Sport and Women

Social Issues in International Perspective

Gertrud Pfister, Ilse Hartmann-Tews, Gertrud Pfister, Ilse Hartmann-Tews

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780415246279
• eBook ISBN: 9781134578238
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Although female athletes are successful in all types of sport, in many countries sport is still a male domain. This book examines and compares the sporting experiences of women from different countries around the world and offers the first systematic and cross-cultural analysis of the topic of women in sport. Sport and Women presents a wealth of new research data, including in-depth case-studies of 16 countries in North and South America, Asia, Eastern and Western Europe and Africa. In addition, the book offers comparative assessments of the extent to which women are represented in global sport and the opportunities that women have to participate in decision-making processes in sport.The book illuminates a wide range of key international issues in women's sport, such as cultural barriers to participation and the efficacy of political action. It is therefore essential reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology, culture and politics of sport.

1 Women and sport in comparative and international perspectives

Issues, aims and theoretical approaches

Gertrud Pfister and Ilse Hartmann-Tews

Women in sport: still marginalised?

Physical activities are always intertwined with the structures, norms and ideals of a society, and they always mirror that society’s gender order and gender hierarchy. Therefore, in many countries all over the world and in all phases of history, women have played a specific, but often marginal, role in traditional games, dances and physical activities.

What is the situation today? Using the Olympic Games as an example, we observe that women are increasingly being admitted to more and more previously designated ‘male’ types of sport – even soccer, ice hockey, weightlifting and pole-vaulting are now included in the women’s programme (Pfister 2000). This development gives rise to the issue as to whether the long-standing demand for equal access and equal opportunity for women and men in sport has finally been met. However, women in ‘male’ sports still represent a tiny minority of young athletes and, as far as is known, women and girls in many countries of the world are engaged in physical activities and sport to a much smaller extent than boys and men (see the contributions in Christensen et al. 2001). Nonetheless, questions surrounding the issue still remain. Are there countries where women form the majority of those active in sport? Do girls and women everywhere prefer the same types of physical activities and sport and the same sport providers? Do female elite athletes worldwide enjoy the same support as their male counterparts? And, while decision-making committees still seem to be in the hands of men, is this true for all countries throughout the world?¹

We know about the tendencies mentioned above from data, which are available in many countries. However, the statistical data are taken from different sources and are of varying quality; moreover, they are gathered for different reasons and by different methods. They may range from the membership statistics of sports federations to public opinion polls, but their value is often limited. In addition, in some countries, a considerable amount of research about women and sport has been conducted, taking into consideration the background of active participation in sport, the reasons for the gender hierarchy in sport and the social context of sports practice. But in many parts of the world there is scarcely any scholarly interest in this topic.² Furthermore, there is a general lack of reliable, accessible and comprehensive surveys of the situation of women in sport, and even if information about women’s role in sport and its organisations is available, language barriers are a major obstacle in preventing the dissemination of knowledge beyond a country or at least beyond a language group.

We know from various sources that in many countries women have undertaken different kinds of initiatives in sport with different objectives: The extent to which these initiatives have had an impact on the situation of girls and women in sport, the nature of these impacts and whether they have been positive has not yet been adequately determined, mainly because there is a dearth of substantiated information on the situation of girls and women in sport in different countries. If we wish to evaluate the effects of political action and discuss the question of whether and how these activities can be transferred to other countries, we need verifiable documentation on the initiatives and best practices in various areas as well as in different countries.

There are so many blank spots on the map of women’s sport that it is impossible to discern a clear overall picture, to learn from each other or to conduct inter-cultural comparisons. Up to now, no one has undertaken a systematic international or cross-cultural analysis, which takes into account not only the participation and situation of women in sport as well as their opportunities and problems, but also the influences of their social environment and of different structural and cultural factors ranging from religion to the labour market.

