Sport Management Students’ Attitudes Toward Women: A Challenge for Educators

Abstract

This study examined 115 undergraduate sport management students’ attitudes toward women’s roles in the workplace and three variables that might explain those attitudes: perspective taking, gender self-esteem, and attitudes toward sexist language. The participants, 88 men and 27 women, were enrolled in one midsize university in the Midwestern United States. On average, the participants were ambivalent about women’s roles. Women were significantly more supportive of women’s roles than were men (p < .001). Taken together, the ability to take the perspective of others and attitudes toward sexist language uniquely explained 16% of the variance in men’s attitudes toward women. Neither perspective taking, nor gender self-esteem, nor attitudes toward sexist language correlated significantly with the women’s attitudes toward women. Women’s gender self-esteem was inversely related to their attitudes toward women. Based on the results, suggestions for recruitment, curriculum development, and classroom strategies for enhancing sport management students’ attitudes toward women are presented.