Study of Gender Stereotyping Sports from the Viewpoint of Physical Education Teachers

During the socialization process, children learn that sports are categorized as masculine, feminine, and neutral. The purpose of this research was to study the gender stereotyping of sports from the viewpoint of the physical education teachers of Izeh city. Methodology of research was descriptive survey which was done by field study. Sampling was census method and whole of society was chosen as the statistical sample (N=n=130). The data-collecting tool was a researcher made questionnaire categorizing the sport gender stereotyping of the sports using a five-option Likert scale. Reliability of questionnaire through alpha cronbakh (0.71). Descriptive statistics were used to investigate the personal characteristics of the teachers, and Chi-square tests was applied to determine the gender stereotyping of sports, while content analysis was used to analyze the answers to open-ended questions. Results demonstrated that physical education teachers perceived sports such as wrestling, weight lifting and boxing to be completely masculine, soccer and throws to be mostly masculine, figure skating, ballet, aerobics, rhythmic swimming, and artistic gymnastic to be mostly feminine, and the rest of the sports to be neutral. Furthermore, they characterized feminine sports with aesthetics, elegance and flexibility, whereas masculine sports were mostly characterized with power, violence and confrontation. Based on the findings of the research, it can be concluded that most of the traditionally masculine sports are in transition toward neutral, which is most probably due to the increasing participation of the women as well as the way of their coverage by mass media.