Conformity to gender norms among female student-athletes: Implications for body image.

Abstract

Fort Lewis CollegeSport exposes athletes to attributes that are typically associated with traditional mas-culine traits (e.g., individualism, competitiveness, aggressiveness, power). Femaleathletes often participate in sport using standards of traditional male athleticism, yet atthe same time attempt to manage societal expectations of conforming to traditionalfemininity. By exploring conformity to gender norms in sport, we examined therelationship between gender norms, sport participation, and perceptions of body imageamong 143 female student-athletes and nonathletes. Results indicated that femalestudent-athletes and nonathlete female college students did not differ in level ofconformity to feminine norms; however, female student-athletes reported higher levelsof conformity to masculine norms, particularly traditional masculine norms associatedwith sport participation (i.e., winning, risk taking). Additionally, participation inathletics did not signiÞcantly predict body esteem for women. Instead, conformity tothree traditional gender normsÐalong with self-perceptions of being overweightÐaccounted for 53% of the variance in body esteem. Results are discussed in regard topast research and clinical applications.Keywords: Conformity to Masculine Norms (CMNI), Conformity to Feminine Norms(CFNI), body esteem, female college student-athletes, gender socialization in sport