@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix dc: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Education, Faculty of"@en, "Kinesiology, School of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Hoeber, Larena Nicole"@en ; dcterms:issued "2009-12-01T17:56:06Z"@en, "2004"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Doctor of Philosophy - PhD"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description """Although gender equity has become an espoused organizational value for amateur sport organizations, research illustrating continued gender inequities at all levels of sport signal that it is not always enacted (cf. Fink & Pastore, 1997; Inglis, Danylchuk, & Pastore, 2000; McKay, 1997; Shaw, 2001; Theberge, 2000a, 2000b). A post-structuralist feminist lens emphasizes the local meanings and the production of gendered knowledge, encourages critique of the embeddedness of dominant discourses in organizational cultures, and provides strategies for uncovering alternative meanings and organizational practices (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000; Fletcher, 1999a). The purpose of this study was to understand and critique the meanings and practices of gender equity for athletes from the perspectives of administrators, coaches, and athletes in a Canadian university. This was accomplished through case studies of four sport programs that varied in terms of structure and history in one athletic department. Data were collected from interviews with 5 administrators, 6 coaches, and 20 athletes, observations of practices and competitions, and analysis of related documents and field notes. These data were coded and categorized using Atlas.ti. The findings revealed multiple but narrow meanings of gender equity that were not fully implemented into organizational practices. Overall, respondents were complacent about changing the status quo and used a variety of arguments to justify the observed gaps between meanings and practices. While it was assumed that gender equity had been achieved because the total number of men's and women's teams were similar, a number of inequities in terms of funding, promotion, and treatment were observed. The findings challenged the assumptions that there are unitary and widely shared understandings of organizational values and that espoused organizational values are fully put into practice (cf. Agle & Caldwell, 1999; Martin, 2002; Meglino & Ravlin, 1998). To move further with a gender equity agenda, discussions in sport organizations must be initiated to disrupt existing discourses and develop new ways of addressing and implementing this organizational value."""@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/16024?expand=metadata"@en ; dcterms:extent "23481450 bytes"@en ; dc:format "application/pdf"@en ; skos:note "PUTTING ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES INTO PRACTICE-GENDER EQUITY FOR ATHLETES IN A CANADIAN UNIVERSITY by LARENA NICOLE HOEBER B.S.P.E., University of Saskatchewan, 1993 M.Sc, University of Saskatchewan, 1996 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (School of Human Kinetics) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA July 2004 © Larena Nicole Hoeber, 2004 Abstract Although gender equity has become an espoused organizational value for amateur sport organizations, research illustrating continued gender inequities at all levels of sport signal that it is not always enacted (cf. Fink & Pastore, 1997; Inglis, Danylchuk, & Pastore, 2000; McKay, 1997; Shaw, 2001; Theberge, 2000a, 2000b). A post-structuralist feminist lens emphasizes the local meanings and the production of gendered knowledge, encourages critique of the embeddedness of dominant discourses in organizational cultures, and provides strategies for uncovering alternative meanings and organizational practices (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000; Fletcher, 1999a). The purpose of this study was to understand and critique the meanings and practices of gender equity for athletes from the perspectives of administrators, coaches, and athletes in a Canadian university. This was accomplished tlirough case studies of four sport programs that varied in terms of structure and history in one athletic department. Data were collected from interviews with 5 administrators, 6 coaches, and 20 athletes, observations of practices and competitions, and analysis of related documents and field notes. These data were coded and categorized using Atlas.ti. The findings revealed multiple but narrow meanings of gender equity that were not fully implemented into organizational practices. Overall, respondents were complacent about changing the status quo and used a variety of arguments to justify the observed gaps between meanings and practices. While it was assumed that gender equity had been achieved because the total number of men's and women's teams were similar, a number of inequities in terms of funding, promotion, and treatment were observed. The findings challenged the assumptions that there are unitary and widely shared understandings of organizational values and that espoused organizational values are fully put into practice (cf. Agle & Caldwell, 1999; Martin, 2002; Meglino & Ravlin, 1998). To move further with a gender equity agenda, discussions in sport organizations must be initiated to disrupt existing discourses and develop new ways of addressing and implementing this organizational value. Ill Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iii List of Tables vii Acknowledgements x Prologue xi 1 Introduction 1 Gender Equity and Sport 1 Gender Equity in University Athletics 2 Studying Organizational Values 4 Turning to Post-structuralist Feminism 6 Context and Purpose of the Study 8 Overview of Remaining Chapters 9 2 Conceptual Framework 11 Post-Structuralist Feminism 12 Key Features of Post-structuralist Feminism 13 Discourses 13 Power 16 Multiple meanings 22 Subjectivity 25 Deconstruction 26 Examples of Post-structuralist Feminist Studies of Gender Equity in Organizations 27 Organizational Values 29 Questioning Unitary and Shared Meanings of Organizational Values 30 Destabilizing the Voices of Upper Management 31 Studying Gender Equity as an Organizational Value 33 Exarmning the Connection between Espoused and Enacted Values 35 Post-structuralist Feminism and Organizational Values 36 Gender Equity in Sport 36 Conceptualization of Gender Equity in Sport 37 Meaning and Practices of Gender Equity 41 Positioning Gender Equity as a Women's Issue 42 Summary of Relevant Literature 44 3 The Research Project 4 6 Research Method: Collective Case Study 46 Site Selection 47 Case Study Selection 48 Data Collection 50 Temporal Order of Data Collection 51 Field Notes 53 Documents 55 Observations 56 In-depth Interviews 59 Selection of interviewees 61 Description of interviewees 62 Contact process 64 Reflections on Data Collection 66 iv Data Analysis 67 Deconstruction 67 Analysis of Field Notes — Memos 69 Analysis of Documents - Content Analysis 69 Mission statement 70 Policy documents 70 Operating budget 70 News releases 71 Analysis of Observations — Content Analysis 71 Analysis of Interviews — Coding and Categorizing 72 Development of Themes 73 Reflections on Data Analysis 73 Trustworthiness 74 Ethical Issues 75 Consent 75 Gaining Trust 76 My Identity 78 Representation 79 Interviewees' Roles 81 Summary of the Research Project 82 4 Situating the Four Sport Programs 84 The CIAU 85 Historical Context 85 Economic Context 86 The Athletic Department 87 Historical Context 89 Political Context 90 Social Context 92 Economic Context 93 Summary of the Context of the CIAU and Athletic Department 94 The Four Sport Programs 95 Basketball Program 95 History and accomplishments 95 Roster sizes 96 Staff 96 Facilities 97 Schedules 98 Resource support 98 Visibility 100 Fan support 101 Athletic council 101 Summary of the basketball program 102 Ice Hockey Program 103 History and accomplishments 103 Roster sizes 103 Staff 104 Facilities 105 Schedules 107 Resource support 107 Visibility 111 Fan support 112 Athletic council 113 Summary of the ice hockey program 113 Rugby Program 114 History and accomplishments 114 Roster sizes 114 Staff 115 Facilities 116 Schedules 116 Resource support 117 Visibility 119 Fan support 120 Athletic council 120 Summary of the rugby program 120 Swim Program 121 History and accomplishments 121 Roster sizes 121 Staff 122 Facilities 123 Schedules 123 Resource support 124 Visibility ' 125 Fan support 125 Athletic council 126 Body image 126 Summary of the swim program 126 Summary of the Institutional Conditions of the Four Sport Programs 127 5 Meanings of Gender Equity 130 Equality 130 Equal Opportunities: \"Gender equity is equal opportunities for men and women\" 132 Equal Resources: \"Equal funding for male and female teams\" 134 Equal Treatment: \"Teams are treated equally regardless of gender\" 134 Multi-dimensional Meanings of Equality • 135 Commentary on Equality 137 Conditional Equality 138 Considering Institutional Conditions: \"It doesn't necessarily have to be dollar for dollar\"139 Not Taking Away From Others: \"Not at the expense of the men's teams\" 140 Commentary on Conditional Equality 141 It is a Women's Only Issue 142 Women were Undervalued: \"Women are the curtain raisers\" 143 Something Should be Done for Women: \"Helping women's programs stay even with men's programs 144 It was the Women's Responsibility: \"She was one of the few who really made gender equity a priority\" 145 Commentary on It is a Women's Only Issue 148 Concluding Comments on Meanings of Gender Equity 149 6 Gender Equity and Organizational Practices 153 Gender Equity and Programming 154 Equality in Programming: \"If there's a men's sport, there's a women's sport\" 155 Conditional Equality in Programming: It depends on \"what model you use\" 157 Gender Equity and Resource Allocations 159 VI Equal Distribution of Resources: \"The teams have equal amounts of money\" 159 Inequitable Distribution of Resources: \"They don't have their own dressing room\" 160 Conditional Equality in Resource Allocations: \"The sports that are more popular tend to get more money\" 165 Gender Equity and Promotions 167 Equal Promotions: \"We promote both the same\" 167 Inequitable Promotions: \"If there's nothing else going on, then the girls' hockey team gets promoted\" 169 Conditional Equality in Promotions: \"There's no point in promoting sports that play one home event a year\" 172 Relationship Between Meanings and Practices 174 Organizational Practices and Equality 175 Organizational Practices and Conditional Equality 175 Organizational Practices and It is a Women's Only Issue 175 Concluding Comments on Gender Equity and Organizational Practices 177 Gender Equity in a Canadian Setting 177 Inconsistencies between Meanings and Practices 177 Multiple Understandings of Gender Equity in Organizational Practices 180 7 Explanations for Gaps Between Meanings and Practices 183 Denying Gender Inequities 184 Gradual Improvements: \"It's better than it would have been years ago\" 184 Gender Equity Was Not a Problem: \"It hasn't been a problem\" 186 Rationalizing Gender Inequities 188 Gender Inequities were Inconsequential: \"It is nothing blatant\" 188 Other Values were More Important: \"The men bring in more money than the women\"193 Gender Equity was not Their Responsibility: \"I'm not going to step up because I don't foresee a problem with it\" 197 Gender Inequities were Accepted and Normalized: \"It's just the way things are\" 199 Concluding Comments on Gaps Between Meanings and Practices 203 Organizational Logic and Resistance to Change 203 8 Conclusion 207 Meanings and Practices of Gender Equity: Conclusions and Contributions 207 Surfacing Multiple Meanings by Opening Up the Discussion to Marginalized Voices 207 Using Truth Rules to Rationalize the Gaps Between Meaning and Practice 210 Complacency and a Lack of Interest in Changing Meanings and Practices 214 Recommendations for Change 215 Develop Alternative Discourses 215 Change the Formal Practices 218 Areas of Future Research 220 Concluding Comments 223 References 225 Appendices 244 Appendix A — Department of Athletics Gender Equity Policy 245 Appendix B — Observation Categories 247 Appendix C — Interview Guide 248 Appendix D — Department of Athletics and Recreation Mission Statement 254 Appendix E — Analysis of Mission Statement 255 Appendix F — Analysis of Policy Documents 256 Appendix G — Analysis of Operating Budgets for the Four Sport Programs 268 vii Appendix H - Analysis of New Releases 272 Appendix I — Analysis of Observations 277 Appendix J — First-order and Second-order Codes 287 Appendix K — Themes, Sub-Themes, and Categories 296 Appendix L - University Ethical Approval 302 Appendix M - Consent Letter 305 Appendix N - Meanings of Gender Equity 307 Appendix O — Understandings of Organizational Practices 318 Appendix P — Explanations for Gaps Between Meanings and Practices 329 viii List of Tables T a b l e T i t l e P a g e Table 1 - Selection Criteria for the Your Case Study Sport Programs 50 Table 2 - Time Frame and Sequence of Data Collection 52 Table 3 - Profile of Participants Based on Stakeholder Group, Gender and Sport Program 63 Table 4 - Ust of Identifier Labels for the Respondents 11 Table 5 - Description of Sports by Gender and Major-Minor Designation 89 Table 6 - Operating Budgets Figures for the Athletic Department over Three Seasons 94 Table 7 - Operating Expenses for Men's and Women's Basketball Teams over Three Seasons 99 Table 8 - Operating Expenses for Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Teams over Three Seasons 108 Table 9 - Operating Expenses for Men's and Women's Rugby Programs over Three Seasons 118 Table 10 - Operating Expenses for the Swim Program over Three Seasons 124 Table 11 - Analysis of Operating Expenses for Men's and Women's Basketball Teams 160 Table 12 - Analysis of Operating Expenses for Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Teams 164 Table 13 - Analysis of Operating Expenses for Men's and Women's Rugby Programs 165 Table 14 - News Releases for Men's and Women's Basketball Teams over Three Seasons 169 Table 15 - News Releases for Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Teams over Three Seasons 171 Table 16 - News Releases for Swimming, Women's Ice Hockey, and Rugby over Three Seasons 173 Table 17 - Pseudonyms of Selected Authors 243 Table 18 - List of Observation Categories 247 Table 19 - Analysis of Department's Mission Statement 255 Table 20 - Analysis of CLAU Operations Manual 256 Table 21 - Analysis of Regional Conference Operations Manual 261 Table 22 - Analysis of ECU Policy and Procedure Handbook 264 Table 23 - Analysis of Athletic Department Policy 266 Table 24 - Detailed Operating Budgets for Four Sport Programs over Three Seasons 268 Table 25 - Comparison of the Operating Budgets for Men's and Women's Basketball Teams over Three Seasons2G9 Table 26 - Comparison of the Operating Budgets for Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Teams over Three Seasons210 Table 27 - Comparison of the Operating Budgets forMen's and Women's Rugby Teams over Three Seasons 271 Table 28 - Analysis of News Releases 212 Table 29 - Analysis of Basketball Observations 211 Table 30 - Analysis of Ice Hockey Observations 280 Table 31 - Analysis of Rugby Observations 283 Table 32 - Analysis of Swimming Observations 285 Table 33 - List of First-order and Second-order Codes 287 Table 34 - Identification of Themes, Sub-themes, and Categories 296 Table 35 - Variations of Equality by Gender and Stakeholder Group 307 Table 36 - Variations of Equality by Sport Team and Stakeholder Group 308 Table 37 - Conditional Equality by Gender and Stakeholder Group 310 Table 38 - Conditional Equality by Sport Team and Stakeholder Group 311 Table 39 - Variations of Gender Equity is a Women's Only Issue by Gender and Stakeholder Group 313 Table 40 - Variations of Gender Equity is a Women's Only Issue by Sport Team and Stakeholder Group 314 Table 41 - Individual Meanings of Gender Equity 316 Table 42 - Gender Equity and Programming by Gender and Stakeholder Group 318 Table 43 - Gender Equity and Programming by Sport Team and Stakeholder Group 319 Table 44 - Gender Equity and Resource Allocations by Gender and Stakeholder Group 321 Table 45 - Gender Equity and Resource Allocations by Sport Team and Stakeholder Group 322 Table 46 - Gender Equity and Promotions by Gender and Stakeholder Group 324 Table 47 - Gender Equity and Promotions by Sport Team, and Stakeholder Group 325 Table 48 - Individual Understandings of Gender Equity and Organisational Practices 327 Table 49 - Denial of Gender Inequities by Gender and Stakeholder Group 329 Table 50 - Denial of Gender Inequities by Sport Team and Stakeholder Group 330 Table 51 - Rationalisation of Gender Inequities by Gender and Stakeholder Group 331 Table 52 - Rationalisation of Gender Inequities by Sport Team and Stakeholder Group 332 Table 53 - Individual Denials of Gender Equity by Gender and Stakeholder Group 333 Table 54 - Individual Rationalisations of Gender Inequities by Gender and Stakeholder Group 334 Acknowledgements Many people have contributed to the creation of this document and the knowledge presented in it. First and foremost, I thank my doctoral advisor, Dr . Wendy Frisby, for providing me with many years of guidance, wisdom, support, and advice. From you I learned about the particular bodies of knowledge that are fundamental to this dissertation, the production and dissemination of knowledge, and the culture and values that underpin academia. Most importantiy, you have shown me what it takes to be a strong, centred woman, a passionate, innovative teacher, and an insightful, critical feminist researcher. Thank you to my current committee members, Dr. Deirdre Kelly and Dr. Carolyn Shields at The University of British Columbia and Dr. Lucie Thibault at Brock University, my university examiners, Dr. Bonita Long and Dr. Veronica Strong-Boag at the University of British Columbia, and my external examiner, Dr. Ellen Staurowsky at Ithaca College. Your advice, comments, and keen eyes for the big picture and the fine details have helped to make this a much stronger, clearer, and cleaner document. As well, I thank my past committee members, Dr . Lisa Kikulis and Dr. Richard Wolfe, who contributed to the early development of my dissertation. Thank you to my family — your support was much appreciated through the entire process. A special thanks to Warren and Trent for providing me with the reassurances that the work I'm doing is still important and valid. Thanks to my friends that I met at the Annex, particularly Sydney, Ted, and Kathy. I can't imagine going through this process without having others to goof off with, to discuss our work, to bitch and complain to and with, but most importandy to remind me to have a life. Thanks to my friends in Saskatchewan, particularly Carrie, Erik, and Lucy - for your encouragement and understanding, and to my colleagues and their families at the University of Regina — for contributing to a welcoming, fun, and comfortable environment in which I was able to complete this dissertation. Thank you to my husband, Orland. Y o u have supported me through the entire process. Y o u listened to me go on about a myriad of ideas that are not part of your everyday vernacular (see, I got those two words in). Y o u were there for the 'aha' moments, the periods of confusion, the flurry of data collection, the lapses in momentum, and the times of frustration. A n d following all of that, you decided to follow a similar path. A t least you know what you're getting yourself in to. