An Integrative Review and Critical Analysis of the State of Research on Gender and Women and Girls’ Sport Participation (2000–2020)

ABSTRACT

In this integrative review we analyze research from multiple fields of study in regards to gender equality, gender equity, and sport participation over the past twenty years (2000–2020). Key findings highlight a) women and girls’ socialization into sport and the performance of femininity and heteronormativity, b) the psychological benefits, negative effects, and participant retention, c) a lack of transformative critique of sport structures and barriers to access, and d) critique of sport policy that enhances equity and equality. Embedded throughout the presentation of these four interrelated areas of interest, we offer a critique about the state of research so that others might draw insight for future research directions. We conclude by outlining potential intersectional and transformational frameworks that connect research to social and political action. We also provide commentary on knowledge creation, databases, and the politicization of knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• girls
• integrative review
• intersectionality
• sport participation
• transformational
• women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. In Canada, for example, gender equality is protected under the Canadian Charter for Human Rights and Freedoms and has been a key focus in sport policies such as the 2009 Actively Engaged: A Policy on Sports for Women and Girls. This policy acknowledges that women and girls are increasingly participating in sport as athletes, however, not to the same degree as their male counterparts (Canadian Heritage, 2009).

2. Throughout this manuscript we capitalize “Black” because “Blacks, like Asians, Latinos, and other ‘minorities,’ constitute a specific cultural group and, as such, require denotation as a proper noun” (MacKinnon, 1982, 515-516). By the same token, we do not capitalize “white,” which is not a proper noun, since whites do not constitute a specific cultural group. For the same reason we do not capitalize “women of colour” (Crenshaw, 1991, p.1244).

3. Dawn and Shannon serve on the scientific committee of E-Alliance. This manuscript represents one of the initial research projects supported by E-Alliance to help guide future scholarship. In turn, central to E-Alliance’s research priorities are to “better understand the complex ways in which multiple markers of our identities – race, Indigeneity, disability, and LGBTQ2S+ - come together” in sport to improve gender+ equity (E-Alliance, n.d.).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by E-Alliance: The Canadian Research Hub for Gender+ Equity in Sport. Role of the funding source: The funding source had no involvement in the analysis of the literature, writing of the report or decision to submit the article.