“Building the Plane as We Fly It”: Examining the Current Pathways for Disclosure of Gender‐Based Violence in Sport in Australia

ABSTRACT This article examines how gendered institutional arrangements in Australian sport shape the reporting of gender‐based violence (GBV) against adult women and gender‐diverse people. Using feminist institutionalism, we analyze the formal and informal rules that structure sport integrity systems and the gendered power relations they reproduce. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with 18 policy administrators and integrity staff, we show how GBV is systematically “ruled out” of sport integrity agendas through three intersecting mechanisms: a restricted policy remit that neglects adult GBV in Sport Integrity Australia's policy framework; a legalistic justice paradigm that privileges procedural fairness and institutional liability over survivor agency; and institutional protection logics that render reporting pathways opaque, inconsistent, and inaccessible. These dynamics produce gender justice gaps that deny victim–survivors meaningful safety, accountability, or support. Our analysis advances feminist institutionalism by demonstrating how gendered institutional logics shape not only policy design but also organizational scope and implementation practices in inadequate systems. We argue that addressing GBV in sport requires transforming the gendered foundations of sport governance rather than retrofitting systems built for other forms of integrity regulation.