IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i18p8133-d1746088.html

Examining How Sustainability Addresses Gender Inequality Using FIFA Women’s World Cup Soccer Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Deborah de Lange

    (Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON M5G 2C5, Canada)

  • Walter Leal Filho

    (Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management”, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, D-21033 Hamburg, Germany
    School of Science and the Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BH, UK)

Abstract

Increasing gender equality, United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Five (UN SDG 5), is one of many wicked problems that are difficult to solve in sport. Innovative policies may create a backdrop for improving women’s career outcomes in sport and beyond. This research aims to theorize and empirically demonstrate some of these contextual relationships. Using FIFA Women’s World Cup standings as outcomes, international analyses show that sustainability has real consequences for women and their countries’ success. Guided by wicked problems Literature explicitly recognizing complexities, this research considers the interconnectedness of the UN SDGs with a focus on sports. International empirical analyses demonstrate that leading countries’ more holistic sustainability policies help to address UN SDG 5. This study also compares sustainable development indicators in regression analyses to clarify how these composite measures relate to improved outcomes for women. Overall, future research should incorporate gender differences and thereby consider a broad set of sustainability factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Deborah de Lange & Walter Leal Filho, 2025. "Examining How Sustainability Addresses Gender Inequality Using FIFA Women’s World Cup Soccer Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-22, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:18:p:8133-:d:1746088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/18/8133/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/18/8133/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tyrowicz, Joanna & Terjesen, Siri & Mazurek, Jakub, 2020. "All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of European firms," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 634-645.
    2. Grimm, Michael & Harttgen, Kenneth & Klasen, Stephan & Misselhorn, Mark, 2008. "A Human Development Index by Income Groups," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2527-2546, December.
    3. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    4. Tzannatos, Zafiris, 1999. "Women and Labor Market Changes in the Global Economy: Growth Helps, Inequalities Hurt and Public Policy Matters," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 551-569, March.
    5. Javed, Muzhar & Wang, Fangjun & Usman, Muhammad & Ali Gull, Ammar & Uz Zaman, Qamar, 2023. "Female CEOs and green innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    6. Ferrary, Michel, 2024. "The French approach to promoting gender diversity in corporate governance," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 445-451.
    7. H. Christopher Frey & Sumeet R. Patil, 2002. "Identification and Review of Sensitivity Analysis Methods," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(3), pages 553-578, June.
    8. Seguino, Stephanie, 2000. "Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(7), pages 1211-1230, July.
    9. Wendy O’Brien & Clare Hanlon & Vasso Apostolopoulos, 2024. "Continuum of care to advance women as leaders in male‐dominated industries," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 2749-2767, November.
    10. F. Cribari-Neto & S. G. Zarkos, 1999. "Bootstrap methods for heteroskedastic regression models: evidence on estimation and testing," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 211-228.
    11. Günseli Berik, 2018. "To Measure and to Narrate: Paths Toward a Sustainable Future," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 136-159, July.
    12. Joanna Tyrowicz & Siri Terjesen & Jakub Mazurek, 2017. "All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of firms," GRAPE Working Papers 5, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    13. Fariborz Damanpour, 1996. "Organizational Complexity and Innovation: Developing and Testing Multiple Contingency Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(5), pages 693-716, May.
    14. Magdalena Daria Vaverková & Joanna Polak & Małgorzata Kurcjusz & Manoj Kumar Jena & Aparna P. Murali & Surya Sasikumar Nair & Havva Aktaş & Muhammad Effsal Hadinata & Pouya Ghezelayagh & Silvia Dewi S, 2025. "Enhancing Sustainable Development Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Insights From Diverse Fields," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 3427-3454, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ishmael Tingbani & Lyton Chithambo & Venancio Tauringana & Nikolaos Papanikolaou, 2020. "Board gender diversity, environmental committee and greenhouse gas voluntary disclosures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2194-2210, September.
    2. Sara Saggese & Fabrizia Sarto & Riccardo Viganò, 2021. "Do women directors contribute to R&D? The role of critical mass and expert power," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(2), pages 593-623, June.
    3. Marek Tomaszewski & Gabriela Tomaszewska, 2025. "The Gender Structure of Owners and the Innovative Activity of Enterprises," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 978-999.
    4. Bussmann, Margit, 2009. "The Effect of Trade Openness on Women's Welfare and Work Life," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1027-1038, June.
    5. Paul Chaney, 2015. "“Post-Feminist†Era of Social Investment and Territorial Welfare? Exploring the Issue Salience and Policy Framing of Child Care in U.K. Elections 1983-2011," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, February.
    6. Carmen García & Joan-Ramon Borrell & Juan Luis Jiménez & José Manuel Ordóñez-de-Haro, 2024. "Cartels, board gender composition and gender quotas," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 283-320, October.
    7. Groutsis, Dimitria, 2024. "The state of play of ethno-racial representation on boards: A comparative analysis," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 281-287.
    8. Lara Lesch & Shannon Kerwin & Tim F. Thormann & Pamela Wicker, 2022. "Critical Masses and Gender Diversity in Voluntary Sport Leadership: The Role of Economic and Social State-Level Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    9. Neumayer, Eric & de Soysa, Indra, 2011. "Globalization and the Empowerment of Women: An Analysis of Spatial Dependence via Trade and Foreign Direct Investment," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1065-1075, July.
    10. David Cuberes & Marc Teignier, 2012. "Gender Gaps in the Labor Market and Aggregate Productivity," Working Papers 2012017, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    11. Tomáš Michalička & Drahoslav Lančarič & Kristína Hudecová, 2022. "Determinants Of Board Gender Equality," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 16(1), pages 443-451.
    12. Ata Can Bertay & Ljubica Dordevic & Can Sever, 2025. "Gender inequality and economic growth: evidence from industry-level data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 68(5), pages 2291-2326, May.
    13. Matteo Cotugno & Greta Benedetta Ferilli & Egidio Palmieri, 2026. "Does Board Gender Diversity Make Firms Less Greenwashed?," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 479-500, January.
    14. Saleh F. A. Khatib & Dewi Fariha Abdullah & Ahmed A. Elamer & Raed Abueid, 2021. "Nudging toward diversity in the boardroom: A systematic literature review of board diversity of financial institutions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 985-1002, February.
    15. Romina Kazandjian & Ms. Lisa L Kolovich & Ms. Kalpana Kochhar & Ms. Monique Newiak, 2016. "Gender Equality and Economic Diversification," IMF Working Papers 2016/140, International Monetary Fund.
    16. Aminat Olayinka Olohunlana & Ngozi Bosede Adeleye & Somod Dapo Olohunlana & Hauwah K. K. AbdulKareem, 2022. "Gender heterogeneity and microfinance sustainability in Sub‐Saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 232-243, June.
    17. Zeineb Ouni & Jamal Ben Mansour & Sana Arfaoui, 2022. "Corporate Governance and Financial Performance: The Interplay of Board Gender Diversity and Intellectual Capital," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-22, November.
    18. Oriana Bandiera & Ashwini Natraj, 2013. "Does Gender Inequality Hinder Development and Economic Growth? Evidence and Policy Implications," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 2-21, February.
    19. Tonoyan, Vartuhi & Boudreaux, Christopher J., 2023. "Gender diversity in firm ownership: Direct and indirect effects on firm-level innovation across 29 emerging economies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    20. Chu, Shaner, 2024. "Are women greener? Board gender diversity and corporate green technology innovation in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 1001-1020.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:18:p:8133-:d:1746088. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.