Introduction: why a research handbook on gender and diversity in sport management

The purpose of this handbook is to bring together work by international scholars to explicitly address gender and diversity in sport management. We do so by situating this research within critical sociological theoretical frameworks that focus on understanding how individuals or groups engaged in leading or managing sport are situated in the social world. The goal of this introductory chapter is to sketch the need for the book, its aim and its contents. We summarize the previous research on gender in sport management and then focus on insights the authors provide in their focus on processes and practices that work to exclude certain groups and favor others. This chapter, then, serves as the framing for the various theoretical approaches used by the various authors, how these can highlight the gendered ways of organizing sport, how they are experienced and may be sustained, disrupted, and challenged.