Gender and leadership positions in recreational hockey clubs

Abstract

While gendered participation in sport is widely researched, less is known about the culture of women in leadership roles at recreational level sporting clubs. Women are not traditionally associated with leadership roles in sport and the culture of sport is often a space where males are in positions of power. This manuscript explores the experiences of women from two mixed-gendered and one female-only recreational level field hockey clubs in Melbourne, Australia, and examines the gendered leadership (specifically male dominance), at these hockey clubs. The principal aim of this study is to examine (using Connell's theory of gender relations, which focuses on gender imbalances of power) the differences in the level of involvement of women in leadership roles between mixed-gendered and single-gendered hockey clubs, the culture of patriarchal power at play at all three hockey clubs and how such power affected the opportunities for women in leadership roles.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge Dr Caroline Symons from Victoria University who has provided guidance and support for a long period of time, particularly through the PhD process, and thank the participants in this research who contributed their time and made me feel part of the hockey community.

Notes

^1.Lenskyj, Out on the Field; Whisenant, ‘Sustaining Male Dominance’.

^2.Griffin, Strong Women, Deep Closets; Hargreaves, Heroines of Sport.

^3.English, ‘Sex Equality in Sports’.

^4.Choi, Femininity; Hargreaves, Heroines of Sport.

^5. This paper forms part of a larger PhD thesis studied through Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, that focused on the experiences of women from three field hockey clubs in Melbourne. For the purposes of this paper, ‘hockey’ refers to field hockey unless otherwise stated. See Litchfield, Sexual Diversity.

^6. While the data from this manuscript come from the experiences of the female participants in 2006, a check of the websites for each hockey club in 2013 reveals that very little has changed with the gendered roles at each of these hockey clubs. In fact, the two mixed-gendered hockey clubs had less female involvement in executive and leadership roles in 2013 compared to 2006.

^7.Hannagan, ‘Gendered Political Behavior’, 465.

^8.Paechter, ‘Masculine Femininities/Feminine Masculinities’, 256.

^9.Connell and Messerschmidt, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’, 830.

^10.Connell, Masculinities (2nd ed.), 77.

^11. Ibid.

^12.Crosset, Outsiders in the Clubhouse, 126.

^13.Choi, Femininity, 8; see also Lenskyj, ‘Sexuality and Femininity’; Krane, ‘Challenging Hegemonic Femininity’.

^14.McKay, Managing Gender, 16.

^15.Connell, Gender and Power, 12–13.

^16. While outside the scope of this particular manuscript, there is a plethora of work around males, power and sexuality.

^17.McKay, Managing Gender.

^18.Connell, Gender and Power, 184.

^19.Young and White, ‘Researching Sports Injury’, 111.

^20.Connell, Masculinities, 79.

^21.Messner, Duncan and Cooky, ‘Silence, Sports Bras and Wrestling Porn’; Phillips, An Illusionary Image; Rowe, Sport, Culture and Media.

^22.Ely and Meyerson, ‘Theories of Gender’.

^23.McKay, Managing Gender.

^24. Ibid.

^25. Ibid., 113.

^26. Ibid.

^27. Ibid., 114.

^28. Ibid.

^29.Sibson, ‘I Was Banging My Head’.

^30.McKay, Managing Gender, 61.

^31.Craig and Sawriker, ‘Work and Family’; Knoppers and Anthonissen, ‘Gendered Managerial Discourses’; and Shaw and Hoeber, ‘A Strong Man Is Direct’.

^32.McKay, Managing Gender, 61.

^33.Sundstom et al., ‘Play – But Don't Stay’, 107.

^34. Ibid.

^35. Ibid.

^36.Sibson, ‘I Was Banging My Head’, 380.

^37. Ibid.

^38.Claringbould and Knoppers, ‘Finding a “Normal” Woman’, 85.

^39.Pfister and Radtke, ‘Sport, Women and Leadership’, 241.

^40.McKay, Managing Gender; Connell, Gender and Power.

^41.McKay, Managing Gender, 19.

^42. Ibid., 14.

^43. For a detailed discussion on labour, power and cathexis, please see Connell, Gender and Power.

^44.Patton, Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 243.

^45.Richie and Lewis, Qualitative Research Practice, 78–80.

^46.Minichiello et al.,In-depth Interviewing, 87.

^47.Delamont, ‘Ethnography and Participant Observation’, 217–8.

^48. All club and participant names in this study are pseudonyms.

^49.Freedman, No Turning Back.

^50.Hargreaves, Heroines of Sport, 40.

^51.Soy, ‘The Case Study’, 1.

^52.Stake, Multiple Case Study Analysis, 89.

^53.Litchfield and Symons, ‘Hockey One, Hockey Two’, 128.

^54.Yin, Applications of Case Study.

^55.Schwartz and Shea, ‘Judging Quality’, 104.

^56.Creswell, Qualitative Inquiry, 202.

^57. Interview with Laura, 23 years.

^58. Personal communication, June 23, 2006.

^59.Coakley et al., 256–7; Hargreaves, Heroines of Sport, 3–7; Symons et al., Come Out to Play, 42, 53–5; Sundstrom et al., ‘Play – But Don't Stay’, 110–5; and Stell, Half the Race, viii.

^60. Interview with Laura, 23 years.

^61. Ibid.

^62. Interview with Hannah, 22 years.

^63. Interview with Nat, 26 years.

^64. Interview with Hannah, 22 years.

^65. Ibid.

^66. Interview with Amanda, 20 years.

^67. In 2006 the club consisted of 24 teams. There were five women's teams, five men's teams, two women's veteran's teams, two male veterans teams, four junior girls teams, fours junior boys teams and two mixed juniors teams. This configuration meant that the distribution of male and female members at the club was fairly even during this season.

^68. Interview with Steph, 34 years.

^69. Ibid. Incidentally Steph was unable to locate and provide evidence of a ‘behavioural management code of conduct’.

^70.Hargreaves, Heroines of Sport.

^71. Interview with Dawn, 49 years.

^72. Ibid.

^73. Ibid.

^74. Interview with Claire, 40 years.

^75. Interview with Summer, 36 years.

^76. Interview with Cassandra, 52 years.

^77. Interview with Laura, 23 years.

^78.Connell, Gender and Power.

^79.McKay, Managing Gender, 21.

^80.Sundstrom et al., ‘Play – But Don't Stay’.

^81. As the club was an all women's club, the other Executive Committee members were also women. However, these women were not involved in the research.

^82. This is evidenced by the lack of females in executive committee roles at various hockey clubs in Victoria. This information was gained through weblinks on the Hockey Victoria and Hockey Australia websites.

^83.Shaw and Hoeber, ‘A Strong Man Is Direct’, 348.

^84.Knoppers and Anthonissen, ‘Gendered Managerial Discourses’, 94.

^85. Ibid., 96.

^86. Ibid., 97.

^87.Craig and Sawrikar, ‘Work and Family’, 685.

^88.McKay, Managing Gender, 57.

^89. Ibid.

^90.Knoppers and Anthonissen, ‘Gendered Managerial Discourses’; Craig and Sawriker, ‘Work and Family’.

^91.Knoppers and Anthonissen, ‘Gendered Managerial Discourses’; McKay, Managing Gender.

^92.Sartore and Cunningham, ‘Explaining the Under-Representation’, 248.

^93. Ibid.

^94.McKay, Managing Gender, 16.

^95.Connell, Gender and Power, 107.

^96.Connell, Masculinities; McKay, Managing Gender; Pringle, ‘Masculinities, Sport and Power’; Young and White, ‘Researching Sports Injury’.

^97.McKay, Managing Gender.