Sports and women's culture

Abstract

This article focuses on the fact that women and men belong to two different cultures. Concerning sport participation, there exists a double standard in the way girls and boys are socialized into sport. As a result, sport has never played an important part in many women's lives. This is illustrated by data from different empirical studies that have been done in Norway during recent years. In discussing the future development of women's sport, three approaches are discussed: (1) when women become more and more like men, (2) when women preserve and develop what has been defined as typical female characteristics and activities, and (3) when the androgynous person becomes the normative objective. The author demonstrates that the development so far is the one mentioned in the first point. This is equality on men's terms. The advantage of such a development is questioned. The ideology of society today, which also is reflected in the world of sport, has to be changed. As a consequence, sport should be humanized. It is therefore necessary that women and the central values in women's culture become a strong influence on the development of sport.