Beyond the game: exploring women's sporting experiences and identities within Australian community sports

Women are underrepresented in community-based sports and experience gender-based challenges to their sport participation, experiences, and identities. This qualitative study explores how women's experiences inform the construction of their sporting identities and how gender shapes their sporting experiences. Thirteen Australian women aged 22 to 75 from diverse community-based sports participated in semi-structured interviews. Utilising a social constructionist and critical feminist framework, our engagement in reflexive thematic analysis constructed three interrelated themes. The findings showcase the embeddedness of hegemonic gender norms, attitudes, and inequities within women's community-based sports and how these can challenge women's engagement, advancement, and identities as sportswomen. The importance of community-based sports as a site for women's empowerment, gender norm negotiation and identity transformation are also highlighted. To promote women's inclusion in community-based sports, organisational practices, policies, and structures must be developed to carefully consider and support women players' distinct needs, experiences, and identities and promote gender-inclusive and welcoming sports cultures.