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. Albert Einstein The vital role of the academic is as both critic and source of knowledge for society. David Suzuki XI Prologue F o r five years as a n unde rg radua t e s tuden t at a C a n a d i a n u n i v e r s i t y , I v o l u n t e e r e d as the m a n a g e r o f a w o m e n ' s u n i v e r s i t y b a s k e t b a l l t eam. F o l l o w i n g that, I w a s e m p l o y e d b y the a th le t ic d e p a r t m e n t f o r t w o years as a s p o r t even t manager . I w a s a t t rac ted to u n i v e r s i t y a thle t ics because o f the s p e c i a l b o n d s that are c rea ted o n the t eams a n d the status a n d p r iv i l eges a s soc ia t ed w i t h el i te l e v e l spor t , s u c h as the o p p o r t u n i t i e s to t r a v e l a n d to m e e t p e o p l e . A l t h o u g h I r e a l i z e d that I was p r i v y to m a n y expe r i ences that w e r e n o t a f f o r d e d to m a n y o t h e r s tudents o n c a m p u s , I was a l so aware o f a n d t r o u b l e d b y the d i s c r epanc i e s b e t w e e n the m e n ' s a n d w o m e n ' s b a s k e t b a l l teams. F e w fans a t t ended the w o m e n ' s b a s k e t b a l l games . W h i l e the p o o r r e c o r d o f o u r t e a m c o u l d p a r d y e x p l a i n th is , the s c h e d u l e d start t i m e o f 6:15 p m a l so p l a c e d us at a d i sadvan tage to the m e n ' s g a m e tha t was s c h e d u l e d at a m o r e r easonab le t i m e o f 8:00 p m . I a lways w o n d e r e d w h y i t was that the w o m e n ' s g a m e h a d to b e s c h e d u l e d first . W h a t w o u l d h a p p e n i f the t imes w e r e reversed? W o u l d m o r e fans a t t end o u r games i f i t w a s s c h e d u l e d at a m o r e c o n v e n i e n t t i m e , o r w o u l d , as the a th le t ic d i r e c t o r i n d i c a t e d o n seve ra l o c c a s i o n s , fans leave after the m e n ' s g a m e , thus nega t i ng the c h a n g e i n t ime? B o t h the m e n ' s a n d w o m e n ' s t e a m r o o m s w e r e l o c a t e d near the g y m n a s i u m , b u t that is w h e r e the s imi la r i t i e s e n d e d . T h e w o m e n ' s t e a m r o o m w a s a s m a l l , u n l o c k e d space l o c a t e d w i t h i n a larger , p u b l i c w o m e n ' s l o c k e r r o o m . It c o n s i s t e d o f a s m a l l b e n c h a n d 2 5 l o c k e r s a n d w a s v i r t u a l l y i m p o s s i b l e f o r the en t i re t e a m o f 14 p layers t o b e i n the r o o m at the s ame t ime . I n con t ras t , the m e n ' s t e a m r o o m was large a n d spac ious . S i n c e i t w a s l o c a t e d separate f r o m the m e n ' s p u b l i c l o c k e r r o o m , the t e a m w a s able to m a i n t a i n p r i v a t e access to i t . I t was f u r n i s h e d w i t h o v e r 50 l o c k e r s , a l o n g b e n c h , a p r iva t e w a s h r o o m , a c h a l k b o a r d , a n d c o u l d easily a c c o m m o d a t e a l l the p layers a n d s taff fo r mee t ings . I w o n d e r e d w h y the w o m e n h a d to take tu rns c h a n g i n g i n the c r a m p e d a n d u n c o m f o r t a b l e r o o m , w h e n the m e n h a d p l e n t y o f r o o m a n d w e r e u n l i k e l y to b e c o n c e r n e d a b o u t t eammates m v a d i n g the i r p e r s o n a l space. I n a d d i t i o n , I n o t i c e d d i f fe rences i n the l e v e l o f s u p p o r t f r o m s p o n s o r s , the ava i l ab i l i t y o f s c h o l a r s h i p m o n i e s , a n d the ex ten t o f m e d i a a t t e n t i o n t o n a m e a f e w inequ i t i e s . I t h o u g h t that these inequ i t i e s w e r e i n e v i t a b l e because the w o m e n ' s t e a m w a s n o t succes s fu l a n d thus h a d l i t de p o w e r to i n f l u e n c e change i n the depa r tmen t . H o w e v e r , w h e n the m e n ' s t e a m s tar ted l o s i n g t o o , b u t w a s s t i l l a f f o r d e d w i t h m a n y p r iv i l eges , I w o n d e r e d w h y w a s i t that the men were taken better care of than the women. I also began to question why women accepted their disadvantaged situation as many of my teammates, myself included, did little to advocate for change. For my doctoral research, I became curious about whether similar discrepancies existed at other Canadian university athletic departments, i f various stakeholders, including athletes, were cognizant of them, and i f there was an interest in addressing them. My master's work on strategic decision making in the Canadian university athletic system piqued my interest in the role organizational values play in organizations (Hill, 1996; Hi l l & Kikulis, 1999). In much of the management literature, successful and productive organizations are those in which organizational members espoused and enacted shared values. In my study, I found that some of the athletic directors whom I spoke with were committed to broad-based programming, while others believed it was more advantageous to specialize in a few sports. Some of them strongly believed in maintaining ties to historical rivals, regardless of the travel costs, while others were committed to re-configuring the conference boundaries and estabhshing new rivalries between universities in order to control costs. Even though these athletic directors all belonged to the same regional conference and the literature would suggest that they espoused the same values, the findings from my master's study suggested that they did not espouse the same values. From this, I turned my attention to one organizational value in particular — gender equity. Based on my previous experiences, I wondered what the connections were between what coaches, administrators, and athletes said and what they did, as it appeared to me that there were gaps between meanings and practices. I decided to carry on in some ways with the research I did for my master's degree, because I was dissatisfied with the lack of research being paid to gender equity in the Canadian university athletic system. In the early stages of my doctoral research, I was questioned by academics, students, friends, and colleagues i f gender equity really was an issue. The implication was that there were no problems in the Canadian system. The gaps between men's and women's teams did not appear as great as they have been documented at some universities and colleges in the United States. A t the university in which this research was situated their equity office compiled an annual report on equity. In 1999, only 1% of the 205 cases (approximately 2 cases) of harassment and discrimination were from athletics, while in 2000, 2% of 136 cases (approximately 3 cases) dealt with cases pertaining to the athletic department. From this, some could conclude that there were few inequities in the department, but I had a hard.time accepting that argument as I had experienced numerous inequities. Finally, I was drawn to post-structuralist feminist theory as a lens for examining the questions I had about gender equity and athletes, because critical questions were not being adequately addressed by most of the sport management literature that has relied on a liberal feminist stance. Instead of proposing that inequities existed because of some natural deficiencies of women or that there were structural barriers, post-structuralist ferninist theory, with its emphasis on discourses, knowledge, power, and gender, directed my attention to the embeddedness of gendered discourses in organizational cultures. This dissertation is my attempt to uncover and disrupt the assumptions we take for granted, but which perpetuate inequities in university athletics. 1 1 Introduction From my past experience in university athletics', I was aware of how easily and nonchalandy coaches, acuriinistrators, and even athletes justified gender inequities. It was not uncommon to hear the argument that men's teams deserved a greater share of the resources because they generated more revenue that helped to subsidize women's teams. I heard that it was virtually impossible to increase the size of the women's locker room because it would cost too much to renovate the facility. I heard that attendance was higher at men's games because their display of strength and physicality made the game more exciting to watch. These explanations were accepted even by women athletes, who were the most disadvantaged in the university sport system, because the reasons seemed logical and normal given the historical context that privileged male athletes. It is through the acceptance of such arguments as natural, instead of questioning them, that one becomes victimized by the power in the production of knowledge and the social construction of dominant discourses that protect the status quo. A n aim of this study was to understand and critique dominant discourses of gender equity11 as an organizational value that are espoused in Canadian university athletic departments and to raise questions about how such knowledge is produced and put into practice. Gender Equity and Sport Athletic achievement, financial responsibility, national recognition, mass participation, excellence, and fair play are some of the typical and potentially conflicting organizational values espoused by managers of sport organizations such as national governing bodies and university athletic departments (Hinings, Thibault, Slack, & KikuHs, 1996; Puder & Wolfe, 1999; Wolfe, Hoeber, & Babiak, 2002). In recent years, gender equity has also become an organizational value that appears in the mission and policy statements of these types of sport organizations (cf. Hoeber & Frisby, 2001; Shaw, 2001). For example, the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) 1 1 ', which is the national governing body for university athletics in Canada, established an equity and equality committee and developed goal statements that demonstrate a commitment to this organizational value (CIAU, 1999). Certainly institutional pressures in the form of government legislation such as 2 the National Policy on Women and Girls in Sport, Research and Physical Activity (1999) in Australia, the Sport Canada Policy on Women in Sport (1986) in Canada, the Making English Sport Inclusive guidelines (2000) in England and Tide I X legislation (1972)'v in the United States have motivated some sport organizations to adopt gender equity. Yet, calls for greater gender diversity in leadership and athletic participation (cf. Doherty & Chelladurai, 1999; Fink & Pastore, 1999, Fink, Pastore & Riemer, 2001), coupled with research illustrating continued gender inequities at all levels of sport (cf. Fink & Pastore, 1997; Inglis, Danylchuk, & Pastore, 2000; McKay, 1997; Shaw, 2001; Theberge, 2000a, 2000b), signal that gender equity is an organizational value that is not always enacted, even when it has been incorporated into policies and organizational mission statements. Gender Equity in University Athletics In the past thirty years, the opportunities for Canadian female athletesv to participate in university sports has increased (Danylchuk & MacLean, 2001; Hums, MacLean, Richman, & Pastore, 1994; Inglis, 1988; Keyes, 1974; Pomfret, 1988). In the early 1970s, there were only four national championships for women in the sports of basketball, gymnastics, swimming and diving, and volleyball (Keyes, 1974). Currently there are 10 national championships for women in the sports of basketball, cross-country running, field hockey, ice hockey, rugby, soccer, swimming, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling, which is one more than the number of national championships for men (see page 86, chapter 4) (CIS, 2002a). However, despite these increases in programrning opportunities, male athletes continue to outnumber female athletes. In 2002, there were 5,417 registered male athletes (54%) compared to 4,536 female athletes (46%) registered in the Canadian university system (CIS, 2002b). This discrepancy is primarily due to the large number of males playing football. A t first glance, athletic department administrators may assume that gender equity has been successfully put into practice because there are significantly more opportunities for female athletes to participate. This liberal feminist approach to gender equity is based on the idea that removing structural and bureaucratic barriers will result in equal opportunities for women and men (Meyerson & Kolb , 2000). While this goal of achieving equal numbers may have contributed to the expansion of the number of teams for women, it ignores other dimensions of inequity (Hall, 1996; Hargreaves, 1990). Research has shown that women 3 receive fewer scholarships than men, women's teams are promoted less often, and men's teams generally receive a greater share of operating budgets (CIS, 2001, Danylchuk & MacLean, 2001; Inglis et al., 2000). Furthermore, adding more teams for women and estabUshing goal statements does not, as some may expect, adequately address inequities because the prevailing gendered culture, power imbalances, and the allocation of resources have not been challenged or altered (Gherardi, 2001; Rao, Stuart, & Kelleher, 1999). Alvesson and Billing (1997) noted that despite the social pressures to be gender equitable the commitment to it often borders on tokenism because it is rarely translated and embedded into organizational practices. There have been few documented cases of gender cuscrimination at Canadian university athletic departments, which contrasts sharply with the American situation where Tide I X legislation has forced athletic departments to assess their practices and address inequities. Compliance with Tide I X legislation has been contentious and there have been several notable examples of legal action taken on behalf of athletes (cf. Greendorfer, 1998; Fink & Pastore, 1997; Staurowsky, 1996a, 1998). Some may conclude that the absence of publicly documented legal cases in Canadian universities points to successful policy implementation. However, prevailing societal discourses that have historically privileged the physicality and athletic performances of men over those of women reinforce inequities in athletic structures, policies and practices (Hall, 1996; Hargreaves, 1990; Shaw, 2001). The privileging of one version of truth that argues gender equity is not a problem over evidence of continued gender inequities demonstrates that hegemony is operating to perpetuate them. Drawing on Gramsci's theory of hegemony, Alvesson and Deetz (2000) and Fraser (1997) contended that hegemony operates when the knowledge produced by dominant groups becomes privileged and takes on the status of common sense, and thus often goes unquestioned, while the