The Underrepresentation of Women in Esports Leadership Positions: Exploring the Barriers and Facilitating Factors

Although women remain underrepresented in all facets of esports leadership (e.g., executive organisational and coaching positions), few empirical studies have explored the underrepresentation issue (Piggott et al., 2022; Rogstad 2022; Darvin et al., 2021). Offering new theoretical and empirical insights, this project aims to explore the perceived barriers to, and facilitating factors for, female representation in esports leadership positions. Adopting a qualitative research approach, this study will interview female esports leaders. Advancing current understanding of the underrepresentation of women in esports, this research utilises ecological systems theory to capture individual (micro), organisational (meso), and sociocultural (macro) factors that influence an individual’s career trajectory (LaVoi and Dutove 2012). The findings will inform a conceptual, multi-level model which captures the range of barriers and facilitators. Practical implications for esports organisations will also be recommended to enhance the representation of women in esports leadership.

Within the esports industry, there are few women in leadership positions. To investigate this issue, this project aims to explore the perceived barriers to, and facilitating factors for, female representation in esports leadership positions. To collect the data, interviews are conducted with female leaders in esports organisations. The questions explore personal, organisational, social and cultural factors that have influenced the individual. Using the findings, recommendations are presented to the esports industry to improve the number of women in leadership positions.