Put Me In Coach!

A Survey
of the Impact of Team
Sports on Women’s Self-
Esteem
By: Jessica Binhack
Senior Sociology Comprehensive
Presentation
Advisor: Susan Alexander
 Overview
• Introduction
• Thesis/Purpose Statement
• Literature Review
• Theory
• Method
• Findings
• Discussion
• Questions
 Thesis/Purpose Statement
• Thesis/Purpose: To gain an understanding of
how participation in team sports during high
school impacted the self-esteem of college aged
women and to access the difference between
those who did and did not participate in team
sports.
 Literature Review
• Positive Affects of Sports on Lifestyle
– Pedersen and Siedman (2004)
– Diaz (2005%
– Todd and Kent (2003)
• Affects of Sport on Individual Development
– Van Mechelen & Verhaggen (2005)
– Diaz (2005)
– Viira and Raudsepp (2000)
– Pedersen and Seidman (2004)
– Harrison and Narayan (2002)
 Literature Review Cont’
• Impact of Sports on Depression
– Sanders, Field, Diego, and Kaplan (2000)
– Harrison and Narayan (2002)
• Impact of Sports on Deviance
– Naylor, Gardner and Zaichkowsky (2001)
• Sports and Gender Identification
– Alley and Hicks (2005)
– Richman and Schaffer (2000)
 Theory
• Simone de Beauvoir’s “Woman As Other” (1949)
– Woman no at herself but relative to man
• Not an autonomous being
– Women unable to define themselves without men.
• Socially conditioned to idea of being the “Other”
– Duality
• The “Self” and the “Other”
– Men are the “Self” and women are the “Other”
– Establishing of the “One” and the “Other”
• Women’s secondary role in society hinders their upward movement
• Acceptance of a life of inequality
 Theory Cont’
– Women historically as the “Other”
• Women’s secondary role in society hinders their upward movement
• Acceptance of a life of inequality
• No historical events place women as “Other”
– The inessential and the inability to be the essential
• Pre-second wave of Feminism
• More loyal to men then each other
• Lack concrete means to organize
– No past, hisory, or religon of their own
– Connection to Women in Sports
• Sports are a man’s world
• Female participation against traditional female roles and role as “Other”
• Masculinization of Female Competitors
• Sports ability to help women move out of the role of being the “Other”
 Method
• Quantitative Research
• Solicit First Year Student
– Classroom visits
• Information given about the survey
• Handed a flyer with directions to the on-line survey
• Information posted on Student Forum
Method Tables
Findings