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Even though African American girls and/or girls in low-income, urban environments are specifically challenged with their sport involvement, little research has focused specifically on this population’s experience with sport. The purpose of this study was to examine various factors related to sport participation for adolescent girls (predominantly African American) living in a low-income urban environment. The study examined the barriers that might impede their sport involvement, the benefits they perceive, and the reasons why they do or do not participate. Four focus groups were conducted in Detroit, Michigan (a large urban Midwestern city). Participants were grouped by age, as well as sport participation status (current sort participants and girls who have not participated in organized sport for at least one year). Each group consisted of 4 girls. Results revealed various reasons why the participants engaged in sport, including that sport occupies their time and that it is fun, while reasons like lack of opportunities and the negative role of others were some of the reasons provided for not participating in sport. These girls face numerous barriers to sport participation, such as logistical, financial, and cosmetic. Positive psychosocial development and scholarships were noted as benefits to participation. Directions for future research and programmatic level applications are described in light of these findings.

The questions asked in this paper are: what is it that women who participate in recreational sport appreciate most or enjoy most about their sports? What are the differences and similarities among women who participate in aerobics, tennis or soccer? Thirty one Norwegian women (ages 19 to 36 years) participated in the study. The research method used was qualitative interviews. The music and the rhythm were mentioned most often by the women practicing aerobics. The availability of the sport was a major factor for the tennis players. These were in contrast to the soccer players for whom the social aspect of the sport dominated. A theme that occurred across the different sports was related to physicality and to the use of the body. It is clear from the data that the women found that being physically active was positive and pleasurable, and that some of the findings challenge the norms of female physicality.

Recently the International Beach Volleyball Federation (FIVB) implemented a uniform rule that many protesters felt was designed to use the female players as sex objects to attract an audience. In marketing terms, the FIVB implemented a sexual appeal strategy to market their sport. This is only one example of the use of sex and eroticism to promote a sport. There are many others including cheerleaders, fitness programming, bodybuilding, men’s professional soccer and Australian Rules football. Sex in advertising has been a long-debated subject and very little is known about its lasting effects. Sexual appeals play to the sexual survival motive that consists of three elements: sexual gender, sexual impulse and sexual inhibition. Whenever any of these elements appear in advertising, the general goal is to arouse desire for a product. In this paper I examine the strategic purpose for using sexual appeals, the manner in which they impact target audiences, and the potential consequences of this marketing approach. It is clear from the literature that sexual appeals draw attention to the sport using it. However, this attention occurs at the risk of target audiences perceiving the athlete as poor quality, as a negative symbol, or as something less that a true athlete. Sponsors must also worry about being associated with sports that use sex appeals because if the spectator is irritated then this irritation could transfer to the sponsor’s products.

The voices of South African feminists and womanists are relatively absent from public debates concerning women’s participation and empowerment in sport. This paper represents a contribution to the gender discourse, drawing on feminist paradigms and reflecting on the marginality of South African women in society and in sport. The findings of two separate studies, undertaken in 1977 and 1999 respectively, are reported. The research focused on the assessment of the impact of the Sports Leaders Programme (as part of the South Africa-United Kingdom Sports Initiative) and the junior component of the sports development programme initiated by the Australian Sports Commission (Super Kidz). Data were collected by means of structured interviews from different stakeholders at macro- (national), meso- (community/institutional) and micro- (individual) levels. A representative sample for the Sports Leaders Programme included 17 co-ordinators and facilitators (at national and provincial levels) and nine sports leaders at community level. To obtain qualitative data concerning the Super Kidz Programme, two provinces were targeted for data collection. A quota sample of seven schools was selected as the experimental group (having introduced the programme) and five schools in close proximity acted as controls. One hundred and forty-four role-players at different levels of participation were interviewed. To obtain some triangulation of data, 110 role-players also participated in focus groups. The data reflecting the position and involvement of women in these programmes were analysed. Against the reality of the majority of women living in conditions of chronic poverty, exposed to patriarchy, being ideologically stereotyped and structurally marginalized, they were, to a large extent absent, and their efforts unrecognised in the institutionalised domain of sport. It was concluded that sport is a severely gendered domain in which male hegemony is acted out and perpetuated whereas women in impoverished communities view access to sport as peripheral in their everyday struggle for material survival. National agencies should therefore not rely on female volunteers to facilitate sports development in impoverished communities but to strategize differently while also redressing ideological and structural gender inequalities in the wider social context.

This paper is a description of the theoretical, methodological and practical challenges that have been encountered during the process of researching the experiences and meanings of sport in the lives of women in England, Germany, Norway and Spain. Based upon a review of previous literature and research on women and sport we found that there was little research in which the researchers took a qualitative approach focusing on both intrinsic factors (selfconcept, body awareness and the culture of the body) and extrinsic factors (relationship to lifestyle and life chances, social networks and future life plans). Cross-nationally, women’s experiences of sport and the meanings that they attach to their sporting participation, became therefore the centre for this project.