In their research paper, Burton and Parker evaluate the extent of gender stereotypes interference with the representation of women in managerial positions at the middle and senior levels. They investigate the information related to the masculine dominance in the field of professional sports and attempt to retrieve the reasons for the women’s low rate of representation in the interscholastic athletics. The authors hypothesize that the underrepresentation of women in the executive managerial positions can be explained by the imposition of gender role stereotypes. In an attempt to answer their questions and to prove the hypothesis, the authors conduct the analysis based on the data collected with the online survey. The representatives of the athletic administration participated in the data collection.
According to their professional experience, the participants were asked to rate the significance of the entry-level, middle-level, and senior-level masculine, feminine, and neutral gender subroles in the athletic management and to answer the series of questions, and particularly regarding the age, gender, and work experience. Overall, there were 167 respondents – 107 males, 53 females, and 7 persons without gender identification. Using the data from the survey, the authors calculated the standard deviations for the managerial subroles and implemented the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to establish their relevance towards gender. In the result of the analysis, the Burton and Parker came to the conclusion that the gender typing in the athletic management is fractional as the survey data demonstrated that the managers and directors of the sports organizations regard the importance of the relations between the managerial roles and the level of the positions differently. At the same time, the authors conclude that gender stereotyping in sports had a greater impact on women than men, and in this conclusion, they see the explanation for the decline in the women’s representation in the senior-level managerial positions.
The findings retrieved from the research conducted by Burton and Parker make it clear that masculine and feminine subroles in athletic management are of the same importance. In conclusion, the authors underline that successful athletic management needs to include all the types of determined subroles when represented either by males or by females. At the same time, through the data analysis and the evaluation of the previous major research papers related to the subject they demonstrate that women still face the hindrances in applying for and taking the administrative positions in athletic organizations at the professional level and that this issue is still under-investigated and requires the further research.
References
Burton, L., & Parker, H. (2010). Gender typing in management: Evaluation of managerial subroles for sport. Advancing Women in Leadership Journal, 30(18), 1-14.