Essentially different or equally the same: uncovering sport coach discourses about coaching girls

Abstract

ABSTRACT Gendered discourses espoused by youth coaches have the potential to both reinforce gender essentialism or blind coaches to girls’ needs. This qualitative study utilised a multi-national, online survey to examine youth sport coach discourses about coaching girls. A gender-focused critical discourse analysis was conducted from open-ended survey responses from 148 youth sport coaches. A range of gendered coach discourses emerged including gender essentialist stereotypes of perceived physical, psychological, and social differences between girls and boys, and gender-blind/neutral comments which erased gendered experiences were the most common discourses. Gender-sensitive, gender-responsive, and gender transformative discourses were less common, but have powerful potential to disrupt gendered, masculine-shaped norms in sport. Based on the data, coach discourses often positioned girls as different and deficient or overlooked the salience of gendered structures in sport. A gender transformative approach is necessary to challenge entrenched gender structures, practices and hierarchies.