preferences of the dominated groups go unnoticed, especially when they consent to the existing order characterized by asymmetrical power relations. A danger for stakeholders in sport is that they may become complacent by assuming that equal numbers of participants or sport teams for men and women adequately address this organizational value and thereby ignore other strategies that would lead to a more comprehensive approach to gender equity for athletes. It is precisely because it is taken for granted that Alvesson and Skoldberg (2000) have argued that we should \"ask questions that are an insult to common sense ... to promote a kind of thinking which differs radically from 4 established modes\" (p. 132), and in turn, calls into question the arbitrary nature of the production of knowledge. Through case studies of four university sport programs situated in one university athletic department at a Canadian university, this study sought to question the status quo and challenge the taken for granted assumptions that influenced the understandings and practices of gender equity as an organizational value. This study was informed by post-structuralist feminist theory that provided a lens for understanding the local meanings and the production of gendered knowledge, promoted a critique of the manner in which dominant discourses are embedded in organizational cultures, and encouraged discussion of transforming meanings and practices (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000; Fletcher, 1999a). Studying gender equity as an organizational value provided a way of understanding the \"unobtrusive ways that gender inequity is sustained and reproduced in organizations\" (Fletcher, 1999b, p. 2). In doing so, we can enter into discussions about the ingrained meanings and practices that perpetuate inequities and entertain possibilities for transformation. Studying Organizational Values Schein (1985), one of the early researchers of organizational culture, conceptualized organizational values as windows into the deep structures of organizations or the \"collection of values, history, culture and practices that form the unquestioned, 'normal' way of working in organizations\" (Rao et al., 1999, p. 2). I argue that studying gender equity as an organizational value with multiple potential meanings will challenge dominant discourses and reveal alternative ways of embedding it more deeply and fully into organizational practices. Agle and Caldwell (1999) reviewed eight definitions of organizational values, most of which conceptualized them as preferences about desired behaviours (e.g., cooperation, efficiency) or organizational outcomes (e.g., profit, success). For example, Enz (1988, p. 287) defined organizational values as: the beliefs held by an individual or group regarding means and ends organizations \"ought to\" or \"should\" identify in the running of the enterprise, in choosing what business actions or objectives are preferable to alternative actions, or in estabHshing organizational objectives. While Agle and Caldwell (1999) maintained that the proliferation of definitions is indicative of a well-defined construct, most of these definitions portrayed organizational values in a 5 rationalistic manner that failed to tap into their political or socially constructed dimensions (cf. H i l l & Kikulis, 1999; Hoeber & Frisby, 2001). Martin (2002) was critical of the rational perspective because espoused organizational values are not always widely shared or understood by organizational members and are not always reflected in organizational practices. Rather, espoused organizational values may merely serve as corporate propaganda to maintain the status quo and divert attention away from gendered power relations that sustain inequities (Martin, 2002). For example, it is commonly assumed that organizational cultures and values are gender neutral and that organizational practices objectively reward meritorious skills, abilities, and achievements. Yet, a growing body of organizational research has shown that practices and discourses presumed to be gender neutral are highly gendered and contribute to systemic inequities (cf. Acker, 1990, 2000; Benschop & Doorewaard, 1998; Ely & Meyerson, 2000; Fletcher, 1999a; Martin, 1994; Martin & Meyerson, 1998; Rao et al., 1999). It is generally assumed that the characteristics of a good worker, such as working independentiy, sacrificing one's private life for work and attending to crisis in a heroic manner, are gender neutral. Yet Rao et al. (1999) and Fletcher (1999a) argued that these qualities favour men over women who are still largely responsible for domestic and childcare tasks in the home, because of prevailing societal attitudes about the gendered division of labour. Likewise in sport, it has been shown that employment roles and hiring processes are underpinned by gendered assumptions (Hovden, 2000, Shaw, 2001; Shaw & Hoeber, 2003). Shaw (2001) demonstrated that while men and women were not explicidy singled out for particular positions in English national sport governing bodies, the role of regional development officers have traditionally been associated with femininity and women because they required individuals who were loyal, caring, and well-organized. In contrast, senior management roles were typically linked with masculinity and men because they required leaders who acted in a professional manner and would not be distracted by family commitments (Shaw, 2001). Based on this conception, it is important to determine whether understandings of organizational values are shared, whether there are multiple meanings attached to them, and whether they are actually embedded in organizational practices. 6 Turning to Post-structuralist Feminism In the sport management literature, explanations for gender inequities and the barriers that block women's access to administration or participation have focused on organizational structures and deficiencies in individual skills and abilities (Doherty & Varpalotai, 2000; Hall , 1996). While this research has been helpful in demonstrating that inequities continue to exist, it does not explain the deeper mechanisms by which they are sustained and reinforced. Shaw (2001) was one of the first sport management scholars who argued that research must \"progress from analyses of what occurs within sport organizations to an examination of how and why they continue to be arenas in which gender relations are far from equitable\" (p. 4). This suggests that the role of the researcher is to \"initiate open discussion of images widely spread by dominant groups and mainstream management thinking by drawing attention to hidden aspects and offering alternative readings\" (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000, p. 17). Although largely untapped as a conceptual framework in the sport management literature, post-structuralist feminism offers an exciting new lens for examining gender equity. This theory focuses on the construction of meanings and the implementation of particular meanings in practice (Fletcher, 1999a). It is useful for this study because it acknowledges \"the gendered nature of knowledge production and the way it maintains and reinforces the power relationships between the sexes\" (Fletcher, 1999a, p. 21). In this process of gendered knowledge production, \"advantage and disadvantage, exploitation and control, action and emotion, meaning and identity are patterned through and in terms of a distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine\" (Acker, 1990, p. 146). In this way, gender hierarchies and distinctions are made to appear normal, which in turn furthers the interests of some dominant groups (Fletcher, 1999a). The aim of post-structurahst ferrrinism is to disrupt the status quo and traditional power structures by critiquing taken for granted assumptions and establishing contexts and conditions whereby individuals can draw upon alternative vocabularies to produce new meanings and practices that go farther in reflecting and enacting desired organizational values (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000). By adopting this perspective, my attention was directed toward the identification and analysis of gender equity discourses to reveal the meanings that organizational members of an athletic department used to make sense of it and how it was manifested in practices. 7 Although gender equity is a frequent topic of discussion and research, Bryson and de Castell (1993) argued there is littie agreement about how to define and interpret it. This is problematic because discourses are constructed and power is enacted through the meanings or the manner in which people make sense of organizational realities (Ely & Meyerson, 2000). Post-structuralist feminism recognizes that power is located \" in systems of shared meaning that reinforce mainstream ideas and silence alternatives\" (Fletcher, 1999a, p. 17). Thus, i f it is assumed that understandings of gender equity are unitary and shared, it takes on the status of being a taken for granted organizational value and little effort will be made to promote further change. With a post-structuralist approach to the study of organizational values, it is argued that organizational cultures are a struggle where the dominant groups' understandings are usually privileged and seen as normal, with little or no consultation with other organizational members (Alvesson, 1987). Recognizing that socially constructed meanings that are or are not contested reveal the \"gender we think\" (Gherardi, 1994, p. 591), one purpose of this research was to determine i f there were multiple meanings of gender equity for athletes from the perspectives of various stakeholder groups in university athletics (e.g., adrrrinistrators, coaches, and athletes). I examined the meanings held by those at different levels of the organizational hierarchy to avoid the problem that pervades the management literature where the views of top administrators are assumed to represent the views of all other organizational members (Martin, 2002). According to Alvesson and Deetz (2000), the insight gained from the perceptions of those who are studied are valuable for understanding the common and accepted meanings of a phenomenon, but this must be balanced with an awareness of how discourses operate to shape the understandings of those being studied. Depending on the particular setting, individuals draw upon existing discourses to understand their experiences (Alvesson & Deetz, 1996; Weedon, 1997), suggesting that not all discourses are accessible to all individuals in this process of constructing reality. It also recognizes that \"there is no subjective reality independent of the socially constructed forces that create it\" (Fletcher, 1999a, p. 39). It is through the \"observation of social process\" (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000, p. 70) that we become aware that certain interpretations of values are implemented and maintained by dominant powerful groups in an effort to suppress conflicting interpretations that may pose a threat or challenge to existing power structures. 8 In her study of gender equity in the British higher education system, Bagilhole (2002) argued that examining organizational practices related to it was useful in determining which meanings were enacted and to pinpoint gaps between meanings and practice. Recognizing that gender inequities are socially constructed and that organizational practices are \"carriers of cultural meaning, drawing upon and producing gendered ideas . . . and assumptions\" (Alvesson & Billing, 1997, p. 106), by identifying which ones contribute to them, discussions can be raised about how to alter them to promote social justice (Kenway, Willis, Blackmore, & Rennie, 1998; Meyerson & Kolb , 2000). Since practices reveal the enacted understanding of organizations or the \"gender we do\" (Gherardi, 1994, p. 591), the other aims of this research were to determine which meanings of this organizational value were implemented into practice, and how stakeholders accounted for any observed gaps between meanings and practices. Critiquing the mainstream and accepted views about the potential incongruities between meanings and practices can disrupt the status quo and establish a space to construct new ways of drinking. Context and Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study was to understand and critique the meanings and practices of gender equity for athletes from the perspectives of administrators, coaches, and athletes in a Canadian university context. This was accomplished by utilizing a qualitative approach and conducting case studies of four sport programs at one Canadian university. I posed three specific research questions: RQ1: What meanings did administrators, coaches, and athletes associate with gender equity for athletes? RQ2: Which meanings of this organizational value were implemented in organizational practices related to four different sport programs? RQ3: How did the administrators, coaches, and athletes explain any uncovered gaps between meanings and practices? Alvesson and Billing (1997, p. 104) argued that understanding meanings rooted in organizational cultures requires a research design that emphasizes the fostering of insight and critique through \"unpacking the deeper aspect of a phenomenon.\" A qualitative approach was suitable for this study because it encouraged a nuanced appreciation of the local context through rich descriptions of settings and advocated a sensitivity to the 9 meanings held by those being studied (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000; Fletcher, 1999a; Marshall & Rossman, 1999). These are important considerations since the production of knowledge occurs at the local level, even though it is embedded in a broader historical, social, and political context (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000). University athletics provided a rich site for examining and critiquing the taken for granted assumptions underpinning gender equity for three main reasons. First, sport has traditionally been identified as a male domain, but recent advances made by female athletes may lead to complacency about gender equity. Second, since athletic departments have sports with different histories and gender structures, it is important to examine the complexities that are deeply embedded in their cultures. Third, there are identifiable stakeholder groups at different levels of the organizational hierarchy (e.g., athletes, coaches, administrators) with potentially different understandings of this organizational value and how it should be implemented. As explained further in chapter 3, for this study I selected four sport programs in one Canadian athletic department with different institutional conditions. In three of the sports, the men's and women's programs operated separately with teams having separate coaching staff, schedules, operating budgets, and equipment. One sport operated in an integrated manner where the male and female athletes shared access to resources. In two sports, both the men's and women's teams had comparable long histories on campus, while for the other two sports, the men's teams had a long history on campus which contrasted with the recent additions of women's teams in the athletic department. I expected that I would find various practices and meanings of gender equity as a result of the different institutional conditions. Overview of Remaining Chapters This dissertation consists of eight chapters. In chapter 2,1 provided the conceptual framework for this research, which was informed by three bodies of literature: post-structuralist feminism, organizational values, and gender equity in sport. In chapter 3,1 described the research methods, my role as the researcher, and how I analyzed the data. Since post-structuralist research is grounded in a rich understanding of the local context, I devoted chapter 4 to describing the larger historical, political, social, and economic contexts surrounding the athletic department under investigation along with the specific institutional conditions of the four case study sport programs. In chapters 5, 6, and 7,1 discussed the 10 major findings: respondents' meanings of gender equity are found in chapter 5; practices of gender equity are in chapter 6; and the explanations respondents used to justify the gaps between meanings and practices appear in chapter 7. Finally, in chapter 8,1 drew conclusions, made recommendations, and suggested future directions for research. 