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Introduction: why a research handbook on gender and diversity in sport management
Get PDFThe purpose of this handbook is to bring together work by international scholars to explicitly address gender and diversity in sport management. We do so by situating this research within critical sociological theoretical frameworks that focus on understanding how individuals or groups engaged in leading or managing sport are situated in the social world. The goal of this introductory chapter is to sketch the need for the book, its aim and its contents. We summarize the previous research on gender in sport management and then focus on insights the authors provide in their focus on processes and practices that work to exclude certain groups and favor others. This chapter, then, serves as the framing for the various theoretical approaches used by the various authors, how these can highlight the gendered ways of organizing sport, how they are experienced and may be sustained, disrupted, and challenged
"I Was on Top of the World, Then ... Nothing ... And Today I am Many Things:" Retirement Stories of Former Elite Female Athletes
Get PDFThis narrative research explores elite women athletes’ retirement experiences, to answer the following questions: How did the athletes experience their athletic lives? How did the athletes experience their retirement? What supported and/or hindered the athletes’ transition out of elite sport? How do female athletes create new meanings and re-story their lives?
Being an elite athlete requires a lot of commitment and sacrifices from a fairly young age. Due to the extended involvement in sports, athletes build their identity around their sport and are often ill prepared for life-after-sport. Consequently, retirement from elite sport has caught the attention of researchers who have studied it from different perspectives. The post-positivist research has examined the causes and consequences of sport retirement, the quality of life and life satisfaction after sport, the factors that influence the quality of transition, the body image, physical self, or global self-esteem (Erpic et al., 2004; Price et al., 2010; Smith & McManus, 2008; Stephan & Bilard, 2003; Stephan et al., 2003a; Wylleman et al., 2004). The interpretive research around retirement from elite sport has included personal experiences and how people make sense of their experiences within their contexts (Barker-Ruchti & Schubring, 2016; Carless & Douglas, 2009, 2012; Cavallerio et al., 2017; Douglas & Carless, 2009; Kerr et al., 2020). More specifically, interpretive narrative researchers have used predetermined narratives (e.g., performance narrative) to understand the retired athletes’ experiences. In addition, the post-structuralist research on sport retirement has explored the power relations within the sporting context to explain the retirement experiences (Barker-Ruchti et al., 2012; Jones & Denison, 2017). Existing research, however, has revealed that retiring elite athletes could face significant challenges to their physical, psychological, social, and occupational well-being, possibly struggling with a loss of identity, depression, and even self-harm or suicide.
While there are a number of narrative studies that have explored the retirement experiences, I also chose to pursue a narrative study. Congruent with the interpretive approach, I focused on the individual athletes’ stories. Expanding from the previous sport narrative research, I examined athletes’ stories during their athletic lifespan and after retirement. I drew on a combination of a more traditional narrative approach and narrative inquiry (Clandinin & al., 2007) to explore 10 women athletes’ stories. My interviewees were over 18 years of age, English speakers, competed at national/international levels in different sports (both individual and team sports), and were at least two years into their retirement. In addition to the ten stories of retired athletes, I, as a former elite athlete, included my own story.
Through my reflective thematic analysis, I constructed three overarching themes based in the participants’ stories: Life as an Elite Athlete, Life After Elite Sport, and Living a Regular Life. My analysis of the first theme revealed that the retired athletes told very similar stories about their athletic lives: they were very dedicated to their sports that they loved unconditionally despite experiencing injuries, eating disorders and ‘cut-throat’ competition. When I analyzed the second theme, I found that the retirement experiences were all unique. Seven participants perceived their transition to be quite smooth, while three participants experienced a difficult retirement with periods of intense struggles. My analysis of the final theme, Living a Regular Life, revealed that most of the former athletes had found new meanings in their lives, that included family, education, or career. The retired athletes also identified certain skills, such as time management and perfectionism, that were helpful during their athletic lives, but did not transfer well in life-after-sport. They further suggested that hearing other former athletes’ stories and having connections with other former athletes would have been beneficial for a positive transition out of elite sport. My lifespan analysis, thus, revealed that the athletes’ retirement stories were complex and unlinear: a positive athletic life did not necessarily convert into a smooth retirement experience or vice versa.
