Gender equality in Ecuadorian sports organizations

In Ecuador, sports and gender equality have been promoted through laws and regulations. Despite this, true inclusion of women has not been evident, despite having outstanding athletes over the years. Given this, the objective of this research is to investigate compliance with the principle of gender equality in private sports organizations in Ecuador, from the perspective of a qualified informant. To this end, a study with a quantitative approach aimed at a qualified informant from sports entities has been considered, for which a questionnaire of 13 questions has been designed, 7 to characterize the clubs and 6 on perceptions of sport and gender assessed using a scale of Likert whose internal consistency was .755. The sample was made up of 125 sports clubs nationwide (Costa and Sierra). The results indicated that the majority of these offer a level of competitive and also recreational preparation, and they also enjoy great adherence with a range of between 51 to 75 people, generally women work at their administrative levels. The representatives of the clubs demonstrate that they know the Sports Law but not the Protocol on Gender Violence in Sports. They also perceive those men have greater benefits than women in different aspects related to sports. It concludes on the importance of working on proposals on gender equality in sports between sports clubs and public government agencies to generate effective strategies.