Understanding the Gender Gap in Sports through a socio-environmental lens.

Abstract

The issue of low levels of women’s participation in the sports has always been a key global issue. The discipline of sport psychology allows for a psychological interpretation of reasons to why this is the unfortunate case. The main focus in sport psychology lies upon the concepts of gender stereotyping. This research paper will explore the socio-environmental approach: through gender schema and parental involvement; and the biological approach: through the understanding of various concepts regarding hormones and evolution. Both these approaches help explain why this difference of participation levels exist between the two biological genders.