Gender and Sport

In class on November 21st and 23rd, we discussed how gender and sport are related. The first thing that we discussed is sex role stereotyping. Sex role stereotyping is the belief that differing traits and abilities make men and women particularly well suited to different roles. Women are viewed as emotional, creative, affectionate, talkative, and patient where as men are viewed as aggressive, courageous, easy going, and ambitious. There are three main agencies of sex role stereotyping; the family, school, and the media. Each agency has a different role. In the family, people tend to act like their parents, so if your parents are masculine you act masculine and vice versa with being feminine. Also, children develop gender type patterns at 15-36 months old. School tends to steer boys and girls to different activities. It gives kids a perception of what men and women are good at. Lastly, the media. The media is one of the most influential forces. Pre-school children watch an estimated 24 hours of T.V. a week. By the time a child graduates high school, they would have watched an estimated 100,000 commercials in their lifetime.

Science Direct 

In this Link they discussed sex role stereotyping within sport. They believed "The role of sex stereotypes and gender roles in the sex differences observed in sport and exercise has been extensively investigated in sport psychology, past studies showing that stereotypes are internalized into the self during the socialization process". It also discussed the topic of sex differences in sport,  and the article discussed the two approaches in psychology that are relevant to sport psychology.

Read More: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S146902921200115X