Still unnoticed. Women in Polish sports associations. Content analysis of Polish, international, and British formal rules of sports organizations

Abstract

From a critical paradigm point of view sport has been a sexist institution. Despite the women empowerment in sport they are still trivialized and marginalized. Research also shows that sport organizations may be exceptionally opposed to women, valuing hegemonic masculinity. Therefore, the aim of this article is to check whether gender inequalities occur in Polish sports organizations and what the scale of those inequalities is in comparison to international and British organizations. Content analysis was used to examine official documents of organizations. The sample consists of seventeen Polish, international and British sports organizations. The content analysis indicates that international and British organizations place more pressure on preventing discrimination by using appropriate provisions in the statutes, reserving places for women in committees or paying attention to the language used in documents. The findings revealed that Polish sports organizations do not implement the strategy to reduce the degree of discrimination due to gender. They remain blind to issues connected with gender.