Sport Participation and Women's Personal Empowerment: Experiences of the College Athlete

Abstract

As a result of gender-role socialization, women are often discouraged from viewing themselves as strong, competent, and self-determining individuals. Becoming empowered at the personal level would represent a foundation from which women could counteract these limiting self-perceptions as well as gain control over their lives. We explore the potential of sport participation to provide women with this increased sense of power. Telephone interviews were conducted with 24 women athletes in three Division Iintercollegiate sport programsin the United States. Athletes' responses suggest that sport participation related to the development of three empowering qualities women traditionally lack: (a) bodily competence, (b) perceptions of a competent self, and (c) a proactive approach to life. Despite participating in a sport context that is largely governed by men and where male notions of power prevail, the nature of power discussed by these women athletes was generally consistent with feminist reconceptualizations. n a society characterized by rigid gender-role socialization and institutional discrimination, women are often denied opportunities to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for advancement (Brown

Adolescent Women's Sports Involvement and Sexual Behavior/Health: A Process-Level Investigation

“…Blinde et al (1993) Hence. Blinde et al (1993) provide empirical, if subjective evidence that young women's sports involvement is linked to and indeed positively influences young women's views of their bodies (i.e.. functional body orientation).…”

“…In their study of sports participation and the development of young women's personal empowerment, Blinde, Taub, and Han (1993) interviewed 24 intercollegiate athJetes. Blinde et al's results indicated that young women's sports involvement was related to young women's development of bodily competence (the degree to which participants reported having a strong and competent body) -a concept that is similar to the idea of body functionality.…”

“…Participation in organized sports has been suggested to be positively related to adolescent women's sense of empowermentyefficacy (Blinde et al, 1993;Cahn, 1994;Sabo et al, 1999).…”

“…In a separate study (described above), Blinde et al (1993) explored the development of personally empowering skills (e.g., control, competence, and selfdetermination) among female college athletes. Interview responses revealed that sports participation was related to young women's development of (a) "a competent self ~ an empowermg view of self which encourages individuals to see themselves as competent and capable as well as possessing the ability to control events in their lives; and (b) "a proactive approach to life" -the ability to set goals, establish strategies for achieving those goals, and feel comfortable being assertive.…”

“…Specifically, those studies have documented a favorable link between adolescent females' involvement in organized sports and adolescent females' sense of empowerment, including feelings of control and self-reliance and the dismissal of gender role stereotypes (e.g., Blinde et al, 1993;Butcher, 1989;Miller & Levy, 1996).…”