BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Women in Sport
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1655912
This article is part of the Research TopicBridging the Knowledge Gap: Enhancing Research on Women's Participation in SportsView all 6 articles
Women participating in sport: Tensions rising from negotiations of aging, gender norms, and personal responsibility for health in later life
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
- 2WESPARK Health Institute, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
- 3Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia
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Introduction: Older women have typically faced systemic exclusion from sport, often a result of intersecting age-and gender-based norms and/or constraints. This study investigated how 22 women (mean age 61 years) participating in recreational or competitive sport understood and experienced their participation in relation to societal expectations of aging, gender, and maintaining health and wellbeing. Methods: The women, aged 52-77 years, each participated in a semi-structured interview to explore their perspectives on aging, disability, societal perceptions, and sport engagement. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymized, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, emphasizing researcher subjectivity and iterative theme development. Results: The women framed their sport involvement as a moral and disciplined practice, aligning with neoliberal ideals of personal responsibility and self-management for health in later life. However, their narratives also highlighted systemic barriers, such as professional demands, caregiving responsibilities, and gendered norms, that constrained their participation. This 'double barrier' of age and gender norms produced a tension between perceived agency and structural exclusion. Discussion: While older women actively asserted responsibility for their health and engagement, their experiences revealed that structural inequities related to age and gender expectations, not personal failings, often limited participation. Conclusion: These findings challenge responsibility-centred narratives and call for inclusive sport policies that account for the socio-cultural and institutional barriers shaping older women's experiences in sport and exercise contexts.
Keywords: Older age, gender-based constraints, Double barrier, Qualitative, agency, competitive, recreational time employed, Part-time employed
Received: 28 Jun 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 van Wyk, Seguin, Dionigi, Weir and Horton. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Paula M van Wyk, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
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