The aim of this study was to explore the career development of Swedish female elite football coaches, how they have experienced their journey as a coach, what have been perceived as prosperities and adversities, how that has affected and been handled by the participants. Collecting the data by low-structured interviews, thus the participants got to describe their journey, in chronological order, following a couple of key questions. The participants consisted of 12 Swedish elite female women football coaches. The analyzing method used was a reflexive thematic analysis. The data analysis resulted in three main themes: Beginning - From player-to-coach transition, Continuation - Searching for sustainability and, Today - Making decisions for the future. These in turn have sub-themes that explain the participants' different experiences from their journey, for example challenges and strategies. The primary conclusion made was that sustainability among the participants was of great importance for their journeys. Implications that the study can contributed to are new knowledge for future female coaches, sports organizations and how they can work to facilitate and create a more sustainable journey, to, eventually, making the profession more attractive.

民主成為一股全球性的潮流，帶動女性在缺席以久的政治場域上的出現和積極參與。從1960年斯里蘭卡誕生第一位民選女性總理開始，近半個世紀以來世界各國紛紛出現女性領導人。台灣於1996年首度舉行總統直選，2016年選出首位女性總統蔡英文，這樣的發展對台灣的性別平權有重大意義。本研究旨在透過文獻分析與深度訪談來分析，蔡英文身為一位女性在台灣的脈絡下成為首位女性國家領導人的條件；研究結果發現，政治機會、社會文化與個人資本是女性從政的重要條件。豐沛的個人資本奠定蔡英文政治參與的基礎，也是她進入合格人才庫及參選人才庫的要件；其次，即使具有高教育程度與專業經歷等條件，蔡英文的出場一開始仍然受到「男性不在場」的性別框架限制，但政治機會的出現與把握是她能夠突破參選人才庫的天花板成為民進黨內最高權力者的主因；最後，台灣社會性別文化由排斥女性參政逐漸轉變為鼓勵女性參政甚至欣賞女性政治菁英特質，也成為蔡英文當選總統的重要脈絡條件。本研究最後認為，以蔡英文為個案來探討台灣女性菁英的政治參與的重要意義在於進一步觀察，蔡英文成為首位女性國家領導人是否有助於提升台灣社會整體性別意識、改變父權的社會結構與文化，最終達成多數甚至全體台灣女性的解放。 / Against the background of global trend of democracy, women appear to be more active in the field of politics and public sphere where they have been absent for a long time. Since the election of the first ever female national leader in Sri Lanka in 1960, we have seen more democratically-elected female leaders around the world. Taiwan held its first direct presidential election in 1996, and elected its first female president Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. This is certainly a notable achievement as far as the pursuit of gender equality in Taiwan is concerned. Through literature analysis and in-depth interview and using Tsai Ing-wen as its case, this study seeks to explore the conditions, institutional as well as cultural, conducive to political empowerment and participation of female elites in the context of Taiwan. It is found that political opportunity, women-friendly culture, and personal capital are important for understanding the success of women in politics. In the case of Tsai, abundant personal capital lays the foundation for her participation in the government and in party politics. Which helps her enter ‘the pools of eligibles and of candidates.’ Despite the various forms of capital Tsai has enjoyed, political opportunities were only available for Tsai when “male are absent” specifically within her party, the Democratic Progressive Party. Last but not the least, an emerging more women-friendly culture among the society in Taiwan also contributes to Tsai’s success in politics. This study concludes that the contribution and value of studying the case of Tsai to discuss the elite women 's political participation in Taiwan lie in first, exploring the conditions that help female elites break the glass ceiling in traditionally male-dominate field of politics; and secondly, emphasizing that the election of Tsai as Taiwan’s first ever female president will only be truly meaningful for the pursuit of gender equality when the society’s gender consciousness is enhanced, patriarchal structure and culture changed, and most if not all women liberated.

Historically, women like other marginalized and discriminated groups, have been compared to the manly model of sport as ‘others’ and often it is their feminine characteristics that are focused upon. In the coaching profession, women have yet to break through and be seen as equals to their male counterparts. Even as the number of women taking part in sports is increasing and equity between men’s and women’s sports is growing, there still remains areas within sport where women continue to struggle to gain more influence and power. High-performance coaching is an area where growth has been slow for women to gain a more equitable foothold. Men continue to dominate the role as the coach and continue to dominate even more so at the high-performance level of coaching. The aim of this qualitative study is to examine and explore the experiences of high-performance coaches in three Swedish sporting organizations and contribute to an understanding to what factors surround the underrepresentation of high-performance female coaches in sports organizations that are relatively gender equal in participants and leaders. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 5 individual high-performance coaches (3 female; 2 male) across swimming, skiing and triathlon. The results show a continuation of a flexible masculine hegemony in the role of a coach, but also changing attitudes and norms towards women as high-performance coaches. It also questions the organization and structure of the coaching role taking into consideration recommendations for changes in the work of a coach to make the profession more sustainable for both men and women.