"I just have to become one of the blokes": The Intersection of Gender and Sports Particip

Amanda Clifford, who achieved First Class Honours in Health Science at the University of Sydney in 2015, guest writes a piece for the Amnesty International Australia NSW Legal Network. This piece is especially interesting following on from the Legal Network’s International Women’s Day campaign.

Sport is, and has always been, male dominated. Within the sporting arena, men are displayed as powerful and often violent, symbolising the natural superiority of men over women. Given this social construction of sport, women traditionally participate in a smaller range of physical activities than men, and in lower numbers.

Sport is known to empower women, helping them develop a positive sense of self. Female participation in sport is constantly increasing, though the arena remains largely male-dominated, playing a critical role in the reproduction of gender inequality.

People with disabilities compete in sport less than their able-bodied counterparts, and women with disabilities participate less than men with disabilities. However, it is not known if the masculinity of sport affects women with disabilities who participate in sport.

My project aimed to enhance the limited knowledge of gender and sports participation in the lives of women with physical disabilities. In doing so I explored a) how the cultural association of sport and masculinity influences their sporting experiences and b) whether sports participation results in challenges to their gender identity.

Research Design

My qualitative study followed a phenomenological framework to gain insight into the subjective experiences of the women. Semi-structured interviews were conducted then analysed using grounded theory.

Inclusion criteria for the study was: (i) women over 18 years of age, (ii) either currently or within the last 12 months participating in sport at any level, and (iii) living with a physical disability. Individuals who were not comfortable conversing in English were excluded from the study, as there was no funding for interpreters. People with an intellectual disability were also excluded to ensure comparable data.

Following ethics approval, several disability sports organisations agreed to assist with recruitment, snowballing was also utilised. Purposeful sampling was used to target individuals with specific knowledge, rather than representative of whole population.

Eight women between the ages of 20 and 46 were recruited, all of whom were able to participate in an interview unassisted. Table 1 provides a demographic overview of the sample.

Table 1: Participant demographics

A single face-to-face interview was conducted with participants at a location of their choice. Interviews lasted between 22 and 53 minutes, and were guided by an interview schedule that had been developed based on a literature review.

Each interview was recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were manually coded to identify themes related to the objectives, with patterns identified by comparing and contrasting codes.

Trustworthiness was addressed in three ways. Credibility was addressed through a description of the researcher’s role in the research and the use of direct quotations to support conclusions. Transferability was addressed through descriptions of multiple participants’ experiences. And dependability was addressed through member-checking with another researcher.

Problems Encountered

The sample is over-representative of women who participate at an elite level. Attempts were made to find women who participated at a social level; this was challenging due to their small numbers. Secondly, time limits prevented studying larger numbers of participants representing a broader sample of women (i.e. in terms of age, ethnicity, disability type, severity and sports type etc.).

Findings

The emergent themes and codes were grouped under two categories, (1) the impact of gender on sports participation and (2) the impact of sports participation on gender identity.

The themes categorised under the Impact of Gender on Sports Participation can be seen here in Figure 1, and were Opportunities and Barriers to Participate and Male and Female Enablers and Disablers.

Figure 1.

The corresponding codes under Opportunities and Barriers to Participate included Small Population Numbers and Gender Inequalities in Financial Support and the for the theme Male and Female Enablers and Disablers the codes were Female Role Models, Gendered Influences of Health Professionals and Sexism.

Under the Impact of Sports Participation on Gender, as seen in Figure 2, the themes were firstly Sport as an Arena of Feminine Enablement and Empowerment, which included the code Showcasing Female Abilities, and secondly Sport as a Masculinising Arena.

Figure 2.

Although women with disabilities are said to be restricted by a ‘double discrimination,’ experiencing prejudice based on both their sex and disability, this study revealed that their lived reality—at least in the sporting arena—is more complicated and less consistent than generalisations suggest.

For example, the cultural association of sport played a negative and positive role in the women’s opportunities to play sport. In some cases, being female gave the women opportunities to participate in sport they otherwise would not have had. Heather, a 23-year-old Paralympic swimmer said: Being a female athlete in my particular sport hasn’t held me back; it’s actually helped me in a way … being a girl has allowed me to actually be good at what I do.

Several women had the opportunity to play in mixed-sex teams, such as wheelchair basketball, and were at times subjected to sexism. Nicole, a Paralympic sailor and wheelchair basket baller said: I had the ball, and to defend me he just grabbed my boob. I didn’t know what to do. I just dropped the ball and acted like nothing happened. Furthermore, their roles were defined by the cultural norms of masculinity and they were expected to avoid their femininity whilst playing sport with men.

Thus, their participation in elite levels of sport came at a cost. Many of the women acknowledged that sport did challenge their gender identity. Only two participants said they had no masculine traits and refused to adopt any; Prue, a 20-year-old Paralympic snowboarder said: I am only feminine, when I am doing my sport or not. I would not describe myself as masculine.

Most of the women acknowledged they had more masculine than feminine traits before they entered the male domain of sport: Laura, a 24-year-old Paralympic horse rider said: I have always had more masculine traits than feminine. I don’t worry about my appearance, or makeup or clothing … when I am competing or when I’m not. This suggests that the women self-select and, like their able-bodied counterparts, women with disabilities who have a more feminine identity may be less inclined to participate in sport in the first place.

In order to feel accepted in the sporting arena, many of the women adopted more masculine behaviours, simply to feel accepted. Athena, a 27-year-old Paralympic skier said: I just have to become one of the blokes. I just have to fit in and get it done. It's easier that way. For the most part, the women had to adapt to the masculine culture because men and the sporting arena would not alter to accommodate femininity.

Additionally, the seven participants who were elite athletes saw themselves foremost as athletes rather than being bound by traditional gender expectations, so were perhaps more open to change as they were concerned with the aspects of performance and skill development rather than levels of femininity. There were exceptions. The women who trained with males but competed in female-specific competition, such as skiing felt less pressured to change their gender identities and conform to a masculine culture. Laura said: Playing with the boys made me feel like I belonged somewhere … the boys really made me feel a part of the team, and I loved that.

By training with men their performance and skill development improved while overcoming some of the issues surrounding limited participants. By competing only against women, they felt less pressured to conform to male cultural norms. This suggests that sport may be an arena to challenge, rather than conform to, gender norms for women living with physical disabilities.

This study reinforced the fact that, when managed well, sports has the capacity to enhance a sense of self and autonomy for women living with physical disabilities, positively impacting their self-esteem and quality of life. In doing so, it increases their opportunities to overcome stigmas attached to disability and gender. Moreover, some women in this study revealed how sport gave them a temporary freedom from the social stigmas resulting from their gender and disability as well as their physical restrictions. Athena said: Sport gave me the confidence to actually go out there and do stuff, it taught me that I could be something, and could be something great, despite the fact I have a disability and I was a girl.

Consequently, sport is equally as important in the lives of women with disabilities who play at a social level as it is for those who play at an elite. This has implications not only for disability sports organisations but also schools, disability programs and disability organisations more generally, highlighting the importance of access to disability specific sporting opportunities for girls from an early age, with any type of physical impairment.