1 The term 'intercollegiate athletics' has long been used to describe the context in which teams from American colleges and universities competed against each other and were members of the same league, the National Collegiate Athletic Association ( N C A A ) . In Canada, sport teams from Canadian colleges and post-secondary institutes are members of the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association ( C C A A ) and use the term 'intercollegiate' to describe their structure. Sport teams from universities compete in a separate system governed by Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), formerly the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union, and use the term 'interuniversity' to identify their structure. Thus, for this study, I referred to the context as 'university athletics' rather than the more common label of 'intercollegiate athletics' that pervades the sport literature. u Labeling an organizational value as gender equity presumes that there is an intimate and unique relationship between gender and die experiences of equity. It fails to consider the intersectionality of subjectivities in that one's experiences of equity are interconnected between gender and other aspects such as, but not limited to, age, ability, class, and sexuality. Nevertheless, I choose to focus specifically on gender equity as an organizational value because at the time of data collection that was how the value was positioned. m In 2001, members of the C I A U voted to change the name of their organization to Canadian Interuniversity Sport. Since the data was collected before the name change, I used the C I A U acronym in the body o f the text, except when citing organizational documents published after the name change. l v Title I X legislation was established in 1972 by the United States Congress to address gender discrimination in federally funded educational programs, including university athletics. Specifically, the policy states that \"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to (nscrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance\" (Tide I X Educational Amendment o f 1972, Tide 20 U.S .C. sections 1681 to 1688). See Greendorfer (1998) for a more detailed account of this piece of legislation in relation to the working of the N C A A , the prominent governing body for university athletics in the United States. v In academic and popular literature university athletes are commonly referred to as 'student-athletes.' Despite its widespread use, there is some criticism and calls for change of this term. In the United States, concerns have been raised that although these individuals are technically enrolled as students in universities, for some of them the majority o f their time and energy is focused on their athletic pursuits (Eitzen, 2003). Emphasizing the 'student' role also diverts attention away from the exploitation of these individuals by universities and athletic departments that financially benefit from their athletic accomplishments. Others have argued that the term is redundant as only students can legitimately participate as university athletes. The Drake Group, a national American group composed of faculty members who advocate for greater academic integrity in athletic departments, have proposed that the term 'student-athlete' be replaced by either 'student' or 'college athlete' to emphasize one or the other roles, but not both simultaneously (Drake Group, n.d.). I elected to refer to them as athletes in part because of these concerns, but also because, in the context of this study, very few of those with whom I spoke discussed their role as students, the value of education, or the connection between athletics and education. 11 2 Conceptual Framework Some sport organizations are formally incorporating gender equity as a value in their mission statements and policy documents. Despite this espoused commitment, we know little about the meanings of this organizational value for organizational members and how it is enacted. In this chapter, I drew upon three bodies of literature, post-structuralist feminism, organizational values, and gender equity in sport, to inform my study about the meanings and practices associated with gender equity for athletes in a Canadian university. First, I developed the need to examine gender equity from a post-structuralist feminist perspective. In this section I described and highlighted the fundamental characteristics of post-structuralist feminism, the advantages of using it, and recent research on gender equity from this perspective. Next, I addressed the organizational values literature because I situated gender equity as an organizational value for this study. Although this literature was a subset of a larger body of literature on organizational culture, some of which has embraced perspectives similar to post-structuralist feminism, many studies continued to followed a positivist tradition. In this section, I argued that a post-structuralist feminist perspective was beneficial because it disputed the assumption of shared unitary meanings of values, it does not privilege the voices of upper administrators, and it focused attention on the connection between espoused and enacted values. In doing so, new ways of dunking and doing gender equity can be uncovered, created or developed (Fletcher, 1999a; Rao et al., 1999). While there has been a significant amount of research devoted to examining gender equity in sport organizations. Many of the studies have identified individual and structural reasons for gender inequities in sport (cf. Doherty & Varpalotai, 2000; Hall, 1996), but most have overlooked explanations grounded in the organizational culture literature. Using a post-structuralist feminist perspective acknowledged that assumptions about gender are embedded and ingrained within organizational cultures in areas like organizational values, formal and informal practices, symbols, rituals, and social interactions (Acker, 1990; Alvesson, 1987; Meyerson & Kolb , 2000; Rao et al., 1999). These underlying assumptions provided valuable meanings because they reinforced guidelines and delineated boundaries 12 about what was normal or expected in the organization (Alvesson & Billing, 1997). To move beyond traditional notions of gender equity and avoid simplistic practices that reinforce inequities, conflict, and misunderstandings amongst organizational members, researchers must identify and contest those underlying assumptions and iUuminate and analyze multiple meanings to more fully understand how the value can be enacted. Post-structuralist Feminism Post-structuralist feminism' is a theory about the complex relationships among knowledge, power, and gender (Kenway, Willis, Blackmore, & Rennie, 1994; Mumby, 1996; Weedon, 1997). It draws on both the philosophy of post-structuraUsm, particularly the work of Michel Foucault, with its critique of language and power and the political nature of feminist thought with its emphasis on social change (cf. Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000; Calas & Smircich, 1996, 1999; Fletcher, 1998, 1999a; Fraser & Nicholson, 1990; Hearn & Parkin, 1993; Olesen, 2000; Rail, 1998; Scott, 1990; Weedon, 1997). While structurahsts study the symbolic system of language and see it as a fixed or universal entity\", post-structuralist feminists are interested in the use of language recognizing that it is socially constructed and relevant in the practices of knowledge production that contribute to the dominance of particular ideologies (Fraser, 1997). They recognize language as a tool that people use to establish meaning and determine a reality for themselves (Jacobson & Jacques, 1997; Scott, 1990; Weedon, 1997). Thus, post-structuralist feminist researchers analyze how meanings and knowledge are produced, contested, and changed (Kenway et al., 1994; Mumby, 1996). While feminist inquiry is focused on identifying examples of oppression, power imbalances, and inequities, as well as challenging and changing existing patriarchal structures in society (Calas & Smircich, 1996), post-structuralist feminist inquiry involves challenging \"inequitable relationships of power which involve gender\" as evidenced through meanings and discourses and hidden in organizational practices and cultures (Kenway et al., 1998, p. xviii). As Weedon (1997) pointed out, researchers who use it analyze \"the relationship between language, social institutions and individual consciousness which focuses on how power is exercised\" (p. 19). Since this study concerned the meanings of gender equity and how it is played out in organizational practices, post-structuralist feminism was an appropriate lens to guide the analysis. 13 Key Features of Post-structuralist Feminism There are many defining features of this perspective and many ways to interpret it (Kenway et al., 1994). For my research, I was interested in the meanings individuals associated with gender equity, the influence of institutional conditions on the production of meanings and practices, how gender equity was espoused and enacted, and the potential for alternative understandings of it. To address these issues the identification and analysis of discourses and gendered power relations was central. The idea that discourses provide \"competing ways of giving meaning to the world and organizing social institutions and processes\" (Kenway et al., 1998, p. xvii) suggests that there is a tight relationship between meanings and power. Using post-structuralist feminism as a lens encouraged me to look for multiple meanings, to recognize the subjectivity of the participants and myself in the production and analysis of these meanings, and to use deconstruction as an analytical tool to disrupt taken for granted assumptions. Discourses. According to Phillips and Hardy (2002, p. 3), a discourse is defined as \"an interrelated set of texts, and the practices of their production, (hssemination, and reception, that brings an object into being.\" Similarly, Fletcher (1999a, p. 143) defined the term as \"the social arena in which common understandings are manifest in language, social practices, and structures.\" This understanding of discourses is contested. Some researchers conceptualize them more narrowly by focusing on the words, phrases, and statements in verbal and written texts (cf. Weedon, 1997). In contrast, others, like Phillips and Hardy (2002), considered discourses more broadly, in that texts, or where the practice of knowledge production occurs and meanings surface, included a variety of forms such as the spoken word, written texts, artifacts, symbols, physical arrangements, gestures, and pictures. Phillips and Hardy (2002) also focused on how discourses take shape and are experienced in particular contexts. This is important because discourses are also connected to power through their \"inscription in institutional structures and practices and in cultural products\" (Kenway et al., 1998, p. xvii). For the purposes of this research, I relied on the broader understanding of discourses, recognizing that in order to understand gender equity, it would be important to consider the context and institutional conditions under which respondents make sense of this organizational value. 14 Discourses are socially constructed and are situated in complex social, cultural, and historical contexts that produce versions of truth that become the common sense way of doing things (Alvesson & Billing, 1997; Scott, 1990; Weedon, 1997). Depending on the particular context, individuals are exposed to, draw upon, or adopt existing discourses to give meaning to their experiences, to act as representatives of their interests and values, and to communicate with others (Alvesson & Deetz, 1996; Weedon, 1997). These discourses produce meanings that make sense in a particular context and help individuals shape and frame their version of reality (Oswick, Keenoy, & Grant, 1997; Scott, 1990). For example, during an elite-level basketball game, the coaches, players, and officials engage in a particular discourse or way of making sense of the game. They communicate and generate meaning using particular words (e.g., foul, hoop), phrases (e.g., zone defense, pick and roll), and gestures (e.g., an official with both hands in the air and showing three fingers on each hand to indicate the completion of a three-point shot). In other settings, such as a hospital emergency room or a coffee shop, many of these same gestures and phrases would not have the same meaning. Post-structuralist feminists recognize that \"times and places cannot be isolated from the wider politics of the state and civil society .. . understanding the local is what is considered important strategically\" (Kenway et al., 1998, p. xviii). Therefore, it was important to understand how the particular meanings of gender equity related to the institutional conditions of the sport programs and to the larger historical, political, social, and economic contexts of the athletic department and its governing body, the C I A U . Discourses do not simply describe situations; they play a significant role in constructing reality (Oswick et al., 1997). They shape \"what can and cannot be said; what constitutes the mandatory, the permissible, and the forbidden; and the boundaries of common sense\" (Jacobson & Jacques, 1997, p. 48). They work to promote particular views and divert attention away from alternative versions of reality (Garnsey & Rees, 1996). As Fletcher (1999a, p. 22) stated, \"the production of knowledge [is] an exercise in powerwhere only some voices are heard and only some experience is counted as knowledge.\" This implied that there is a relationship between discourses and power, with some discourses taking on \"the status of objective knowledge\" (Scott, 1990, p. 136), which becomes difficult to challenge. Fletcher (1999a, p. 22) added that: The process of producing knowledge is an exercise in power that is especially potent because it is not open to question: What is \"true\" is so 15 consistent with the dominant ideology that it is supported by notions of common sense, nature, and divinely inspired order. In her study, Fletcher (1998, 1999a) job shadowed and interviewed six female engineers in one organization and found evidence of four categories of relational job practices. These included preserving, where the well-being of a project was protected and maintained; mutual empowering that involved enabling others to accomplish tasks and objectives; achieving that required using relational skills to enhance one's achievements; and team builciing that was established by creating a positive and social work environment. She maintained that while these relational work practices were apparent in the organization she studied, they \"disappeared as work because [they] violated the masculine logic of effectiveness\" (1999a, p. 91). She (1999) argued that these practices lacked relevance because of the misattribution of motives and the limits of language. First, it was assumed that those who engaged in relational practices did so not because it was essential to the effectiveness of their work, but because of a personality trait such as naivete or tiioughtfulness. Second, engineers described relational practices using words and phrases (e.g., being nice, helping out, being approachable) that related to ferruninity or the private sphere, which in turn \"diminishfed] its organizational relevance and its ability to be perceived as work\" (1999a, p. 106). As a result, these practices went unrewarded because they did not fit the dominant discourse of work where \"autonomy, self-promotion, and individual heroics were highly prized\" (1998, p. 175). Her research illustrated that the dominant discourse normalized a masculine view of work, and as a result, relational work was disregarded and marginalized. Fletcher (1998, 1999a) argued that as this view is challenged, work discourses will change to recognize alternative meanings of it. Two aims of post-structuralist feminism are to identify dominant and marginalized discourses and to reveal the multiple meanings of them (Scott, 1990). These are particularly important because challenging the status quo requires Hstening to multiple interpretations so that new ideas or ways of thinking can be uncovered (Rao et al., 1999). To illustrate, in his study of the Australian Sports Commission's conceptualization and development of a gender equity policy, McKay (1994) uncovered three conflicting discourses. He labeled the dominant discourse \"play by the rules,\" and this was touted by individuals who believed gender equity was unnecessary because sport was based on a fair and gender neutral system of merit based on achievements and dedication. The \"change the rules\" discourse was based 1 6 on liberal feminist notions and was espoused by some politicians, athletes, coaches, and administrators who recognized the inequities, but saw them stemming from women's inability to play by the existing rules, rather than as a function of \"competitive practices, hierarchal structures and men's values\" (McKay, 1994, p. 84). A third discourse, named the \"change the game\" discourse, was espoused by a few women who advocated radical changes to the patriarchal and competitive culture and structure of sport. This discourse was an example of a counter-discourse that resisted dominant discourses and provided an alternative version of reality that is obscured or discounted as knowledge (McDonald & Birrell, 1999). Power. Another prominent feature of post-structuralist feminism is the emphasis on the relationship between knowledge and power, particularly the recognition that power is exercised in the production of knowledge and operates through discourses (Weedon, 1997). Halford and Leonard (2001) identified three key components of Foucault's post-structuralist view of power: i) it is exercised and diffuse, meaning that all social actors have access to it and all are involved in constandy shifting and complex power relations; ii) it operates through discourses, and iii) the exercise of it shapes understandings of what is considered to be the truth. Adding a feminist perspective extends these ideas to consider the implications of gendered power relations. The first component argues that power is exercised and is not possessed or invested in someone, which is a critique of a traditional view of power (Kearins, 1996; Kenway et al., 1998). Power is diffuse in that all organizational members are \"subjects and bearers of power relations\" (Halford & Leonard, 2001, p. 33), but the context will dictate whether it is exercised. Since the post-structuralist feminist view suggests that no one is simply oppressed or dominant (Halford & Leonard, 2001), researchers must pay attention to who exercises power, particularly in regards to the construction, implementation, and dissemination of meaning. Second, power \"operates through the construction of 'truth' through language and discourse\" (Halford & Leonard, 2001, p. 32). Researchers must pay attention to how power is exercised in relation to language and the production of knowledge (Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000). This process of constructing meanings is \"influenced by and influences shifting patterns of power\" (Kenway et al., 1994, p. 189) and involves the selection of particular 17 vocabularies and the exclusion of alternative meanings (Calas & Smircich, 1999). Power is used to establish \"truth rules\" that are grounded in ideology and are used to define and establish what is true or false, legitimate or iUegitimate, natural or deviant, acceptable or unacceptable (Fletcher, 1999a; Hardy & Clegg, 1996). The strength and power of these discourses when put into action is that they appear to be natural, obvious, and free from scrutiny (Fletcher, 1999a; Martin & Meyerson, 1998). This suggests that there will be dominant discourses that are given more legitimacy and marginalized discourses that are ignored; yet, there is always the potential for the meanings to be disrupted and contested (Green, Parkin, & Hearn, 2000). Even though to those in power discourses may appear fixed which makes them hard to change, they are contextually based and the potential exists for their meanings to be challenged and altered over time or across various settings (Alvesson & Deetz, 1996; Kenway et al., 1994; Linstead & Grafton-Small, 1992; Scott, 1990). Calas and Smircich (1996, p. 244) argued that the \"politics of knowledge\" contributes to gendered power relations and the naturalization of truths. Third, researchers who employ a post-structuralist feminist perspective pay attention to the way that power is exercised \"through discourses of truth [that] shape how each of us perceives ourselves, others, and the world around us\" in relation to gender (Halford & Leonard, 2001, p. 32). Revealing discourses that are embedded in the deep structure of organizations, mcluding practices, informal norms, and cultural manifestations (Fletcher, 1999b; Kenway et al., 1998), helps to disrupt the notion of gender neutrality by demonstrating how women have been marginalized (Martin & Meyerson, 1998). For example, the processes of hiring and promotion have long been deemed as gender neutral by employers who argue that their decisions are based on the merit of the applicants. Yet researchers like Acker (1990), Fletcher (1999a), and Hovden (2000) have demonstrated that these practices are underpinned by gendered assumptions, such as the willingness to work long hours, which compromises some women's and men's commitment to their families. From this perspective then, researchers consider the impact of discourses to produce, develop, and reinforce gendered power relations in the culture of organizations and question the gender categories that have been viewed as sacred, stable, and taken for granted (Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000; Calas & Smircich, 1996; Martin & Meyerson, 1998). Rao et al.'s (1999) conceptualization of power is useful as it provides more detail on the ways that it is exercised to shape versions of truth and to marginalize other meanings of 18 gender equity in organizations. They envision power as \"empowering and mfinite, and practiced as inclusionary [that] is conducive to a gender-equality agenda\" (p. 6), but they also recognize it is still exercised in an exclusionary manner to perpetuate gender inequities. In other words, power can be exercised to secure meanings or it can be used to make available alternative meanings (Weedon, 1997). This conceptualization is consistent with a post-structuralist feminist perspective because it acknowledges that power can be \"positive and productive, not simply repressive\" (Kearins, 1996, p. 9). Exclusionary power refers to the idea that not all organizational members have access to it or can exercise it (Rao et al. 1999), because power relations are gendered. They argued however that \"power exercised to dominate or exclude needs to be effectively countered\" (p. 9) in order for meaningful change to happen. They described five key ways that exclusionary power is employed: positional power, agenda-setting power, hidden power, power of dialogue, and power of conflict, each of which has an impact on the production of knowledge and the influence of gender equity discourses. Although power can be used to maintain discourses that serve the interests of privileged men in sport organizations, it can also be used to destabilize them and pressure for changes to existing systems to foster gender equity. The literature suggests that in sport power is most often used to maintain the status quo (cf. Blinde, Taub, & Han, 1993, 1994; Greendorfer, 1998; Hall , Cullen, & Slack, 1989, 1990; Kay, 1996; McClung & Blinde, 2002; McKay, 1997, 1999; Shaw, 2001; Staurowsky, 1996a, 1998; Taylor, 2001). The implication is that the direction gender equity takes in organizations depends on who has access to sources of power and how it is exercised. Positional power relates to one's formal status and tide in an organization. Post-structurahst feminists are not interested in the possession of power because of one's position, but rather are concerned about the influence of one's position on the production of knowledge. This is particularly important because in male-dominated cultures, those in upper management positions have greater access to forums and mechanisms (e.g., formal decision making processes) that allow them to influence dominant understandings of gender equity. For example, it has been demonstrated that executive directors and other top administrators in national sport organizations, most of whom were male, claimed that their organizations were already gender equitable, denied the existence of gender inequities, or suggested that it was an irrelevant issue to them (Hall et al., 1989, 1990; McKay, 1997, 1999; 19 Shaw, 2001). Recognizing this, one could reasonably presume that they would not direct much attention towards gender equity, even though they had the authority to do so. Rao et al. (1999) argued that since everyone has power over their role and function in an organization, positional power \"resides in every position\" (pp. 6-7) and thus is diffused throughout the organization. From this view, it would be important to recognize that athletes and coaches have some power to resist current practices by drawing public attention to them through protest or public awareness campaigns for example (Clarke, Smith, & Thibault, 1994; Jacob & Mathes, 1996). In organizations, there are boundaries about acceptable and unacceptable topics and these are established by those who exercise agenda-setting power (Rao et al., 1999). McKay (1994) alluded to this when he found that certain topics such as glass ceilings and informal networks were not on the agenda during discussions over gender equity policy development for the Australian sport system. Denying that gender inequities existed, which rendered them invisible, perrnitted many male administrators of national sport organizations to effectively remove it from the agenda thus closing the dialogue on it and dismissing the need to take action (Hall et al., 1989, 1990; McKay, 1997, 1999; Shaw, 2001). It is apparent that i f issues are not considered to be problematic by upper managers, it is unlikely that they will be openly and frequendy discussed. In contrast, Rao et al. (1999) suggested that disrupting current modes of drinking helps to expand the agendas of organizations. Hidden power is apparent when those who are oppressed do not recognize their situations and fail to question dominant discourses or practices, even when there are apparent inequities and discrimination (Benschop & Doorewaard, 1998; Lukes, 1974; Rao et al., 1999). Benschop and Dooreward (1998, p. 790) referred to this as hegemonic power which is manifested in \"(non)verbal expressions of common sense, identifications, consensus and legitimizing rationalities.\" Thus, hidden power is at work when people accept dominant discourses or current practices as 'just the way things are.' Research in sport has shown that some female athletes and aclministrators who recognized their secondary status in sport and were aware of gender inequities indicated they had not personally experienced discrimination (Blinde et al. 1993, 1994; McClung & Blinde, 2002; McKay, 1997, 1999). Furthermore, some women were critical of gender equity initiatives assuming that they reflected special treatment for women (McKay, 1997). Others indicated a lack of support for such initiatives because they were reluctant to be associated with feminism (Blinde et al., 20 1993, 1994; McClung & Blinde, 2002; McKay, 1999), which may not be surprising given that sport is a \"highly conservative institution\" (Hall, 1997, p. 234). These findings echo similar sentiments from women in non-sport organizations who were hesitant to champion gender equity issues and thus be labeled feminists because of possible negative repercussions to their careers and public image (Ashford, 1998). Hidden power works because it is difficult to advocate for change i f those who are marginalized or oppressed accept their situation in spite of contrary evidence (Benschop & Doorewaard, 1998). As Fletcher (1999b, p. 1) stated, \"Both those who do and those who do not benefit from the status quo are active agents in mamtaining it.\" Fraser (1997) suggested that hegemony is a useful concept because it highhghts the \"intersection of power, inequality, and discourse\" and exposes the ways in which \"the sociocultural hegemony of dominant groups is achieved and contested\" (p. 154). She drew on Gramsci's theory of hegemony that focused on the relationship between social classes, specifically how dominant groups maintain their control over subordinated groups (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000; Donaldson, 1993; Fraser, 1997). Hegemony occurs when dominant social groups regulate the distribution of, and persuade others to accept, their ideologies, or values and ideas, as normal and common sense (Donaldson, 1993). In this type of relationship, power is maintained not through the use of force, but because those who are subordinated consent to conditions that appear to be reasonable, ordinary, or inevitable (Alvesson & Deetz, 2000; Donaldson, 1993). In exercising their power, dominant groups reinforce their ideologies in discourses, by imposing their understandings of situations, events, and issues (Donaldson, 1993; Fraser, 1997). To illustrate, groups such as male administrators, coaches, and sports reporters continue to call attention to an idealized form of sport and athletes that is referred to as hegemonic masculinity (cf. Connell, 1987). The relevance of hegemonic masculinity to sport is discussed later in this chapter. From a feminist perspective, hegemony does not assume that dominant groups have complete control of meanings or that \"women are passive victims of male domination\" (Fraser, 1997, p. 154). Instead, it recognizes that meanings are disrupted, negotiated, and challenged, and that individuals can draw up multiple discourses and positions (Donaldson, 1993; Fraser, 1997). The power of dialogue considers not only whose voices are consulted, included, and heard in discussions and meetings, but also whose voices are silenced and ignored (Rao et 21 al., 1999). In athletic departments, although athletes are deemed the primary beneficiary of organizational efforts (Armstrong-Doherty, 1995a), their collective voices are rarely included in the formal decision making processes. Instead, it is typically upper administrators who are consulted and interviewed because of their direct involvement in policy and decision making (Hoeber & Frisby, 2002). For meaningful change to occur and new truths and knowledge to be developed, many voices must be included in the dialogue (Fletcher, 1999a; Ko lb & Meyerson, 1999). Previous research has shown, however, that dialogue surrounding gender equity is often characterized as a 'batde of the sexes', with men overdy opposing gender equity because they are most threatened by potential changes to the status quo and with women advocating for change (cf. Greendorfer, 1998; Staurowsky, 1996a, 1998). Staurowsky (1996a) noted that some of the 'loudest' voices in the gender equity debate in the United States are those held by men in 'big-time' sports, particularly football, who maintain they should be exempt from compliance with Tide I X legislation because revenues from their sports subsidize women's sports. She also noted that men who are involved in non-revenue generating sports argue that they are victims of reverse cuscrimination because women's teams are provided with preferential treatment. These same individuals characterize women who advocate for gender equity as irrational, militant, and irresponsible (Staurowsky, 1996a). It appears that there is littie room in these dialogues for men who advocate for gender equity, for women who oppose it, or those who are indifferent to it. Paying attention to the power of dialogue also exposes the truth rules that influence how gender equity is understood in sport organizations (Fletcher, 1999a). Fletcher added that \"using these rules is an exercise in power because it maintains the status quo and silences any serious challenges to it\" (1999, p. 22). Through the power of dialogue, certain meanings or definitions take on the status of \"transcendant or universal truthfs]\" (p. 22), and other meanings are resisted or ignored. In sport, the truth rules suggest that men are privileged and the masculinity is valued, and consequendy, \"the language of sport also favors men\" (Parks & Roberton, 1998, p. 481). For example, women's sporting events, products, and services are identified with a gender marker to separate them from the 'real' ones devoted to the men (e.g., The Sports Network and Women's Television Sports Network111). Attempts to change gendered language in sport (e.g., first base player instead of first baseman) have been met with some resistance (Parks & Roberton, 2002), which shows the masculine vocabulary has taken on the status of objective knowledge. 22 Although Rao et al. (1999) indicated that the power of conflict refers to the ability of individuals to pressure for change, much of the literature on gender equity in sport suggests that power has been exercised in this manner by the privileged groups who feel threatened by policies and initiatives involving a redistribution of opportunities, resources, or power. In her study of the development of a gender equity policy for the English amateur sport system, Kay (1996) uncovered incidents of passive resistance from those in positions of decision making power who demonstrated superficial support for gender equity, but were concerned about the impact of the policy on their existing privileges. This is an effective form of resistance because \"one of the privileges enjoyed by those with power is the privilege to not see the systemic sources of privileges\" (Acker, 2000, p. 630). Despite resistance from some men, women have capitalized on the power of external societal pressure and legislation to get gender equity on the agenda and to advocate for changes (Rao et al., 1999), which is an example of exercising power in various forms. In the United States, female athletes and coaches have relied on the legal power of Title I X legislation in the education system to advocate for better locker rooms and practice facilities, more operating funds, and more scholarships to name a few of the areas in which women's teams have been disadvantaged (Greendorfer, 1998; Jacob & Mathes, 1996; Staurowsky, 1996a, 1998). By examining the meanings associated with gender equity, the impact of power from various sources on the development and maintenance of dominant meanings will become more visible. Multiple meanings. Given that much of the research on organizational values highlights the meanings espoused by upper administrators and assumes that these are widely shared amongst organizational members (cf. Cable & Judge, 1996, 1997; Dobni, Ritchie, & Zerbe, 2000; Gamble & Gibson, 1999; Pant & Lachman, 1998), I turned to a post-structuralist feminist perspective, which emphasizes multiple and overlooked meanings and the need to hear from multiple voices, including those who are marginalized (Alvesson & Deetz, 1996; Kenway et al., 1994; Ko lb & Meyerson, 1999). Fletcher (1999b, p. 4) stated that Ustening to more voices \"surfaces new information and uncovers assumptions that are rarely questioned by those who are currendy benefiting from the status quo.