Abstract
The main aim of the book Gender and Sport. Changes and Challenges edited by Gertrud Pfister and Mari Kristin Sisjord is to discuss and provide knowledge about current issues concerning gender and sport. ‘Changes’ and ‘challenges’, mentioned in the book’s title, are the key words here, because the authors focus on the changes, their ‘backgrounds, reasons and effects’ (p. 7) and challenges still faced by women involved in sports in various roles in different countries. Key themes analyzed in this book from a gender perspective are: women in sports organizations and coaching environments; the status of women in so-called male sports; sexuality in sport and gender in physical education.
The book is a tribute to Kari Fasting, a Professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, on the occasion of her 70th birthday. As presented by the editors of the book, Kari Fasting is ‘one of the most influential participants in the struggle for gender equality in sport [and] has had a large impact as an athlete, leader, and scholar’ (p. 7). Fasting’s main areas of research are physical activity and sport in the Norwegian population; experience and meaning of sport for women; sexual harassment and abuse in sport; and, more recently, the misrepresentation of women among sports coaches. She initiated and took part in numerous projects, both national (Norwegian) and international, and she is an author of an enormous number of publications including books, articles and research reports. Fasting also has wide experience in administrative tasks in higher education and nongovernmental organizations related to women’s sport.
The book is divided into six sections. The first section, entitled ‘Gender and sport in a historical perspective’, contains only one chapter – ‘Writing women’s and gender sport history: personal reflections’. After presenting her thoughts on gender sport history, the author – M Ann Hall – describes three books which deal with this perspective in different ways. These books are: Body by Weimar: Athletes, Gender, and German Modernity, by Erik N Jensen (2010), A Wilder West: Rodeo in Western Canada, by Mary-Ellen Kelm, (2011), and Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity and the Limits of Sport by Mary Louise Adams (2011). By means of her selection, Hall states that ‘we need to use more sophisticated analyses of how gender, race, class and sexuality intersect and shape experiences’ (p. 28), and this approach will enrich women’s and gender sport history.
The second section focuses on women as leaders and coaches and opens with Jorid Hovden’s analysis of women as agents of change. On the basis of interview data, the author analyzes the authority and practices of women in powerful positions in male-dominated sports organizations. According to Hovden, women who recognize the presence of gender inequalities in sport, and perceive the important role of sport both for individuals and local communities, play a crucial role as change agents. In the next chapter, Johanna A. Adriaanse emphasizes the subject of the chapter’s title, “The role of men in advancing gender equality in sport governance.” The chapter is based on a study of Australian NSOs and uses the concept of gender regime (Connell, 2009) as its theoretical framework. Adriaanse argues that ‘men can play a critical role in advancing gender equality’ (p. 67) in several ways, by offering support for gender quotas, the allocation of significant positions and responsibilities, [developing] collaborative and supportive relations, and through recognition and understanding of gender (in)equality. The second section closes with Gertrud Pfister’s analysis of the status of women in coaching environments in Germany. The author uses several sources: information about mega sports events, websites of sports federations and results of conducted studies. After noting that not only are men coached exclusively by male coaches, but these male coaches also ‘play a dominant role in women’s sports’ (p. 75), Pfister then provides an examination of factors – gender stereotypes, coaching education, recruitment strategies and working conditions – influencing the dominance of men in sports coaching.
The chapters in the next, third, section, ‘Women in “men’s sports”’ describe the situation of women in three so-called ‘men’s sports’: football, snowboarding and boxing. The section opens with Bente Ovèdie Skogvang’s (2006) findings from her doctoral thesis: ‘Elite football – a field of changes’. The author, referring to Bourdieu’s concept of field (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992) and her own research (fieldwork and interviews), shows similarities and differences between male and female football players. One of her most important findings is that ‘men can transfer their status to other fields, women cannot’ (p. 119): for example, men can convert their physical and football capital into financial capital. In the chapter ‘Women battling for a space in snowboarding’, Mari Kristin Sisjord focuses on women in the Norwegian Snowboard Federation (NSBF) and the work of a group of women snowboarders – the PowderPuffGirls (PPGirls) – to promote this sport. The author states that the development of women’s involvement in snowboard can be discussed from its initial status as a social movement to integration in the Federation. While the chapter by Sisjord is based on interviews, Gerd von der Lippe, in the final chapter of this section, analyzes media (the Norwegian press) discourses on women’s dress codes in two sports disciplines – beach volleyball and boxing. She emphasizes that sports discourse, for which the context is dominating masculinity, produces and maintains a dichotomy between female and male bodies.
