Women Working in the Administration of Campus Recreation: Career Paths and Challenges

Abstract

Women have made in-roads into management positions in various traditionally male-dominated industries including the sport industry. The sport industry consists of a number of segments such as professional sport, intercollegiate athletics, health and fitness, facility management, sport for people with disabilities, sport marketing, and recreational sport. While scholars have focused attention on the careers of women working in management positions in several of these segments, almost no work has been done in the recreational sport segment. One specialized area within recreational sport is campus recreation. In this particular area, there is limited research on women working in administrative positions. Thus, the purpose of this study was to establish and examine career information of women working in the administration of campus recreation programs. The survey subjects were 376 women listed in the 2000–2001 NIRSA National Sport Recreational Directory as holding administrative level jobs in campus recreation. The study addressed the following concerning women working in campus recreation administration: (a) demographics; (b) career paths; (c) most/least enjoyable aspects of their jobs; (d) greatest challenges; (e) career advice for women wanting to enter this profession; (f) short-term and long-term career aspirations; (g) the role of mentors on their careers, and (h) how they obtained their first/current job in campus recreation administration. Analysis of the data for this descriptive study focused on two areas. First, means and standard deviations were calculated where appropriate. Second, the answers to the open-ended questions were investigated for recurring themes. After examining the data, suggestions for future research were generated.