My narrative study expanded the previous research by demonstrating the importance of examining the entire athletic lifespan to reveal the complexities of women athletes’ retirement experiences. This allowed me to move beyond focusing on a single aspect of retirement experience, or one narrative framing (e.g., performance narrative), to obtain a more holistic understanding of elite athletes’ retirement as a process
Gender representation and policy implementation in the governance of international Paralympic organizations
Get PDFA significant and growing body of research has highlighted the underrepresentation of women within sport governance at both the national and international levels. However, this research has had a largely problem-based rather than solution-based focus, looking for reasons for an underrepresentation of women rather than at the prevalence and effectiveness of strategies/actions to address this underrepresentation. Additionally, there has been a notable lack of attention toward gender representation and equity within organizations that are exclusively part of the Paralympic Movement. This is symptomatic of researchers often overlooking the effects of intersectionality when studying gender and sport leadership or governance (Evans & Pfister, 2021). Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is two-fold. First, we examine female representation across the most senior governance bodies and positions of international organizations exclusive to the Paralympic Movement (from now on called “Paralympic organizations”). Second, we explore the prevalence of strategies being implemented by Paralympic organizations to increase the representation of women within decision-making positions. We aim to draw on these combined findings to discuss the extent to which Paralympic organizations are proactive and successful in implementing actions to resist (abled) male dominance within Paralympic governance. The findings will also be compared to equivalent data for organizations that are part of the Olympic Movement (from now on called “Olympic organizations”), some of which also have a remit for governing Paralympic sport. This allows for an exploration of the extent to which the findings are unique to the Paralympic Movement or follow similar trends to Olympic organizations
Process-figurational sociology and gender relations in sport management
No full textIn this chapter we outline how the principles of process-figurational sociology can facilitate a critical and theoretical approach to understanding gender relations in the diverse field of sport management. We highlight that while process-figurational sociology has been applied in areas of study related to sport management including sport policy and practice, organisation and structure of sport, sport tourism and marketing, none of these studies offer a direct and detailed analysis of gender relations and sport management. While there is existing research on gender, business and management taking a process-figurational theoretical approach this does not include sport, and the extensive research on gender and sport management does not draw on process-figurational sociology. In response to this we set out in this chapter how a process-figurational approach can provide a set of theoretical and conceptual resources for advancing knowledge about gender relations in sport management that may provide further critical scrutiny of and knowledge about issues of gender inequality and discrimination in the field
The Aging Body in Motion: Dance, Women, and Culture
No full textSSHRC IG awarded 2021: This proposed project is designed to contribute to the field of physical cultural studies (PCS). PCS is characterized as an emerging community of scholars who focus on the relationship between physical culture, power, and the moving/material body. By designing empirical, qualitative, transdisciplinary, and theoretically informed projects, PCS researchers are typically motivated by a political commitment for social change toward more equitable conditions through physical cultural practice. In this proposed project, I, as a researcher/dancer/choreographer, aim to answer the call for self-reflexive, theoreticallyinformed, empirical, and transformative PCS research through a political commitment for equitable conditions for mature women dancers and changes to ageism in society. Following PCS, this project adopts a qualitative methodology that enables an in-depth collection of empirical material concerning the everyday training and performance contexts of mature womenrecreational contemporary dancers. The proposed project is intended to occur over a five- year period
Dancing within postmodernism
No full textWe're in a dark classroom quietly watching Aborigines dance in an exotic Australian night. They move in brilliant patterns: sudden high jumps of energy, trancing rhythms of instruments we've never seen, constantly stomping feet, twisting torsos. We see these moves transferred to a Western dance stage by a Dutch ballet company. Suddenly we don't like it. The dance has lost something; as if the electrical stage lights have destroyed the exotic feeling of stomping feet. The dance has become too sterile'”it seems pointless
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