\" As well, \"the power of adding a marginalized voice to the discourse is that it forces a recognition of the arbitrary nature of what is considered true\" (Fletcher, 1999a, p. 22). It is important to investigate multiple 23 meanings because \"the appearance of completeness and closure leads us to overlook both the politics in and of construction of and the possibilities for understanding that are hidden behind the obvious\" (Alvesson & Deetz, 1996, p. 208). For example, Shaw and Slack (2002, p. 87) demonstrated that by examining multiple historical discourses of gender relations in national governing bodies of sport (NGBs), alternative views of femininities and masculinities or \"the socially constructed behaviours that are considered to be 'appropriate' for women and men\" could be uncovered. In two N G B s , traditional understandings of masculinities and femininities were protected in documents describing the organizations' histories. The leadership traits of male presidents such as their vision and vigour were highHghted, while the only mention,of a female president focused on her \"elegance, calm, and dignity\" (Shaw & Slack, 2002, p. 93). In a newer N G B , historical discourses demonstrated more appreciation of femininities and discussions on equity were given regular focus in their organizational publications. This study showed that discourses of masculinities and femininities are unstable and can be challenged or resisted to create different meanings and practices. Even though the articulation of organizational values has been found to reflect the distribution of power in organizations as upper adrninistrators usually define or endorse them (Enz, 1988; Voss, Cable & Voss, 2000), it is often assumed that they and other key stakeholders share common understandings of espoused organizational values (cf. Agle & Caldwell, 1999; Meglino & Ravlin, 1998). Rao et al. (1999, p. 2) argued that recognizing the multiplicity of meanings, even among seemingly coherent groups like upper adrninistrators, helps to expose the hidden gendered assumptions of the \"deep structure\" of organizations or the \"collection of values, history and practices that form the unquestioned, 'normal' way of working in organizations.\" Post-structuraHst feminist inquiry emphasizes the need to open up discussions and understandings to a variety of voices, but in particular to marginalized voices in organizations such as lower-level employees or women because they have traditionally been left out of research (Frost & Stablein, 1992; Martin, 1994). Rather than assuming there are single shared understandings, post-structuraUst feminists seek out and examine multiple interpretations \"to allow new voices, new perspectives and new alternatives to surface . . . new meanings to be created\" (Fletcher, 1999b, p. 3). Recent work by Martin (1992, 2002) has resulted in the development of alternative perspectives for studying organizational cultures and values, some of which acknowledge 24 multiple meanings. She suggested that actors interpret organizational cultures from at least three different perspectives: integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. The integration perspective is characterized by assumptions of consensus, clarity, and consistency in understandings and meanings (Schein, 1985; Wilson, 2001) and mirrors much of the research conducted on organizational values (cf. Cable & Judge, 1996, 1997; Dobni et al., 2000; Enz, 1988; McDonald, 1991; Voss et al., 2000). From this perspective, it is assumed that values are widely shared or commonly held throughout the organization, and as a result they are clearly understood and adopted by all organizational members (Enz, 1988; Schein, 1985). It is also assumed that organizational values are consistent with other manifestations of organizational culture like symbols, rituals, and physical arrangements (Frost, Moore, Louis, Lundberg, & Martin, 1991). McDonald (1991), in her study of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, illustrated how the organizational value of the \"Olympic Spirit\" was consistent with rituals like eating at the Cafe de Coubertin, a restaurant named after the founder of the modern Olympic Games, and the building of a merchandising outlet to sell Olympic paraphernalia. She concluded that this consistency encouraged a coherent image around the Olympic ideal and the development of a strong unified organizational culture, which were integral to the success of this short-term organization. Martin (1992, 2002) acknowledged that shared meanings are possible, but warned that the integration perspective ignores evidence of difference, ambiguity, and contradiction. The presumption of one shared culture overlooks inevitable diversity within organizations (Beyer, 1981; Wilson, 2001), because \"complex organizations reflect broader societal cultures and contain elements of occupational, hierarchical, class, racial, ethnic, and gender-based identifications\" (Meyerson & Martin, 1987, p. 630). Linstead and Grafton-Small (1992) accepted that shared meanings are assumed in organizational cultures, but argued that the level at which the meanings are shared is subcultural rather than organizational. The differentiation perspective recognizes that smaller subcultural groups in an organization may have conflicting meanings of key organizational values and that there are likely discrepancies between espoused and enacted values (Martin, 2002; Martin & Frost, 1996). Meyerson and Martin (1987, p. 637) pointed out that in most organizations \"individuals share some viewpoints, disagree about some, and are ignorant of or indifferent to others,\" disputing the idea of shared understandings that underpin both the integration and differentiation perspectives. The fragmentation perspective addresses this limitation by 25 suggesting that ambiguities are inevitable within organizations and subcultures because there usually are tensions, contradictions, and silences around the meanings of organizational values (Martin, 1992, 2002). In their examination of sport administrators' understandings of gender equity, Hoeber and Frisby (2001) found that most of them initially indicated that the athletic department was gender equitable, yet three of them later pointed to examples, such as some men's teams receiving more funding than women's teams, illustrating how this was not the case. This example illustrates a contradiction in their meanings. There was also an example of silences in regards to their meanings because, for the most part, administrators did not mention issues of respect and fairness. O f Martin's (1992, 2002) three perspectives, fragmentation is the most consistent with post-structuralist feminism as it considers the complexities and inconsistencies of socially constructed meanings. Subjectivity. Subjectivity refers to the \"conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions of the individual, her sense of herself and her ways of understanding her relation to the world\" (Weedon, 1997, p. 32). A post-structuralist feminist view suggests that an individual's sense of oneself, her experiences, and the reality around her is influenced by the discourses she has been exposed to (Weedon, 1997), which contrasts sharply with the idea of an \"autonomous, self-deterrrrining individual with a secure unitary identity\" (Alvesson & Deetz, 1996, p. 206). Weedon (1997, p. 33) stated that \"the individual is always the site of conflicting forms of subjectivity.\" Drawing upon a post-structurahst feminist perspective encourages attention to different points of view, recognizing that individuals rely on various discourses to make sense of themselves and their worlds (Bartunek, 1994). This idea of subjectivity has implications for how researchers understand research participants. For example, with liberal feminism, one underlying assumption is that women are a homogeneous group who has experienced oppression in the men's world (Calas & Smircich, 1996; Crotty, 1998; Rail, 1998). This is problematic because it creates a dualism that presumes all women and all men share the same experiences and identities. In contrast, post-structuralist feminists recognize the diversity of women's and men's lives and position them as having interests, needs, and viewpoints that shift over time and in different situations (Alvesson & Billing, 1997; Flax, 1987; Fraser & Nicholson, 1990). When I applied this to university sport, I could think of examples where this was the case. To illustrate, a female athlete who is lobbying for additional playing opportunities and 26 funding in a sport that has traditionally been dominated by males may come to understand gender equity in a particular way because of exposure to ferrrinist theories in course work and discussions about gender equity with her coach and other athletes. In contrast, a male athletic director who must contend with budget cuts and external demands may come to understand it differentiy because of his awareness of how gender equity has been operationalized in other departments and how it is denned in policy manuals. Thus, it is likely that various members of an athletic department will have different understandings because of their social locations and exposure to various discourses. Previous research on gender equity in sport has overlooked the diversity of interests, backgrounds, and experiences of women and men as athletes, coaches, and administrators (Hall, 1996; Hargreaves, 1990). Using a post-structuralist feminist perspective underscores the importance of the researcher being aware of her own subjectivity (e.g., stemming from her background, experiences, stances, values) and how that influences her interaction with participants and her analysis of the data (cf. Meyerson & Kolb , 2000; Ristock & Pennell, 1996; see chapter 3 for a further discussion of this issue). Deconstruction. One critique of the liberal feminist perspective is that it does not provide researchers and practitioners with the tools to challenge the taken for granted assumptions underlying structures, practices and cultures that perpetuate gender inequities. I was drawn to post-structuralist feminism because it offered a lens for destabilizing assumptions, universal truths, and grand narratives that have been free from scrutiny (Acker, 1990; Hearn & Parkin, 1993; Martin, 1990a; Mumby, 1993; Weedon, 1997). Deconstruction is an analytical tool used by researchers to question and disrupt the socially constructed and unstable meanings assigned to discourses, and to expose underlying assumptions about the superiority of one gender over the other (Kenway et a l , 1994; Linstead & Grafton-Small, 1992; Scott, 1990). Fletcher (1999a, p. 24) added that \"just as the construction of a text is a way of creating social reality, deconstructing the text is a way of disrupting this reality to reveal it is just one of many possible constructions.\" Meanings are often constructed as binaries where the definition of one term depends on and is positioned as the polar opposite of another term (Scott, 1990). For instance, the meaning of 'woman' is constructed on the basis that 'woman' is the opposite of 'man'. Black / white and coach / athlete are other examples of binaries that are problematic because one 27 term is often deemed superior or hierarchical to the other (Rail, 1998; Scott, 1990). Researchers who employ deconstruction seek to expose and confront binaries and the hierarchies associated with them through close examination of the discourses and revealing the silences, contradictions, and discrepancies associated with their use.lv Post-structuraHst feminists deconstruct not only the masculine or male, but also that which is considered feminine or female (Hearn & Parkin, 1993). Martin's (1990a) deconstruction of a male executive's story about his organization's commitment to helping female employees balance family-work responsibilities is a good example of how symbolic elements like stories are gendered. Her analysis of his speech illustrated that while he claimed his company was committed to employees' health concerns and reproductive choices and made concessions for a female employee's pregnancy, the hidden meanings of his account demonstrated a greater concern for the organizational values of product development and employee efficiency. Thus, in this example deconstruction was used to \"reveal silences and circumlocutions that hide what an author does not want to reveal\" (Martin, 2002, p. 289). Post-structuraHst feminists rely on deconstruction to avoid building upon or reaffkming privileged knowledge and discourses (Rail, 1998). It offers a way of \"challenging accepted practices and conventional wisdom\" (Staurowsky, 1998, p. 22). Examples of Post-structuralist Feminist Studies of Gender Equity in Organisations There is a growing body of literature analyzing discourses and practices that reproduce gender inequities in organizations (cf. Benschop & Doorewaard, 1998; Benschop, Halsema, & Schreurs, 2001; Ely & Meyerson, 2000; Fletcher, 1998, 1999a; Gherardi, 1994, 1995; Gherardi & Poggio, 2001; Martin, 1990a; Meyerson & Kolb , 2000; Rao et al., 1999; Shaw, 2001). Two examples were particularly salient for my research. First, a series of action research studies on The Body Shop by Meyerson and associates (cf. Coleman & Rippin, 2000; Ely & Meyerson, 2000; Kolb & Meyerson, 1999; Meyerson & Kolb , 2000) challenged the assumption that organizational performance is adversely affected when gender equity policies and practices are implemented. The Body Shop is a manufacturing and retail company of bath and beauty products. Its founder, Anita Roddick, developed the company on a values-based approach whereby guiding principles, including social responsibility, justice, compassion, and activism, were integrated with traditional concerns of cost-effectiveness (Roddick, 2000). In spite of the company's public commitment to gender equity, there were few women in senior management roles. The 28 purpose of the action research was to employ \"a 'gender lens' to experiment with ways that the organization could strengthen its performance while eradicating gender inequities\" (Kolb & Meyerson, 1999, p. 129). The researchers operated from a post-equity frame where \"gender is an axis of power ... that shapes social structure, identities, and knowledge\" (p. 563). Based on this frame, organizations are viewed as gendered since structures, practices, and norms were defined and shaped by men's experiences and masculine values. Their aims were to illustrate that fundamental and taken for granted ideas about work were gendered and they strove to uncover new ways of working that would demonstrate it is possible to decrease inequities without compromising organizational performance (Meyerson & Kolb , 2000). Although The Body Shop publicly advocated for gender equity, the researchers found that within one of their manufacturing plants there were gendered role stereotypes that were rooted in historically taken for granted assumptions about work. For example, ideal supervisors were characterized as those who worked overtime and had an imposing demeanor (Meyerson & Kolb , 2000). This characterization, although viewed as being gender neutral by organizational members, privileged men because women employees usually had more domestic and family responsibilities that conflicted with the expectation of working overtime (Meyerson & Kolb , 2000). Throughout their project, the researchers worked with organizational members to identify how various work processes were gendered and how they could be changed in order to create a more gender equitable work environment. Even though some organizational members, who were actively involved in the project, deemed it necessary to examine and change the \"deep assumptions about work and gender\" (Kolb & Meyerson, 1999, p. 153), they recognized that resistance to change was inevitable because other members saw it as a distraction from their 'real work'. Second, Shaw's (2001) case studies of gender relations in three English N G B s of amateur sport was one of the few examples of post-structurahst feminist research in the sport management field. Based on the work of Foucault, she conceptualized gender relations as a reflection of power relations, in which the construction of knowledge was influenced by prevailing historical and deeply entrenched discourses. She found that gender