Dilemas e desafios na construção da identidade de treinadora esportiva

Abstract

Among women, the path to taking charge of sports teams is arduous and often made impossible by historical and social gender barriers, which end up putting them off trying to pursue a career as a coach. The literature reports some of the obstacles that make it difficult for women coaches to rise and stay in the profession, ranging from routine issues, such as lack of time, to economic issues, such as low salaries. These barriers represent unequal opportunities for men and women, which indicates that there is a gender issue that needs to be studied in the context of training female coaches. Considering that these gender differences also interfere with women entering the profession, the aim of this study was to analyze the different ways in which gender inequalities affect the recognition of physical education students as futsal/football coaches. To this end, we analyzed the trajectories of women who recognize themselves and seek the profession of coach, as well as those who do not recognize themselves in this career. Six female physical education students from different colleges in Greater Vitória took part in the study. The instruments used to gather data were semi-structured individual interviews and a focus group. The results show that the participants believe that gender interferes with their recognition of the coaching profession. The main barriers were: lack of representation; negative experiences with the sport and/or the coach; low pay; and sexism. As main supports, the participants highlighted the presence of a coach as a reference and having been an athlete.