Constraints to women’s participation in sports: a study of participation of Pakistani female students in physical activities

ABSTRACT

Historically, women’s participation in activities outside of the home, such as in sport, has been discouraged due to several reasons. This article aims to explore the barriers to women in sporting activities by addressing the ratio of their participation in capitals of each province of Pakistan, using the feminist lens. With the help of stratified random sampling, women’s colleges in four Pakistani provincial capital cities were surveyed, using a questionnaire specifically designed for this study. M-plus was used to eliminate the questions which had little or no influence on female participation in sport. Independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA then post hoc test and follow-up results revealed that sub-dimensions of the constraints ‘Mass Media’ and ‘Religious and Cultural’ were the most significant factors, with mean up to 2.8 and 2.7, respectively. There are significant differences (p < 0.05) in constraints experienced by female students in big and small cities and in public and private institutions. The results provide preliminary evidence that alerting family members to the benefits of sport and providing facilities for women can enhance their participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Women sports
• lack of participation
• constraints
• sporting activities
• family issues
• religious and cultural limitations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rizwan Laar

Rizwan Laar is the PhD scholar at Beijing NormalUniversity, Beijing, China. His research areas include, genderstudies, feminism, sports and sociology.

Jianhua Zhang

Professor Jianhua Zhang, PhD, supervisor, has been working for the School of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, since 1987. His current research interests include sociology of sports, theory of knowledge of physical education, and comparative study of physical education and sports.

Tianran Yu

Tianran Yu (1986‑till date) has been associated with the College of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing Normal University, Haidian District, Beijing. His research direction is on sports sociology.

Huanhuan Qi

Huanhuan Qi (1983‑till date), PhD, is a student of the College of Physical Education and Sports at Beijing Normal University. Her major is sports humanities and sociology.

Muhammad Azeem Ashraf

Ashraf Muhammad Azeem, PhD, is a candidate at the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. He has been a lecturer and consultant for different universities in China. He has (co)authored many articles in different international journals and book chapters. His work mainly focuses on educational policy and social justice education.