Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Why Women Want To Play Sports: Identity, Culture, And Motivation, Linda M. Johnston, Karen Weatherington

Peace and Conflict Studies

This paper is part of a series of research dedicated to specific issues uncovered in sports-for-peace programs. Other research has focused on cross-cultural issues, for example. In this research project, the authors were interested in how to encourage the inclusion and promotion of women in all sports around the world. The authors sought to discover who encouraged the women to play competitive sports, how long they had been playing sports, the barriers they encountered when playing competitive sports, and how they felt about identifying as sportswomen at the higher levels of competition. The authors used an on-line anonymous survey instrument …