Why can't we just play ball? An exploration of how collegiate female athletes experience traditional gender norm expectations

The purpose of this dissertation study was to explore how traditional gender norms influence the daily experiences of female student-athletes. The following research question framed this study: How do collegiate female basketball players experience traditional gender norm expectations in relation to their sport? A combination of sources focused on gender norms and athletics informed this study, including previous research, mass media publications and documentaries, and the researcher’s individual experiences with gender norms in organized athletics.

To explore the research question, I interviewed six National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (D-I) female basketball players to obtain phenomenological data focused on their individual experiences with gender normative expectations or traditional gender expectations in college basketball. I facilitated semi-structured interviews utilizing a feminist phenomenological qualitative design via Skype. In order to develop an in depth understanding of how participants experience gender norms, I used a phenomenological approach, which focuses on understanding the meaning of events experienced by people in specific situations. The feminist lens ensured that the study frames gender as a fluid concept consisting of multiple intersections of power and privilege. The six participants in the study represented five different teams from a major NCAA conference. Almost all of the participants in the study attended a different major research university in the Midwest (two participants attended the same institution).

Three major themes surfaced from data provided by participants. These themes include: (1) the challenge of meeting traditional gender expectations (2) contrasting gender expectations in athletic and non-athletic settings (3) the evolving dynamic of gender perceptions in women’s basketball. These themes focus on participants’ experience of contrasting gender expectations in different settings. In athletic settings, participants described rarely thinking about gender dynamics or expectations. Off the court, however, players described a stronger perception of expectations for how they should look and behave. The female-identified players described experiencing regular questions and assumptions about their gender identity (i.e. female, male, trans*) and / or sexual orientation (i.e. bisexual, gay, heterosexual, queer) when wearing loose fitting basketball sweats during the day. While players rarely thought about gender on the court, they did describe frustrations with an imbalance of media coverage between men’s and women’s athletics.

Based on the findings of this study, I offer four recommendations for higher education practice. Provide training and educational opportunities for all student-athletes, coaches, and administrators focused on gender socialization and subsequent perceptions of student-athletes. Collaborate with the NCAA to provide educational materials to recruits on how to recognize and report discriminatory and homophobic recruiting practices. Develop mentoring programs pairing new recruits with veteran players to help acclimate new student-athletes to the demands of the NCAA season and explore the impact of traditional gender norm expectations on student-athletes. Develop mass media or social media campaigns to help encourage positive recruiting practices in women’s basketball and to discourage recruiters focusing on the gender identity or sexual orientation of players and coaches on other teams as a means of lowering interest in those programs.