Speaker
Description
Sex-integrated sport is but one strategy proposed to address gender-based oppression and oppose the binary construction of sex. Yet little progress has been made in existing sport practices to move towards integration. Utilizing essentialism and social constructionism as the theoretical framework, the current study utilizes a cross-sectional survey of U.S. college student-athletes (N=295) to assess support for sex integration in sport in both training and competition. First, participants answered questions discussing the extent of their exposure to sex-integrated sport. Secondly, participants reported their level of support for sex integration at various competitive/age levels. Lastly, as gender essentialist beliefs have been associated with prejudice and sexist attitudes, athletes’ beliefs (i.e., essentialist and social constructionist) regarding gender were also investigated. As one of the few quantitative investigations of sex integration, findings can provide valuable information on the potential reception by athletes of sex integration in sport and provide direction for future implementation in practice and policy.
