여대생의 '남성 스포츠' 참여경험에 관한 질적 연구

Abstract

In the last decade, women’s involvement in leisure sports has increased dramatically. This in turn “enable female participants to develop positive attitudes towards sports or physical activities in their daily lives” (Williamson, 1993). Even with the wide range of sport activities available to woman, there is still many sports labeled as “men’s sports”. These sports were considered inappropriate for female to participate especially in Korea. However, some female student athletes attempt to participate in so called “men’s sports”. In this study, we primary focus on the challenges of these female athletes who will be participating in sports stereotypical seen as “men’s sports”. This study covered the difficulties of women in these sports and the challenges they face. The research was conducted over the period of six month, using three different techniques to collect the data (participation observation, in-depth interviews and documentary analysis). The participants in the study were students who were enrolled in basketball elective course in the spring of 2015 at K University. Six female students were recruited for the in-depth interview. The data was collected and analyzed as an ongoing process in which during the study, the theme were modified and developed by three researchers. For reliability and validity, the research questions and processes have been open-ended for the research interviewees. As a result, the challenges that the female athletes face, both in and out of the class room will be categorized in the fallowing themes: (1) natural inferiority to men as biological differences (2) gaps in performance levels; skill-related difficulties (3) lack of sports related experience; unskilled physical education experiences (4) behavior forces by society as women; gender role expectation from a society and gender stereotype in a society (5) lack of social support, difficult to join sports club and find people to play with after class.