Study on the Social Consideration of Women in Athletics: Repeating the Stereotypes of Gender of the 21st Century (Estudio sobre la consideración social de la mujer en el atletismo: repitiendo los estereotipos de género del siglo XXI)

If we try to focus on the analysis and understanding of females in the world of sports, particularly female athletes, we face major challenges. The main objective of this work is to analyse the gender stereotypes regarding the social consideration of women in athletics. The sample is made up of 362 undergraduate students of three universities in Andalusia, Spain. Nowadays, despite the progress made in recent years, women continue to be discriminated against in sports generally, and in high-performance sports specifically. 31.4% the response presented a gender stereotyping towards the assertion that athletic clubs and federations do not have more women coaches because they do not trust their dedication and performance. 31.9% of the students responded that male competitions provide more entertainment than female competitions. Resumen. Si intentamos centrarnos en el análisis y la comprensión de las mujeres en el mundo del deporte, en particular las atletas femeninas, nos enfrentamos a grandes desafíos. El principal objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los estereotipos de género sobre la consideración social de la mujer en el atletismo. La muestra está formada por 362 estudiantes de grado de tres universidades de Andalucía, España. Hoy en día, a pesar de los avances logrados en los últimos años, las mujeres continúan siendo discriminadas en el deporte en general y en los deportes de alto rendimiento en particular. El 31.4% de las respuestas presentó un estereotipo de género hacia la afirmación de que, los clubes y federaciones de atletismo no tienen más entrenadoras porque no confían en su dedicación y desempeño. El 31.9% de los estudiantes respondió que las competencias masculinas proporcionan más entretenimiento que las competencias femeninas.

“Why Did I Really Want to Coach? To Help Girls”:

The purpose of this study was to investigate women coaches’ experiences in high-performance rugby union. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four women who had experience coaching at the representative, university, and/or international level. Informed by a Foucauldian feminism, the analysis revealed how disciplinary power, the formation of dominant knowledges, and the pervasiveness of surveillance operated in a deeply masculine environment of high-performance rugby. This study provides an in-depth examination of femininity, masculinity, and what it means to be a woman leader in the world of high-performance rugby union.

Women Rugby Union Coaches’ Experiences of Formal Coach Education in Ireland and the United Kingdom: A Qualitative Study

Although the sport of rugby union has expanded globally in both the men’s and women’s formats recently, there remains an under-representation of women coaches across all contexts. Research has focused its analysis on the under-representation of women coaches in a select few sports such as soccer. No extant research has empirically analyzed this under-representation within rugby union. This study addressed this research lacuna on why this under-representation exists from the perspective of 21 women rugby union coaches based within the United Kingdom and Ireland. The specific research objective was to analyze the coaches’ lived experiences of attending formal coach education courses in rugby union. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed thematically and conceptualized via an abductive logic against LaVoi’s Ecological-Intersectional Model and Pierre Bourdieu’s species of capital. Supportive and positive themes reported how the coach education courses had been delivered in a collegiate and lateral manner. Courses thus acted as settings where greater amounts of cultural and social capital could be acquired from both course tutors and peers. This enabled social networks to be made that were used for continual professional development beyond the courses. Barriers and negative experiences orientated upon the lack of empathy imparted by course tutors on account of men having fulfilled these roles on most occasions. Recommendations on how national governing bodies can improve the experiences of women coaches attending future coach education courses are discussed.

The Effect of Coach Gender on Competitive Weightlifting Performance for Men and Women Weightlifters

Gender of coaches relative to their athletes has recently garnered substantial attention in the public, the media, and academia. Relative to sports engulfed in controversy pertaining to men athletes being coached by women, such as professional baseball, basketball, and football, it is more common to see women coach men in competitive weightlifting, though only a small percent of men weightlifters are coached by women. In competitive weightlifting, coaches are responsible for both physically and mentally training athletes, and with the social barriers faced by women in a sport traditionally perceived as masculine, there may be mental training or communication benefits to training with a coach of a certain gender. Examining the gender of competitive weightlifters and their coaches, total weight lifted in the snatch and clean and jerk events are analyzed using OLS regression. Results indicate that men weightlifters perform better with men coaches. Women weightlifters perform better with men coaches until the age of 43, then they perform better with women coaches. The difference in performance may be due to several factors including historical bias against women in the sport.

“It’s Not Particularly P.C., You Know . . .”: Women Coaches’ Performing Gender in Strength and Conditioning

Strength and conditioning (S&C) has become a chief part of athletes’ physiological preparation. Despite S&C’s growing presence across sports, women coaches have been generally marginalized and underrepresented. This study explores female S&C coaches’ experiences and coping mechanisms in a male-dominated industry. Semi-structured interviews with 15 female S&C coaches were conducted. The main themes identified from interview data are organizational politics, impression management, and humor. The findings suggest that women S&C coaches are often in subservient positions and have to adopt some traditional, male-generated subcultural practices to fit in. They carefully manage their coaching front stage to generate an impression that is expected and accepted in the given milieu. In their efforts to fit in, women often find themselves in a multiplicity of power matrices that involve a continuous negotiation of gender identity, internal politics, and sexist banter.

Job stressors, strain, and psychological wellbeing among women sports coaches

Despite a globally recognised need for inclusive diversity among sport workforces, women are underrepresented in the inherently stressful profession of sports coaching. This study aimed to work with women sports coaches to answer the following research questions: 1) What demographic and contract-related factors are associated with job stressors? 2) What associations exist between job stressors, strain, and psychological wellbeing (PWB) at work? Women coaches (n = 217) volunteered to complete the revised version of An Organizational Stress Screening Tool (ASSET). Path analyses identified several groups of coaches (head coaches, “other” coaches, disabled coaches) who experienced more job stressors related to their coaching work. They also highlighted the importance of workload stressors and their detrimental relationship with psychological and physical strain but positive relationship with sense of purpose (i.e., eudaimonic wellbeing). Collectively, these findings offer the first assessment of women coaches’ job stressors, strain, and PWB, and offer insight to factors that may influence coaches’ engagement with the profession. They also highlight intervention foci for national governing bodies that are seeking to protect the health and wellbeing of the women coaches within their workforce.