Knowledge and understanding: the objectives of the book

The primary intention of this book is to fill the gaps mentioned above and answer the questions raised. The aim is to collect systematic information, to analyse backgrounds and causes, to identify connections between participation in sport on the one hand and gendered structures and hierarchies in society on the other and to find explanations for the gender differences and hierarchies in the world of sport. Hence, the main objective of the book is to contribute in a systematic way to the general knowledge and awareness of the situation of women in sport in different countries. It will help to gain a better understanding of the particular features of each country and of issues, which are of central concern in different countries.

Detailed knowledge about how sport is organised in different countries, who participates and what projects and programmes have been set up, together with a regular and intensive exchange of information, is as important today as it ever was. For one thing, supra-national co-operation in an increasingly integrated Europe, and indeed worldwide, is only possible if the structures and conditions in the different countries, the different ‘sports cultures’, are taken into consideration. Here, the specific situation of women in sport must be accounted for in all debate, initiatives and cooperation agreements. For another, in the context of globalisation processes, it is not only the ideologies and practices of modern sport that are spreading throughout the world but also the gender order. This makes it especially important to identify and document the typical patterns of structures and cultures existing in the different countries both in sport and outside it. On this basis, it is then possible to discuss and decide upon the transfer of projects and programmes to Third World countries. Last but not least, we want to provide authentic material for critical comparative analysis.

The contents of the book are multi-national and international in scope, with analyses of trends in countries from North and South America, Asia, Oceania, Eastern and Western Europe and Africa. The countries were selected according to criteria of geographical representation as well as according to their different socio-economic and cultural contexts and political structures. At the same time it was considered important to include countries that have demonstrated positive advocacy and action on equity issues with regard to the representation of girls and women in sport. The choice of countries also depended on the availability of information as well as the existence, the interest and the commitment of potential authors. Women and sport still seem to be a non-issue in many areas of the world.

Bearing these criteria in mind, the following countries were included: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, China, France, Germany, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Through the diversity of the countries selected, insight is provided into a broad spectrum of organisations, practices and ideologies prevalent in sport; the diversity also enables identification of correlations between women’s sport and social systems. In this respect the contributions may serve as a basis for cross-cultural studies and, beyond this, generate ideas for further, more detailed and more comprehensive comparisons.

Methods: framework and guidelines

A precondition of undertaking an analysis of the situation of women in sport beyond national boundaries and, as a second step, drawing up inter-cultural comparisons is that information from the different countries and/or cultures is available. For this reason we proposed to the authors beforehand an underlying concept, namely Judith Lorber’s theory of gender, and chose this as the theoretical background of the contribution as well as the starting point for guidance on. On the basis of this gender theory, it was possible to reduce the enormous number of questions relating to women’s sport to the relevant issues and fit them into a concise set of questions, which was then passed on to the authors in the form of guidelines. Thus, the book does not contain a random collection of articles, which have little relation to each other owing to the different interests and competence of the authors. What has been attempted here is the collection of reliable and comparable information from the different authors on the same subjects and issues. In doing so, it was also important to agree on a definition of sport – a difficult undertaking since, although the word is commonly used in many countries, there are terminological variations and/or differences in meanings. Sport in the context of this book relates to the same comprehensive understanding of sport as it is defined in the European Sport for All Charter, i.e. in the sense of free, spontaneous physical activity engaged in during leisure time including competitive sports and various other physical activities. It includes not only sport as such (competitive games and sport), but also, and especially, multifarious forms of recreational physical activities, ranging from playing games and outdoor activities to health-related physical activities and aesthetic movement.

