Gender Equity in Penn State Athletics: Female Student-athlete Perceptions and Implications of the Current Institution
Open Access
Author:
Gebhart, Laura Mae
Area of Honors:
Community, Environment, and Development
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Theodore Roberts Alter, Thesis Supervisor Theodore Roberts Alter, Thesis Honors Advisor Patreese Donette Ingram, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
Gender equity Penn State athletics institutional change analysis
Abstract:
The combination of historical injustices and formal rules have limited women’s participation and opportunities in collegiate athletics. Although women’s participation, opportunity, and treatment have improved over the past fifty years, inequity continues to exist between men’s and women’s collegiate athletics programs. Penn State is used as a case study to measure gender equity within Penn State athletics and assess whether statistical data aligns with the perceptions of women student-athletes. Archival research was used to perform an institutional change analysis to assess how formal and informal rule changes have affected gender equity in Penn State athletics. While results from the existing statistics research and key informant interviews suggest that treatment between Penn State’s men’s and women’s programs was nearly equal, the institutional change analysis explained that slow-changing informal constraints caused key informants’ remaining perceptions of gender inequity. Incremental changes in informal constraints must continue to move toward matching the purpose of Title IX, if gender equity is ever to be attained in collegiate athletics.
