This research project analyses a sporting setting, elite junior basketball in
Victoria, and investigates, via participant observation and interview, the strategies
used by both male and female coaches to improve their own situations, and to broaden
their margins of liberty in acting. The effect of the implementation of Title IX in
American College sports has been one of increased opportunities for women to play
sport. Yet, whilst the number of female athletes has increased, there has been a
substantial reduction in the number of female coaches and administrators. The
suggested reason for this is that as women’s sport became part of the college sport
economy, opportunities for coaching were given to men. Our research would suggest
that such a discrepancy in the sex of coaches occurs in a number of sporting settings
that are not professional. We would suggest that the coaching discourse precedes the
existence of monetary reward, and it is this discourse, which limits the type of subject
positions that females can appropriate.
Annual conference of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) held at the Beechworth Campus of La Trobe University, December 8-11, 2004