Prevalence of sexual harassment among Norwegian female elite athletes in relation to sport type

Abstract

Although it is often assumed that the prevalence of sexual harassment is different in different sports, this assumption has not been empirically tested. This study considers whether the experience of sexual harassment varies by sport. The female elite athletes (N = 553) in the study participated in 56 different sport disciplines. These were grouped as follows :1) team or individual sports; 2) extent to which clothing required for competition is revealing ; 3) gender structure (male-or female dominated membership statistics); and 4) gender culture (masculine, gender-neutral, or feminine). The data show that sexual harassment occurs in every sport group. Female elite athletes who participated in ‘masculine’ sports appear to experience more harassment than women in the other groups. We conclude that, when it comes to female athletes’ experiences of sexual harassment, sport type matters far less than sport participation per se.