We asked all authors to provide insight into the organisation and structure, the trends and dynamics of sport in their countries, focusing the gender issue along a shared framework of key questions. They focused on central structural elements as well as on significant international issues of women in sport, for example the system of sport (voluntary sector, public sector, commercial providers, etc.) and the representation of girls and women within these structures (special organisations for girls and women, sports that are dominated by men or women, etc.); women in decision-making committees of sport organisations and institutions and models of advocacy (percentages of representation, strategies to increase the number of female leaders, etc.); support of top-level athletes; and, finally, ‘best practices’ with regard to the ‘empowerment’ of girls and women in sport. In addition, the authors were asked to reflect on the impacts of culture and society as well as of conditions of life and gender roles on the sporting biographies of girls and women and to provide explanations for the gender differences on the basis of the scientific knowledge available in their respective countries.

Through intensive editing and supplementary enquiries we were able to ensure that this framework of reference was made use of in each of the national contributions as far as this was possible on the basis of the information available. All in all, the process of editing and the continual revision of the findings extended over a period of many months, but the time and energy spent are justified by the wealth and the authenticity of the data and insights gathered, especially as many of them emanate from countries about whose sports organisations and practices scarcely anything was known in the West up to the present. The contributions in this book lend themselves to first cross-cultural comparisons, offering numerous possibilities of gaining fresh insights as well as providing starting points for further-reaching research work.

Aims, problems and theories of cross-cultural studies

Cross-cultural approaches help not only to overcome ethnocentric points of view and awaken more understanding for the great diversity of physical cultures but also to understand and explain the connections between sport, gender and society.

Using cross-cultural studies, we can among other things explore:

1. the interaction of cultural influences (religion, values, norms, etc.) and – more or less universal – structural gender hierarchies;
2. the interaction between the gender order on the one hand and the organisation and the practice of sport on the other;
3. the significance of social structures for women’s sport in different cultures and also opportunities for women to deal with or perhaps even change these structures;
4. the role of socialisation and education in people’s active participation in sport;
5. ‘best practices’ – their benefits and costs as well as their efficacy and their limitations;
6. sport policy and its influence on sport providers and participation in sport.³

Cross-cultural studies confront researchers with particular problems with regard not only to the equivalence of symbols, meanings and institutions but also to data collection and interpretation. One of the greatest problems in this respect is ethnocentricity, which can influence the entire research process from the very first approach to the issue right up to the conclusions drawn from the findings. But apart from these problems, intercultural comparisons are based on the same research principles, the same theories and the same methods that are used in the social sciences generally (Allardt 1976; Ragin 1989; Øyen 1990).

Comparisons are made up of the search for similarities, variations and differences in the systems or subsystems under investigation. Similarities can verify hypotheses and theoretical concepts, and are related to structural links. By contrast, differences are much harder to explain and in intercultural comparisons must be attributed to specific factors in the different cultures. It is for this reason that cross-cultural studies are often described as ‘natural’ experiments (Nowak 1989).

In the controversy over cultural relativism and universalism in cross-cultural studies, we assume that there are both universal as well as culturally rooted patterns of behaviour and thinking, structures, values and ideologies. If we ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Women and Sport In Comparative and International Perspectives: Issues, Aims and Theoretical Approaches
• 2. Women and Sport In Norway
• 3. Women and Sport In the UK
• 4. The Inclusion of Women Into the German Sport System
• 5. Sports Development and Inclusion of Women In France
• 6. Women and Sport In Spain
• 7. Women and Sport In the Czech Republic
• 8. Women and Sport In Tanzania
• 9. Women and Sport In South Africa: Shaped By History and Shaping Sporting History
• 10. Social Issues In American Women’s Sports
• 11. Girls’ and Women’s Sport In Canada: From Playground to Podium
• 12. Brazilian Women and Girls In Physical Activities and Sport
• 13. Women In Colombian Sport: A Review of Absence and Redemption
• 14. Women and Sport In Iran: Keeping Goal In the Hijab?
• 15. Women’s Sport In the People’s Republic of China: Body, Politics and the Unfinished Revolution
• 16. Gender Relations In Japanese Sports Organisation and Sport Involvement
• 17. Women and Sport In New Zealand
• 18. Women’s Inclusion In Sport: International and Comparative Findings