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Women in the Olympic and Paralympic movements : framing, bureaucracy and advocacy in periods of change / Madeleine Pape
Edited by University of Wisconsin. Madison - 2017
The participation of women as athletes and leaders in the Olympic and Paralympic movements is characterized by varying degrees of representation. In this historical, comparative, and sociological study the author examines why this is the case. Drawing on archival material collected at three sites and interviews with past and present leaders and employees in the two Movements, the author considers the role of the peak governing bodies – the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee – in shaping trajectories of women’s participation as athletes and leaders. Taking gender as embedded in the discourses, practices, actions and relationships that comprise organizations, the author finds key differences across the two Movements in terms of how the two forms of women’s participation were situated and addressed. In the Olympic Movement, women’s representation among Movement leaders was depoliticized relative to their participation as athletes, which in turn shaped the framing, bureaucratic location, and advocacy of the issue. While similar patterns were visible in the Paralympic Movement, women’s participation here was further shaped by the presence of disability as an axis of difference that stratifies sport and produces additional barriers for women, particularly athletes, but with implications for leadership as well.