Girls in Football, Boys in Dance. Stereotypization Processes in Socialization of Young Sportsmen and Sportswomen

Honorata Jakubowska; Dominika Byczkowska-Owczarek

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.14.2.02

Authors

Honorata Jakubowska Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland
Dominika Byczkowska-Owczarek University of Lodz, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.14.2.02

Keywords:

Sociology of the Body, Stereotypization Processes, Socialization of Young Sportsmen and Sportswomen, Atypical Gender Sports

Abstract

The article at hand presents and discusses the issue of gender stereotypization strategies during the socialization process of children practicing atypical gender sports, which is perceived as inappropriate to their gender. The outcomes of two qualitative studies among girls playing football and boys practicing ballroom dancing focus on various types of social influence of their families, coaches, and peers. The importance of parents’ role in reproducing or challenging stereotypical gender roles is outlined in the text. The strategies to which the children participating in atypical gender sports are subjected to include: stereotypization, destereotypization, apparent destereotyping, and hidden stereotyping. The benefits of participating in atypical gender sports are also discussed, particularly in terms of social and psychological profits.

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Author Biographies

Honorata Jakubowska, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland

Honorata Jakubowska, sociologist, professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The author of the books: Skill Transmission, Sport and Tacit Knowledge. A Sociological Perspective (Routlegde 2017), The Game of the Body. The Practices and Discourses of Gender Differentiation in Sport (in Polish, 2014), and Sociology of the Body (in Polish, 2009) and about 60 articles and book chapters in Polish and English related to her main research interests: sociology of the body, sociology of sport, and gender studies. The coordinator of European Sociological Association Research Network “Society and Sports” and vice-president of Polish Sociological Association Section “Sociology of Sport.” The principal investigator of the research project focused on female football fans financed by the National Science Center (2016/21/B/HS6/00846).

Dominika Byczkowska-Owczarek, University of Lodz, Poland

Dominika Byczkowska-Owczarek, sociologist, assistant professor in Sociology of Organization and Management Department, Faculty of Economics and Sociology at the University of Lodz, Poland. Her book, Body in Dance. Sociological Analysis, presents outcomes of a study on ballroom dancing as a social activity. She has participated in research projects concerning communication on hospital wards, lobbying, revitalization of cities, and HR procedures. She is a book reviews editor in Qualitative Sociology Review and Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej. Her main scientific interests are: symbolic interactionism, grounded theory methodology, qualitative methods, autoethnography, sociology of the body, sociology of medicine, ethnographic research.

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