The fourth section, ‘Health issues: harassment, homophobia and empowerment’, opens with the chapter ‘Issues of gender and sexuality in sport’, in which the author, Heidi Eng, presents some findings from a qualitative research on the LGBT handball team Hullabaloo. She uses queer theory and the concept of ‘queering’ (Berlant and Warner, 2002) as a theoretical framework. It should be noted that the author joined and followed the team in one season (2006–2007) and adopted the role of coach in cooperation with one of the players. While Eng stresses the important role of the Hullabaloo team in making LGBT culture visible, she also emphasizes some of the negatives consequences (e.g. experiences of discrimination, greater pressure on results to achieve respect as an athlete) of their performances. Stiliani ‘Ani’ Chroni, in the chapter ‘Sexual harassment of female athletes’, reviews the literature on sexual harassment in sport and emphasizes the importance of safety for girls and women in sport. Carole A Oglesby, as an academic and consultant on the psychology of sports, proposes another way of thinking about sport as ‘safe space’ which is based on attachment theory and analysis of attachment styles. She suggests that this approach should be used by sports’ psychologists to enhance the possibility of success.
The fifth section, ‘Doing gender in physical education: contested discourses and practices’, deals with physical education and stresses its important role in sports participation. In the first chapter of this section Sheila Scraton analyzes relationships between feminism and physical education since the 1980s. In her conclusions she stresses that a lot has changed with regard to theory, but that the connection between theory and PE practice remains ‘problematic’ (p. 212) because there is still much to be done. Fiona Dowling’s article, ‘Teacher educators’ – gendered workplace tales’, is based on a narrative approach and presents opinions and experience of PE’ teachers. Dowling argues that the notion of ‘physical education-as-sport techniques’ (p. 227) reproduces inequalities in sport and the gender order. The chapter ‘Norwegian-Pakistani girls’ experiences in physical education in Norway’, written by Kristin Walseth, closes this section. Walseth begins by describing the Norwegian context of the Pakistani community and PE, and continues with a review of research on Muslim girls and PE. The second part of Walseth’s chapter is based on interviews with Norwegian-Pakistani girls and focuses on attitudes towards PE and a need for gender-segregated PE. The author finds that although attitudes towards PE are mostly positive, the satisfaction with PE is less in secondary schools than in primary schools. In the concluding discussion the author emphasizes the importance of the concept of intersectionality for this kind of research which enables us to understand, for example, that Muslim girls’ attitudes towards PE are not always dictated by religiosity, as is often assumed.
The sixth and final section of the book,– ‘Personal memories and perspectives’, consists of three chapters. In two of them the authors (Celia Brackenridge and Anita White) refer to their contacts with Kari Fasting which were very significant and fruitful, both personally and professionally. The third chapter in this section, – ‘Women, traditions and their opportunities in sport management: the Czech experience’, written by Nadezda Knorre, describes the status of women in powerful positions in Czech sports – a topic which should certainly be interesting for the readers from ‘old’ Europe or North America.
The assumption that ‘gender is constructed as a split and as a power relationship’ (Hovden, p. 36) is something common for all the authors. Individual authors refer to different concepts and theories rooted in the feminist paradigm. We can perhaps assume that these theories and concepts are well-known: but, very importantly, they became the basis for the research carried out by most of the authors in this book. The empirical nature of the majority of chapters is one of the high points of this book, because ‘the fundamental tenet of feminism has always been the relationship between theory and practice’ (Scraton, p. 207).
The majority of the research conducted by the contributing authors was qualitative and based mainly on in-depth interviews. Extending the coverage to a wider range of other qualitative methods, such as observation, including participant observation, visual methods and discourse analysis, would have been interesting and would have enriched the book. I am myself a strong advocate of qualitative research and I think it enables a better understanding to be gained of the everyday practices of ‘doing gender’ and gender relations. However, to change the situation of women in sport it will be important to investigate a range of analyzed phenomena, something possible only by using quantitative methods.
The authors emphasize the role of women as agents of change (Hovden, p. 37, Sisjord, p. 124), but they also stress that ‘including men in the advancement of gender equality is fundamental’ (Adriaanse, p. 66). However, we find that this is not the case with this book: all authors are women. Kari Fasting, as a person, unites all the authors of the book’s chapters, as mentioned above. The selection of authors in the book provides readers with the opportunity to read papers prepared by recognized scholars who have long been involved in issues of gender and sport, now collected in this single volume. In addition, some of the articles have been written by younger researchers – a new generation of scholars. This example of inter-generational exchange of ideas not only highlights the changes that have taken place, but also indicates that some problems remain and that there is still much to be done. Knowledge of gender and sport has developed, the situation of women in sport has changed, but – as Sheila Scraton (p. 209) wrote – ‘gender still matters’.
The input from the most important authors from this field of research, the empirical character and currency of the research, together with the abundant references to the most recent literature in each chapter are perhaps the most useful aspects of the book. The publication certainly suggests directions for future research and identifies the main challenges for women in sport. As such it is relevant not only to researchers but also to practitioners working on gender and sport.
Finally, it is worth noting that the authors are very active both as academics and in sports. Many of them were or still are involved with professional sport. These facts make the book an excellent example of feminist praxis. (Hall, 1996: 78; Stanley, 1990: 15,; as cited by Scraton [current book], p. 207).