Written by Australia’s modern day suffragette, Madeline Groves, withdrew from the nation’s Olympic Swimming Trials in protest against misogynistic behaviours exhibited by some members of her National Governing Body (NGB). This must have been an extremely difficult decision for her to make as it has negated all the investment she has made in preparation for the event. Swimming Australia has vowed to conduct an independent investigation into institutionalized sexism. Symbolic violence, by nature, is an invisible toxic influence that is difficult to detect and often accepted by stakeholders as the norm – they just don’t see it.
Well the norm isn’t good enough! It should not reach a point where an athlete has to sacrifice their sporting dreams to call out unacceptable behaviours. This was a brave act by Madeline and should be lauded by all those involved in the administration of sport. This is not, however, the first time that the culture within Swimming Australia has been brought into question. The Australian swimming team experienced some severe criticism after the London Olympic Games in 2012. Following poor performances in the pool Swimming Australia commissioned the British psychologist Pippa Grange to carry out an in-depth review of their team’s culture.
Grange uncovered some serious issues with the team ethos which she documented in The Bluestone Review. Toxic incidents, that compromised the team’s espoused values, were revealed when she stated:
“Realistically there was no single headline problem and no single “bad apple” in London… There were enough culturally toxic incidents across enough team members that breeched agreements (such as getting drunk, misuse of prescription drugs, breeching curfews, deceit, and bullying) to warrant a strong, collective leadership response that included coaches, staff and the swimmers. No such collective action was taken.”
The warning signs were there. Had a more comprehensive review taken place across the entire NGB and its leadership at the time this latest event might have been avoided. There is no doubt within the minds of experts on the subject that national cultures leech into sports organisations.
Research on national cultures was conducted by Hofstede between 1967 and 1973. The data was gathered from the employees of subsidiaries belonging to a large USA based Multinational Corporation in 40 countries around the globe. 116,000 questionnaires were sent to a range of employees, from unskilled workers to top and senior managers. Twenty languages were used in different versions of the questionnaire. This research was referenced with other cross-cultural research studies and statistically significant similarities were achieved. From this he defined four main cultural dimensions, namely – power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, and masculinity/femininity.
Alluding to the Madeline Groves complaint there have been numerous studies that show Australia as being high on masculinity and individualism. Australians, especially men, are always striving to be the best they can be and they tend to have a winner takes all mentality. Being very high on individualism denotes a society that has loose social bonding external to themselves and their immediate family. This tough, no nonsense approach, is developed from childhood and it could be argued that it has been the main contributors to their sporting successes over the years.
Low scores on power/distance and uncertainty avoidance reflects a confident nation that has high levels of collaboration within organisations. All stakeholders expect to be consulted and a great deal of internal communication is informal by nature. This aspect of their culture may help explain why unconscious toxic behaviours have been accepted in the past and taken for granted. However, with a growing public awareness associated with social inequality these norms are being challenged – thankfully.
Hofstede, quite rightly, posits that because culture is the embodiment of collective mental programming, cultural change will be very difficult and will take time. This is explained by the fact that the culture has become crystallized within minds of people across a wide variety of institutions and practices. These include schools, colleges, government, commercial and other social organisations. It is possible that this cultural change is already taking place and is reflected in Madeline’s willingness to challenge the norm and fight for her rights.
Recent research from females in schools across the UK has revealed that the problem of sexism is far worse than originally thought. According to the National Education Union (NEU) in the UK sexual harassment and abuse is common place with a third of pupils questioned stating that they have experienced toxic sexual behaviour. The union is also concerned that educational authorities have remained silent on the subject for far too long. There can be no excuse whatsoever for these behaviours and the sooner the issue is addressed the better for all.