A Critical Analysis of Theories of Gender Equality in Sport and the Challenges Ahead

Inequality, power relations, capital and gender structures are some of the important impediments women’s sports face. As a result, this latter has in recent decades attracted the attention of interdisciplinary studies and feminist theories, which despite their numerous differences, suggest similar solutions. The gap between theoretical foundations of these approaches and complexities of women’s objective conditions has caused important challenges especially in countries such as Iran, where the application of suggested strategies has been challenged by structural impediments. Employing qualitative methods and document research, this paper offers a critical analysis of some of the most important theories of gender equality on sports and the challenges ahead. The analysis shows that in order to overcome impediments and reach equality, a meticulous knowledge is needed not only of theoretical foundations of suggested strategies but also of the respective social context. Only with such knowledge could one expect policies to correspond to objective social conditions and avoid implementing contradictory strategies that reinforce inequality and gender discrimination.