leadership programs and funding for women at all levels - involve men early on Meso: - transform organizational culture and raise awareness - introduce gender equality budget - show possible career path for females and succession planning - build up knowledge sharing platform Micro: - support women from grassroots on - empower and encourage women