Still, the same motivated group faces persistent barriers.

• 64% reported lack of access to adequate facilities or training environments.
• 58% cited financial limitations as a key barrier, particularly in Bosnia, Greece, and Ukraine.
• 55% experienced time pressure due to balancing school, work, and sport.
• More than 70% mentioned entrenched gender stereotypes and unequal visibility.

Interestingly, perceptions differ between contexts: in Ukraine, 85% of female athletes believe men and women have equal opportunities in sport, while in Croatia, nearly the same percentage expressed that inequalities persist.

These results confirm that while motivation and ambition are strong, systemic constraints continue to limit young women’s advancement in sport.

Where organisations fall short – small changes produce big wins:

A total of 21 in-depth interviews and 25 organizational questionnaires were conducted across six countries, covering clubs, federations, and sport-related companies. The findings show a mismatch between how organisations perceive their progress and what’s actually happening on the ground.

In Portugal, 46.2% of organisations rated themselves 10/10 on gender equality, yet 92.3% also admitted that lack of funding and sponsorship is their main obstacle. Similarly, in Croatia and Bosnia, initiatives often rely heavily on external donors such as Erasmus+ or NGO support. Lisbon-based organisations accounted for 77% of all CSR initiatives, highlighting a strong geographical concentration of gender-related projects.

However, good practices exist:

Projects like Women4Sport in Bosnia and Sport Zajedno in Croatia demonstrated success by placing women as coordinators and mentors, not just participants. Mentorship and equal prize policies in federations, such as the equal prize money decision of the BiH Ski Federation, were recognized as transformative steps when consistently implemented.

Digital tools and mentorship: 

Digital education and structured mentorship were repeatedly identified as the two strongest accelerators of change.Among interviewed experts, 83% endorsed blended learning and mentorship as key strategies for empowering women in sport.

Yet, only 22% of women who completed Portugal’s New Leaderships mentorship program advanced into federation or club leadership positions, showing that digital learning alone isn’t enough without institutional backing.

Experts suggested online mentorship platforms, peer-learning networks, and digital certification programs to ensure that women from rural or inland regions, who make up less than 10% of current participants, gain equal access to leadership training.

The report highlights several practical directions for sustainable progress:

• Integrate gender content into all coaching and leadership certification processes. Currently, only about one-third (32%) of partner-country curricula include gender modules.
• Create structured mentorship and sponsorship schemes with measurable outcomes and long-term follow-up.
• Ensure dedicated, ring-fenced funding for gender-equality initiatives. Over 90% of organizations surveyed said they lack internal budgets for equality programs.
• Establish national or regional gender observatories to monitor representation, leadership, and pay. Portugal’s experts proposed a National Gender Observatory modeled after the EU Equality Index.
• Expand blended digital learning to reach rural youth and involve men as allies. Only two of six partner countries currently provide structured “Men as Allies” training content.

These priorities call for moving beyond awareness toward systemic, data-driven change supported by consistent financing and accountability.

Gaps that the GENDERWISE educational package will fill:

The desk research revealed important content gaps: „Men as Allies“, „Socially Responsible Business in Sport“, and structured content on career advancement are underrepresented in existing curricula. The GENDERWISE learning modules (Leadership, Coaching, Men as Allies, Women on Boards, Career Advancement, CSR in Sport) are strongly positioned to plug these gaps and to deliver scalable MOOC-styled content that EU projects and NGOs can adopt.

Why do NGOs and EU projects like this one matter now?

The GENDERWISE data is clear:

• 6% of surveyed experts and 59.4% of interviewees were women, evidence that the female voice is growing stronger in shaping sport leadership.
• Nearly 70% of experts acknowledged continuing gender inequality, most notably in pay (63.6%), leadership (54.5%), and cultural stereotypes (78.8%).
• All six partner countries identified funding, mentorship, and digital tools as the most effective levers for progress.

GENDERWISE proves that young athletes are ready, experts know what works, and small, well-structured interventions can break long-standing barriers. By funding mentorships, integrating gender into certifications, and using digital tools to connect communities, NGOs and EU projects can turn equality from a goal into a living reality.

When done together, these efforts don’t just change statistics, they change cultures.