Opportunities and barriers that females face for study and employment in sport

Abstract

The lack of women in graduate-level jobs in sport may be because of a lack of supply. Based on data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service for the UK (UCAS, 2017), the number of females applying and being accepted onto sport and exercise science courses is low. These figures are also decreasing. In 2016, 29% of applicants were female, compared to in 2007, when 34% were female; the same percentages were observed for acceptances (UCAS, 2017). In the US, there is a distinct lack of gender diversity in sport management programmes (as well as disproportion of Faculty/staff members), with nearly 40% of sport management programmes having a female student ratio of less than 20% (Floyd Jones, Brooks, & Mak, 2008). The low numbers of females completing sport-related degrees may contribute to the inequalities observed in the labour market. To explore why there are fewer females than males on sport-related courses and in sport-related employment at senior level, researchers have examined perceived barriers through interviews and questionnaires. Some similar theories have emerged from these studies to explain this gender disparity, including: gender stereotyping and gender discrimination; a perceived lack of self-confidence amongst females in achieving career success (Hartmann &

Prevalence of sufficient MVPA among Thai adults: pooled panel data analysis from Thailand’s surveillance on physical activity 2012–2019

“…The physiological construction of the female body comprises less skeletal frame and muscle mass than males [ 22 ]. That fact might reduce self-efficacy in performing PA for Thai females [ 23 ]. In addition, there is a socio-cultural expectation for Thai females to be calm and neat, and the normative Thai preference for fair skin may deter many women from outdoor, daytime PA [ 24 ].…”

Expectativas laborales de los estudiantes de licenciatura en Educación Física en México (Work expectations of physical education teacher education candidates in Mexico)

“…En la literatura consultada se encontró que la falta de experiencia, saturación del mercado laboral, puestos con baja remuneración económica, personas no calificadas o pasantes que ocupan espacios laborales propios de la EF y la falta de especialización, son algunas de las dificultades que enfrentan los recién egresados para poder conseguir un empleo (Salles et al, 2015). Aunado a lo anterior, encontrar trabajo representa un reto aún mayor para las mujeres, debido a diversas barreras ideológicas sobre su desempeño profesional en ciertas áreas de la EF (Forsyth, Jones, Duval & Bambridge, 2019;Sykes, 2004). Una vez que obtienen empleo enfrentan desventajas salariales, por tal motivo es común encontrar menos mujeres desempeñándose profesionalmente en el campo de EF (Fonseca & Both, 2021;Rodeiro et al, 2018).…”

Composite Appraisal of Women Development in Selected Thirty-six Countries with Special Focus on Pakistan: Applying Grey Incidence Analysis Model

“…Relevant studies that are necessary to set out the outset of the study are reported in this article. Avalanche of published literature can be witnessed on women development across the globe including: identifying the capabilities of women's leadership and sustainable development in Colombia (Barrios et al, 2020), exploring the relationship between female directorship and firm performance in France (Bennouri et al, 2018), gender inequality in assets ownership in Latin America (Deere et al, 2010), wage gaps of female-male among salaried workers in India (Deshpande et al, 2018;Lee & Wie, 2017;Menon & Rodgers, 2009), uncovered opportunities and barriers of female employment in sports in UK (Forsyth et al, 2019), women segregation in tourism employment in APEC region (Hutchings et al, 2020), women empowerment in East Africa (Miedema et al, 2018), women empowerment in Nepal (O'Hara & Clement, 2018), women asset ownership in rural south-east and north-east Nigeria (Oladokun et al, 2018), participation of Saudi women in development index (Omair et al, 2020), gender wage gap in Mexico (Popli, 2013), gender wage discrimination in Pakistan (Sabir & Aftab, 2007;Yasmin, 2009), gender wage inequality between 1992-2014 in Sri Lanka (Seneviratne, 2020), role of female directors and stock price in China (Shahab et al, 2020), women's social and financial empowerment in Pakistan (Tahir et al, 2018) and gender wage gap in Philippines (Zveglich Jr. et al, 2019). Bennouri et al (2018) examined the data of 394 French firms and affirmed that there is a positive relationship between female board directorship and firm performance; similar finding have been found by Nekhili & Gatfaoui (2013) and Peni (2014).…”

“…Deshpande et al (2018) found male-female wage discrimination among salaried workers in India wherein female are likely to be paid less. Forsyth et al (2019) identified barriers and opportunities of female employment in sports and bolstered that gender inequality is still need to be addressed in educational sports related settings. Hutchings et al (2020) gathered data form tourism sector of 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies and concluded that there is clear segregation of women in tourism employment across the economies due to intersectionality and cultural barriers.…”