This article examines some of the gendered processes surrounding the selection of leaders in Norwegian sporting organizations. It was found that the most desirable candidates possessed professional-managerial skills that could open corporate doors. This corporate image reflects the valorization of masculine norms in contemporary organizations. The normalization of this androcentric culture rendered the organizations as gender-neutral entities, thus masking fundamental links between masculinity, power and leadership. The study illustrates the formidable distance between rhetoric and reality, as well as between legislation and realization.
Coaching is a male dominated area of sport. Globally, women coaches represent a small minority and only a few women coach male athletes. In Norway it is estimated that only about 19% of all coaches are women. In this article we engage in issues regarding the gendering of coaching from an athlete perspective. The concerns are how meanings of gender mirror the athletes’ perceptions and experiences of coaching practices. The theoretical framework develops our understanding of gender and how leadership ideals and practices are structured by and through gender. The data material consists of qualitative interviews with Norwegian boxers. The analysis demonstrates that male coaches earn the respect of their boxers more easily than female coaches do. Furthermore, female boxers experience a more open and socially supportive coach–athlete relationship with female coaches. The coach–athlete relationship with male coaches is often shaped by paternalism, which particularly seems to represent a challenge for young female athletes. The interviewees describe sound coaching as consisting of leadership forms associated with both masculine and feminine skills.
The Norwegian Confederation of Sports, the non-profit umbrella organization for all organized sports in Norway, has gradually accepted women’s demands for equal opportunities and full integration at all levels. The situation for women in sports politics and coaching today is characterized by male dominance as well as high drop-out rates and recruiting problems among women.The aim of the investigation, as basis for this article, was to give women’s experiences within elected posts and coaching a public voice and elaborate why women hesitate to involve themselves or drop-out after a short period of time. The following questions are outlined and discussed:- What motivates women to take up elected posts and coaching? - What experiences do women have after holding such posts and roles? - What problems and challenges seem to be difficult to face and handle?The analytical perspective was inspired by the feminist critique of organizations as gender-neutral arenas, and Bourdieu’s analysis of dominance and power within social fields. The empirical material consisted of questionnaire data and data from a search conference. The sample consisted of women holding elected posts, as well as, female coaches.Based upon the results women as a group within male domains were not empowered to raise and articulate interests and needs as women. The respondents reported an awareness of barriers, role conflicts and dilemmas, but lacked most often the ability to initiate collective emancipatory changes. The established male-dominated practices were seen as selfevident and natural. Many women chose the strategy of exit as the solution to their situation, because the cost of promoting change outweighed the benefits.
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