relations, as reflected in the estabhshment of gender roles, the creation of organizational histories, the development of gender equity policies, and networking, differed in the three case study N G B s . In N G B A and C, two organizations with longer histories, traditions of 29 cUscrimination were deeply embedded in the organizational structure and practices. For example, her respondents believed that teaching was an appropriate woman's role because it required feminine characteristics such as nurturing and care giving. In contrast, coaching was viewed as a masculine role because it involved encouraging athletes to succeed. Coaches were more highly valued than teachers, in part because it was assumed that women would only work for a few years before leaving to start a family. In these two N G B s , competition and aggression (discourses of masculinity) were generally more valued than empathy and support (discourses of femininity), and it was believed that women lacked loyalty and commitment due to their domestic responsibilities. This established a form of truth about the acceptability of roles for men and women, which in turn limited the options for both of them. In N G B B, a newer organization, Shaw (2001) found a more conscious effort to establish an equitable environment by mcluding women's voices, highUghting women's accomplishments and participation, and discussing equity in the organization's magazine. In this way, members were exposed to a counter-discourse on a more regular basis. Shaw's work illustrated that gender relations were reified in discourses as evidenced in organizational histories and policies about gender roles. Her work also showed that these discourses, which tended to favour masculinities over femininities, can be altered. Researchers are beginning to use a post-structuralist feminist perspective, and variations similar to it, to examine gender equity in the culture, structure, and practices of organizations. Nevertheless, there is a need for more research using this perspective to study organizational values. Since values are supposed to represent widely held beliefs about what is important and thus are a window into the deep structures of organizations (Schein, 1985), studying them is a way to understand the \"unobtrusive ways that gender inequity is sustained and reproduced in organizations\" (Fletcher, 1999b, p. 2). In the next section, I discuss the literature on organizational values and highUght how employing a post-structurahst feminist perspective can contribute to our understanding of gender equity. Organizational Values Interest in organizational values continues because they are thought to influence the decision making processes (Beyer, 1981), provide a normative system of behaviour for organizational members (Meglino & Ravlin, 1998), and underpin the development of 30 organizational cultures (Schein, 1985). However, there are Hmitations with current research on organizational values that have been largely positivist in nature. As mentioned earlier, researchers rarely consider or analyze multiple meanings of organizational values. A second shortcoming is the assumption that the meanings held by upper management are consistent with those of other organizational members, even though there is evidence that this is not always the case (cf. Martin, 1992, 2002; Martin & Meyerson, 1998; Meyerson & Martin, 1987; Meyerson, 1991a, 1991b; Young, 1989). Third, even though a growing number of organizations espouse gender equity as a value, it has seldom been included in studies on organizational values. Finally, very litde research has considered the relationship between espoused and enacted values (cf. Martin, 2002; Stackman, Pinder, & Connor, 2000). This study aims to address these limitations. Questioning Unitary and Shared Meanings of Organisational Values Past research on organizational values has been guided by the assumption of unified and widely shared meanings, in part because value congruence is thought to contribute to clarity of communication, greater job satisfaction and commitment, decreased ambiguity and conflict, increased productivity, and more efficient interactions (cf. Agle & Caldwell, 1999; Meglino & Ravlin, 1998). As a result, managers are encouraged to strive for value congruity by recruiting new organizational members whose personal values coincide with organizational values or by consistendy referring to the same organizational values in organizational communications (Cable & Judge, 1996, 1997; Dobni et a l , 2000). While these studies have examined the extent of value congruence between new recruits and organizations (Cable & Judge, 1996, 1997; Chatman, 1991), organizations and external stakeholders (Pant & Lachman, 1998; Voss et a l , 2000), or departments or units (Buenger, Daft, Cordon, & Austin, 1996; Enz, 1988), they are based on the assumption that i f organizational members espouse the same values, they also share the same meanings of each value. Thus, they fail to consider the possibility of multiple meanings and stifle alternative viewpoints, which in turn contributes to misunderstandings or simplistic solutions to complex issues like gender equity (Alvesson & Billing, 1997; Linstead & Grafton, 1992; Martin, 1992, 2002; Young, 1989). Overlooking these complexities can result in confusion, displaced work efforts, conflict, and reduced productivity because there is a lack of clarity as to what should actually be driving organizational practices (Agle & Caldwell, 1999; Martin & Frost, 1996; Meyerson, 31 1991a). As well, the premise of unified understandings makes organizational members complacent about change (Ranson, l in ings , Greenwood, & Walsh, 1980) and could actually act to cover up dubious organizational practices (Sinclair, 1993). Looking more closely at the meanings associated with one organizational value from the perspectives of different organizational members will shed light on the underlying inconsistencies and complexities. Destabilising the Voices of Upper Management Another weakness of the organizational values literature is that the interpretations of organizational members located at lower levels in the hierarchy are not often elicited. Researchers in this area draw attention to the values held by elite members and upper management because they guide and direct organizations and they influence the behaviours of others by encouraging adherence to espoused values (cf. Gamble & Gibson, 1999; Hinings et a l , 1996; Pant & Lachman, 1998; Voss et al., 2000). Additionally, it is assumed that the meanings top managers assign to values are consistent with and accurately reflect the rest of the organizational members, thus, there is Htde or no consultation with organizational members with lower status (Alvesson, 1987). The propensity to believe that their interpretations are consistent with the rest of the organization contributes to the tenuous notion of consensus concerning the meanings of gender equity. Furthermore, it perpetuates the role of the dominant ideology within the organization where one interpretation prevails and \"new meanings . . . are constantiy being worked out and struggled for\" (Hargreaves, 1990, p.297). By asking only those in the top level of a hierarchy what their understandings of organizational values are, these studies reinforce existing power relations by privileging the voices of upper managers and overlooking the voices of those who lack status and power (Martin, 1992, 2002; Martin & Frost, 1996). Meyerson and Martin (1987) have argued that ambiguity and confusion may be more common than shared and unified understandings. Martin (1991) and Meyerson (1991b) attributed this, in part, to the multifaceted identities of organizational actors. Individuals have many identities stemming from their roles in the public, private, community, and voluntary sectors and in each of those roles they are exposed to various ideologies, discourses, and experiences that shape their interpretations. These knowledge claims are also reinforced in larger institutions, such as the media, government policies, and the educational system. 32 Recent studies of perceptions of gender issues and gender equity policies in university athletic departments (cf. Fink & Pastore, 1997; Jacob & Mathes, 1996; McClung & Blinde, 2002; Sanger & Mathes, 1997) have demonstrated the importance of speaking to individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, status, and power. Fink and Pastore (1997) compared the perceptions of gender equity, as operationalized by the Office for Civi l Rights, o f three groups of athletes at an American university: male football players, female athletes, and male athletes on non-revenue generating teams.\" To determine compliance with Tide IX, the Office of Civi l Rights within the United States Department of Education, assesses athletic departments on various program components: accommodation of interests and abilities, equipment and supplies, scheduling of games and practices, athletic scholarships, travel and per diem allowances, assignment of coaching and academic tutoring, medical and training facilities and services, housing and dining facilities and services, publicity, locker rooms, and practice and competitive facilities. Fink and Pastore (1997) surveyed the athletes' perceptions of equity in relation to these components. They found that athletes on revenue generating teams perceived a higher level of equity than those on non-revenue generating teams. They also suggested that since historically female athletes have been exposed to university sport programs of lower quality, their expectations of equity were lower, which explained their general satisfaction with the inequitable conditions at that university. In a similar study, Sanger and Mathes (1997) demonstrated that various stakeholder groups (i.e., athletic directors, faculty representatives, and women's basketball coaches) of American university athletic departments have multiple understandings of their department's compliance with Tide I X regulations. They found that coaches were most cognizant of specific regulations of the policy that were not being met. In contrast, athletic directors, who exercised the most power and influence in the department, assumed that their department were generally compliant. While these studies revealed multiple perceptions of gender equity policies, they did not examine underlying meanings of it to determine i f they were widely shared. Post-structuraUst feminism encourages Hstening to multiple voices and paying attention to dominant and marginalized voices even within apparendy cohesive groups (Rail, 1998; Rao et al., 1999). This de-privileges the status of upper management's voices, offers different understandings of reality, challenges the universahty of truths, and provides a more 33 accurate understanding of the meanings associated with values, which in turn can shed light on how to affect change (Fletcher, 1999a; Martin, 1992, 2002). Essentially this perspective aims \"to open up the discussion in order to envision something new\" (Fletcher, 1999b, p. 3). Studying Gender Equity as an Organisational Value Empirical research has examined organizational values including corporatism, fiscal responsibility, and professionalization in the public sector (Frisby, Thibault, & Kikulis, 2004; Hinings et al., 1996; Ranson et al., 1980; Slack & Thibault, 1988; Thibault, Kikulis, & Frisby, 2004), efficiency, cost reduction, and growth in the market in the private sector (Dobni et al., 2000), accessibility of services to the community, financial stability, and volunteerism in the non-profit sector (Voss et al., 2000). Recent research on leisure service departments in local government has suggested that current values are influenced by the new public management ideology espoused within the public sector (Frisby et al., 2004; Thibault et al., 2004). This ideology has evolved in industrialized countries because of declining public sector resources and an emphasis placed on the values of financial accountability, cost-recovery, and efficiency (Davies & Thomas, 2001; Phillips & Orsini, 2002). As a result, organizations are choosing to stick to their core business and are seeking out alternative forms of operating and delivering non-essential or peripheral functions, such as partnership with the private sector and contracting out (Phillips & Orsini, 2002). One consequence for leisure services managers is that tensions are created between the demands of politicians for financial accountability, the emphasis on profit margins from private sector partners, and the traditional departmental concerns of social good and ensuring accessibility for all citizens (Frisby et al. 2004; Thibault et al., 2004). A similar situation existed in some Canadian universities where non-academic departments, such as athletics, functioned independendy and self-sufficiently in order to ease the financial burden on the university and allow them to focus on their core businesses of providing an education and conducting research (Armstrong-Doherty, 1995b; Schneider, 1997; Taylor, 1986). This shift to an ancillary enterprise coupled with the rise of the new public management ideology shifts attention and resources in athletic departments to fundraising, marketing, and promotion and rewards sport programs that generate needed resources or demonstrate self-sufficiency. Two studies in sport (Puder & Wolfe, 1999; Wolfe et al., 2002) have contributed to the knowledge of organizational values held in athletic departments. Puder and Wolfe (1999) examined stakeholders' perceptions of effectiveness of university athletic departments. 34 Representatives from six stakeholder groups at one American university mcluding faculty members, university athletes, prospective students, current students, athletic department employees, and alumni were sent a survey of 45 hypothetical scenarios facing athletic departments and were asked to assess i f they were indicative of success. They found that ethics and winning, and education and revenue generation were viewed as competing priorities in the determination of success. Gender equity was deemed one of the least important priorities for departments, along with attendance at games and the numbers of teams that were supported. Similarly, Wolfe et al. (2002) conducted in-depth interviews with 10 stakeholders at an American university to better understand their perceptions of effectiveness. A n analysis of data from these interviews revealed six themes that were grounded in their perceptions of important values including: performance on the field, education, ethics, external profile, institutional enthusiasm, and resource management. They found that stakeholders had competing conceptions of the priorities, as some stressed performance on the field and resource management, while others emphasized education and ethics. They also found that stakeholders prioritized these values, suggesting that there was hierarchy. Values, like performance on the field, external profile, and resource management were given greater priority and could be viewed as core values that were fundamental to the effectiveness of the athletic department, while values like education and ethics were given less priority and thus could be seen as peripheral values (Collins & Porras, 1996; Pant & Lachman, 1998). Rao et al. (1999) argued that many organizations espouse a monoculture of instrumentality that stresses the accomplishment of narrow quantitative values, such as economic prosperity or operational effectiveness, without considering the need to attend to broader, social values like gender equity. One limitation with this approach is it positions values in a zero-sum manner, as emphasizing one value presumes that attention is diverted away from an opposing value. This is problematic because managers often assume that gender equity can only be implemented at the expense of organizational performance, an assumption that Meyerson and associates (2000) have critiqued. They provided a counter argument that ignoring gender equity negatively impacts organizational effectiveness because \"the same assumptions, values, and practices that compromise gender equity often undermine effectiveness as well\" (Meyerson & Kolb , 2000, p. 555). The implication was that organizations should attend to both gender equity and effectiveness as they are intimately 35 tied to one another. They proposed a dual agenda of linking gender equity to productivity, so that organizational members, particularly upper managers, would not ignore it. The dominant organizational logic is that \"organizations are seen as instrumental, goal-oriented, no-nonsense arrangements for getting things done\" (Acker, 2000, p. 630) and rewards are tied to seemingly objective and fair criteria such as job demands or to one's performance or seniority, but not to one's gender. Gender equity has been identified as one of many values that sport organizations should attend to (cf. Danlychuk & MacLean, 2001; Putier & Wolfe, 1999; Trail & Chelladurai, 2000; Wolfe et al., 2002). Yet, with the exception of Hoeber and Frisby's (2001) examination of administrators' narratives of gender equity, it has rarely been studied in-depth and in isolation from other organizational values. Examining the Connection between Espoused and Enacted Values Organizational values are commonly portrayed in a rationalistic manner, which assumes that i f the values are espoused, they are also reflected in individual behaviours and organizational processes and outcomes (Agle & Caldwell, 1999; Meglino & Ravlin, 1998). Most of this research fails to tap into the political or social climensions underpmning their social construction (Gagliardi, 1986; Hi l l & KikuLs, 1999; Hoeber & Frisby, 2001; Martin, 2002; Young, 1989). While the underlying assumption in much of this literature is that organizational members internalize organizational values that are then reflected in their decision making and behaviours, Willmott (1993, p. 541) argued that \"the enactment of values [is] based upon instrumental compliance rather than internalization or even identification.