Generational Lag.
Participation data is from today (35.7% licences). Power data is 30 years old (0% of presidencies in Barcelona). The system arrives late to its own growth.
The mismatch between recruitment and power.
Spanish women's basketball shows a pattern we call generational lag: participation data belongs to the current generation (35.7% of women's licences), but power data belongs to the previous one (5% of federation presidencies, 0% in Barcelona).
There is a systemic delay of 20-30 years between the moment women enter the system and the moment they reach decision-making positions.
The Generational Lag Theory.
Recruitment policies (more camps, more licences) do not solve the problem of power. The women who lead today are not the ones recruited yesterday; they are the ones retained and promoted over decades.
A crucial implication: every year a club waits to fix its governance adds 30 years of delay to the ceiling of its own system.
The Barna Method accelerates the cycle because it does not wait for women to "arrive" at power: it creates the conditions for them to move through it naturally within the club.
What will happen if we follow the pipeline.
If the girls who start at CB Grup Barna's Escoleta today (age 4) follow the Method's full pipeline:
- 2030Mini and pre-mini consolidated. First cohort of the new absolute-parity cycle.
- 2034Cadets and juniors. A generation for whom the Method is the only norm they have known.
- 2038Women's senior team and first leap to coaching. Those who joined in 2026 start to coach.
- 2042Coaching staff 100% homegrown. The cycle closes: players trained by the Method train the next cycle.
- 2046Board of directors with a female majority. Power, finally, in sync with the base. Lag corrected: 0 years.
The Barna Method is not slow. The current system is exaggeratedly slow.
- Mannheim, K. (1952) — The Problem of Generations. Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- IDESCAT (2025) — Llicencies esportives federades per sexe i esport — Catalunya 2025. Institut d'Estadistica de Catalunya.
- Acosta, R.V. & Carpenter, L.J. (2014) — Women in Intercollegiate Sport — a 37-year study. Brooklyn College.
