Therese Hareide Holstad & Anne Tjønndal
RESPONSE – Research Group for Sport and Society,
Faculty of Social Science, Nord University, Norge
This article examines the gendering of technology in sports coaching focusing on football coaches. The following research question is explored: What experiences do football coaches for men’s and women’s teams have with sports technology and how are these technologies gendered? The article is based on qualitative interviews with 12 football coaches for men’s and women’s football teams in Norway. The analytical framework is comprised of research on technology in sports coaching combined with feminist theories of technology and the digital divide. The main findings of the article are centered around three key themes: (1) What types of sports technology do football coaches use and how do they use it? (2) economic resources as a justification for unequal access to technology in women’s and men’s football, and (3) the gendered implications of technology in football. The study reveals that coaches for both men’s and women’s teams use similar types of sports technology (wearable technology, video analysis, and surveillance technologies), but there is a gender disparity in access to and the quality of technology. Women’s football teams have fewer and lower-quality technological tools compared to the men’s teams. Since men’s football has more resources, commercialization and economic resources is used to justify unequal access to technology, and coaches of men’s teams have few reflections on the gendered meanings of technology in football. Our findings also show how limited access and lower-quality technology affects women’s football in general and the coaching role in particular. Since women primarily coach other women, the findings demonstrate how the lack of access to technology negatively impacts female coaches’ professional development and reinforces stereotypical attitudes about women’s competence in the coaching profession.
Click here to read this peer reviewed article in Norwegian
THERESE HAREIDE HOLSTAD has a master’s degree in sports science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
ANNE TJØNNDAL is Professor of Sociology of Sport at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway.
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