The present study aimed to (1) examine whether there is an underrepresentation of educated female coaches in Swedish handball and (2) highlight the barriers that contribute to the underrepresentation of female coaches as well as the strategies that can facilitate female involvement in a male-dominated culture, by starting from the feminist theory. A mixed methods methodology with a combination of quantitive descriptive analysis and qualitative semi-structured interviews was utilized. The quantitative analysis included 4010 coaches (1710 women and 2300 men) and showed a clear underrepresentation of educated female elite coaches (17%). The qualitative semi-structured interviews included 6 female coaches between the age of 28 and 59 (M=40.2, SD=11.6) who have all completed the Swedish Handball Federations coach education training level 5 and 6, which is aimed to senior and elite coaches. The results showed that female coaches experienced three general categories of barriers (1) the organizational system (e.g., the recruitment process); (2) external life factors (e.g., economic conditions) and (3) lack of enviromental support (e.g., psychological safety and trust). In addition, the result demonstrated that a two-dimensional approach: organizational and individual, is needed to deal with the perceived barriers. Future research should place emphasis on the experiences of female coaches at the sub-elite level and to ensure interventions are implemented and evaluated to ensure appropriate strategies can be utilized to keep and advance women in coaching at the sub-elite through to the elite level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-226391 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Persson, Gabriella |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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