Study: Gender Equality Leads to Higher Olympic Medal Count

SOCHI, RUSSIA - FEBRUARY 20: (L to R) Silver medalists Veronika Vitkova, Gabriela Soukalova, Jaroslav Soukup and Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic celebrate during the medal ceremony for the 2 x 6 km Women + 2 x 7 km Men Mixed Relay on day thirteen of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at at Medals Plaza on February 20, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

(ATR)Gender equality increases a country's Olympic medal count, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Researchers at UBC'sSauder School of Businesscompared a country's inclination toward gender equality with its respective medal count from London 2012 and Sochi 2014 while also drawing from data in theWorld Economic Forum’s 2013 Global Gender Gap Report.

"Countries with greater parity, particularly for measures of educational equality, had more women and men reach the podium," UBC said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Sauder professor Jennifer Berdahl, the study's lead author, said the UBC's findings make it clear that gender equality benefits a country in numerous ways.

"Our study makes apparent that gender equality has a tendency to lift everyone up within a country.

"Olympic glory is likely only one example of how whole societies can benefit from greater parity between the sexes."

In all, researchers looked at a sample of 121 countries. "To ensure the significance of the impact of gender equality," the UBC explained in its statement, "they isolated it from other factors such as income equality, gross domestic product, population and latitude."

Berdahl said, "Gender equality was the most significant and robust predictor of a country’s Olympic success after gross domestic product."

She added that gender stereotypes limit a country's pool of high performance athletes.

"In societies with rigid gender roles, women are encouraged to be demure and men who are considered feminine are selected out early when it comes to sport.

"When there’s more equality, performance rises to the surface as the prime indicator of who should advance to elite levels of athletics."

The UBC's study, "Win-win: Female and male athletes from more gender equal nations perform better in international sports competitions," will be published in the January edition of theJournal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Written byNicole Bennett

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