\" Schein (1985) and Martin (2002) alluded to the political dimension when they suggested there were two sets of values: espoused values or what people say and enacted values or what people do. Espoused values describe ideal and desired behaviours, practices and outcomes (Gagliardi, 1986; Martin, 2002; Schein, 1985), are used to gain favour with influential groups (Enz, 1988), and serve as corporate propaganda to create positive public impressions of organizations and their members (Martin, 2002). Enacted values are those that are put into practice (Gagliardi, 1986; Martin, 2002). Martin (2002) declared that espoused organizational values are not always widely shared or understood by organizational members and they are not always implemented. To illustrate, Frisby (1995) suggested that in leisure organizations, social responsibility and service quality were commonly espoused values, while resistance to change and inequaUty more accurately reflected what occurred in practice. Little research has examined the relationship between espoused and enacted values 36 (Gamble & Gibson, 1999; Stackman et a l , 2000) and one goal of this study was to determine if the espoused meanings of one organizational value were implemented into organizational practices. Post-structuralist Feminism and Organisational Values In summary, the organizational values literature is characterized by an assumption of shared values, a tendency to privilege the voices of upper management, a lack of focus on gender equity as a value, and an under-emphasis on the manner in which espoused values are put into practice. Post-structuralist feminist perspectives have rarely been used in studies of organizational values, as the literature has largely adopted a positivistic perspective. One aim of this study was to address these gaps in the literature, while building on the existing sport literature as elaborated upon below. Gender Equity in Sport Much of the research on gender equity in sport has adopted a liberal feminist perspective that is based on the belief that there are few, relevant biological differences between men and women, therefore they should be recognized and treated as equals in our society (Calas & Smircich, 1996; Hall, 1996; Hargreaves, 1990; Theberge, 2000a; Vertinsky, 1992). However, there are many barriers in sport that have prevented women from having the same access to opportunities and resources as men, including a historically narrow view of what sports are deemed appropriate for women, men controlling access to sporting facilities and the allocation of human and financial resources, and few women in decision making positions (Hargreaves, 1990; Hall, 1996; Inglis, 1988; Vertinsky, 1992). From this perspective, gender inequities are understood as a result of personal deficiencies in specific traits or abilities, or structural barriers such as limited access to opportunities (Calas & Smircich, 1996; Doherty & Varpalotai, 2000; Meyerson & Kolb , 2000). For example, explanations for the under-representation of women in managerial positions in sport organizations point to a lack of loyalty, determination, positive reputation, and strong networks in the community (cf. Hall et al., 1989; Hovden, 2000; Inglis, 1988). By challenging, addressing, or removing those barriers through the provision of more programming opportunities and greater financial assistance, or implementing quotas through affirmative action initiatives, it is assumed that women will gain the necessary skills and 37 experiences to be 'on the same footing' as men (Hall et al., 1989, 1990; Hall, 1996; Hargreaves, 1990; Inglis, 1988; McKay, 1994; Nilges, 1998). Although the liberal feminist perspective has led to some improvements to the sport system, such as the expansion of programming opportunities for female athletes (Hall, 1996; Hargreaves, 1990), gender inequities continue to exist. Several researchers have pointed to disparities between male and female athletes with respect to media coverage and promotions, allocation of scholarships and budgets, access to facilities and high-calibre coaching (cf. Acosta & Carpenter, 2000; Blinde & Greendorfer, 1992; Fink & Pastore, 1997; Jacob & Mathes, 1996). One explanation for the continuation of gender inequities is that the solutions advocated from a liberal feminist perspective dp not confront or critique the existing knowledge structures of sport organizations and thus have not resulted in substantial, transformative changes (Hall, 1996; Hargreaves, 1990; Nilges, 1998). Historically, sport has been based on prevailing societal discourses that applaud and celebrate men's involvement and competitive spirit in sport along with their physical strength, muscularity, and domination. These same discourses have devalued women's involvement in sport and feminine traits like grace, flexibility, and cooperation (Hall, 1996; Hargreaves, 1990; Shaw, 2001; Theberge, 2000a). In a gendered system where men are privileged and women are encouraged to assimilate to the existing male-defined structures and cultures, ensuring that women have the same opportunities as men does not guarantee that their accomphshments will be equally valued by men who largely occupy positions of power (MacDonald, 1992; Vertinsky, 1992). As Hargreaves (1990) simply stated, \"Far from challenging male sport, liberalism endorses it\" (p. 290). Conceptualisation of Gender Equity in Sport In the sport literature, gender equity is studied most often as a policy - a legislative principle guiding other organizational practices. A significant body of research in the United States has studied key stakeholders' perceptions of Tide I X legislation (cf. Fink & Pastore, 1997; Jacob & Mathes, 1996; Sanger & Mathes, 1997) and the discourses underpinning the debates of this piece of legislation (cf. Greendorfer, 1998; Staurowsky, 1995, 1996a, 1998). In Canada and the United Kingdom, researchers have also examined gender equity as a policy (cf. Bell-Altenstad & Vail , 1995; Doherty & Varpalotai, 2000; Kay, 1996; Whitson & Macintosh, 1990). Most of these policies are based on liberal feminist ideals of ensuring that women have the same access as men to programming opportunities (e.g., competitive 38 schedules), resources (e.g., facilities, equipment, budgets, scholarships), and treatment and benefits (e.g., publicity, training services). The lack of attention paid to gender equity as an organizational value is significant, because the pursuit of it by many Canadian sport organizations has been the result of social obligations rather than legal requirements (Hoffman, 1995). Research must re-examine and re-diink how gender equity is understood as an organizational value by key stakeholders in the sport system before it can be fully enacted (Bryson & de Castell, 1993). These understandings inform practices, such as policy development, and we must recognize the strength of cultural resistance to changing attitudes about it (Hoeber & Frisby, 2002). As Hargreaves (1990, p. 290) stated that, \"Gender inequalities are identified, but rarely are questions asked about where the values come from that perpetuate them and in whose particular interests they work.\" According to Messner and Sabo (1990, p. 9), \"sport . . . is an institution created by and for men\" as a means to support and reinforce male superiority. In that sense, sport is a hegemonic institution where it is taken for granted that there is a natural connection between men, masculinity and sport (Connell, 1987; Disch & Kane, 1996). Since men have long dominated sport organizations on the playing field, sidelines, and offices, their values have had a significant influence on the development of the sport cultures and structures (Hall, 1997; Shaw, 2001; Theberge, 2000a). Masculine-oriented values like assertiveness, strength, toughness, dominance, stoicism, aggressiveness, independence, commitment and competition dominate, while values historically and socially ascribed to femininity like cooperation, socialization, empowerment, and sharing are dirninished, marginalized, or ignored (Connell, 1990; Doherty & Varpalotai, 2000; Donaldson, 1993; Green et a l , 2000; Lenskyj, 1994; Theberge, 1987, 2000a). These masculine values are embedded in structures (e.g., the assignment of prestigious adrninistrative positions to men and of lower-paying and less prestigious roles to women, the development of different rules for men's and women's sports) and processes (e.g., the exclusion of women from participating in certain sports, the unequal distribution of resources to men's and women's teams) and contribute to the ideology of hegemonic masculinity in sport (Connell, 1987; Kane, 1996; McKay, 1997; Shaw, 2001; Theberge, 2000a). Hegemonic masculinity refers to a set of social norms or an idealized form of masculinity at a particular period in time, which is seen as separate from and superior to 39 femininity and other views of masculinity, such as effeminate masculinity (Connell, 1987, 1990). This ideology establishes a \"structure of dominance and oppression in the gender order\" by legitimizing and naturalizing the superiority of a particular view of masculinity (Connell, 1990, p. 94). This view of masculinity is based on the values mentioned earlier as well as on the emphasis of heterosexuality, physicality, heroism, homophobia, and subordination of women (Donaldson, 1993; Theberge, 2000a). In sport, men's power over women has become naturalized, in that women are seen as physically different from men, and the dominance of hegemonic masculinity is maintained, because male aclministrators, coaches, and sports writers have significant influence over the understandings of what it means to be an athlete (Donaldson, 1993). In accepting hegemonic masculinity as normal, women, femininity, and men that do not conform to these norms are placed at a lower status and have less influence over knowledge production (Connell, 1990; Donaldson, 1993). Nevertheless, the involvement of women, gays and lesbians, and visible minorities in sport, has begun to challenge and erode the hegemonic masculinity ideology (cf. Messner & Sabo, 1990; Theberge, 2000a). Staurowsky (1995) analyzed and deconstructed the 1993 final report of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Gender Equity Task Force in the United States and uncovered gendered assumptions about the economic contributions of male and female athletes. She found that male athletes were often characterized as breadwinners, because of the dominant belief that \"men's big-time college sport make money\" (p. 37). It was commonly understood that fans, corporate sponsors, and alumni were interested in the athletic careers and accomplishments of male athletes on these teams, which in turn translated into increased fan attendance and gate receipts for the departments and universities. It was also believed that the money generated from men's big-time sports served to subsidize other university sports. In contrast, female athletes were depicted as dependent and passive consumers who did not economically contribute to the department. Since male athletes were seen as more valuable to the department's economic bottom-line they were provided with more resources, even though not all men's teams generated revenue while some women's teams did. We can also see that masculine values are embedded in the cultures of specific sports. In ice hockey, body checking is not allowed in the women's game, but it is an integral part of the men's game. Some suggest that this distinction provides a positive alternative to 40 the aggressiveness and violence witnessed in the men's game, however others see it as estabkshing a different style that is inferior to the 'real' one played by men (Gruneau & Whitson, 1993; Theberge, 2000b). A significant impact of this situation is that current agendas for gender equity will have limited success i f dominant masculine discourses are not addressed or challenged (Acker, 2000; Gherardi, 1994, McKay, 1999). Staurowsky (1998) pointed out that despite the increased involvement of women in sport organizations, the masculine culture has not been significandy altered. In spite of the emphasis on masculine values, many sport organizations contend they are meritocratic and gender neutral. It is widely believed that, regardless of their gender, individuals who work hard, are committed to their careers and demonstrate \"superior abilities, dedication, and performance\" (Acker, 2000, p. 630) are supported and rewarded in a fair manner. With respect to women's under-representation in management positions in sport organizations, men claimed that while their organizations were open to both men and women \"providing they are qualified and willing to work\" (Hall et al., 1990, p. 27), the underlying assumption was that women were often less qualified than men. Where the belief in gender neutrality is taken for granted, gender equity initiatives are dismissed because they are viewed as privileging women over men and this compromises and threatens the ideals of meritocracy (Acker, 2000; McKay, 1994, 1997, 1999). Despite the facade of gender neutrality, it is apparent that the criteria or standards for status, promotions, or rewards have been set by men and continue to favour them. Rao et al. (1999) spoke about the influence of heroic individuaUsm in many organizations where the types of individuals who are most influential and revered in organizations are those that \"work day and night against tremendous odds to solve a crisis\" (p. 4). Similarly, Davies and Thomas (2001) discussed the impact of competitive masculinities in the public sector where individuals who put in long hours, worked independendy, were competitive, and sacrificed other public and private cornmitments were seen as heroic. Individuals who focused on relational work (Fletcher, 1998, 1999a) or a soft managerialist agenda, including an emphasis on equal opportunities and diversity (Davies & Thomas, 2001) or \"who managefd] her work smoothly, thereby avoiding such crises, [are] invisible and undervalued\" (Rao et al., 1999, p. 4). There is a need to exarnine gender equity as an organizational value because it highlights underlying assumptions and exposes other discourses that serve to perpetuate 41 inequities. It has been shown that some ackninisttators of sport organizations place greater emphasis on elite-level performance, technical excellence, generating revenues, and publicity than on gender equity (Eitzen, 2003; Greendorfer, 1998; Puder & Wolfe, 1999; Staurowsky, 1998; Wolfe et al. 2002; Whitson & Macintosh, 1990). These may be seen as competing values that undermine a department's commitment to and prioritization of gender equity. Bagilhole (2001) characterized this form of resistance as collusion, whereby men supported gender equity on the condition that it did not significandy disrupt the existing system. Whitson and Macintosh (1990) indicated that some adrninistrators of Canadian national sport organizations believe the emphasis should be placed on enhancing opportunities for excellence, not on broadening the opportunities for women. The payoffs from pursuing the goals of excellence, such as increased publicity, endorsements, and revenue generation, far outweighed the perceived benefits of inclusiveness in participation that would result from a greater commitment to gender equity. In many university athletic departments, particularly those that must raise their own funds to cover operating expenses, revenue generation takes a higher priority (Eitzen, 2003; Greendorfer, 1998; Staurowsky, 1998). The argument is often made that men's football should be exempt from gender equity standards because it generates a significant amount of revenue. Eitzen (2003) has argued that in the United States only a small portion of elite men's university football teams generate a profit. Given that the scope of university sport is much smaller in Canada, one could reasonably assume that few, if any, Canadian university football teams generate a profit to underwrite women's teams. Because of the current institutional contexts facing public and non-profit sport organizations, there is a greater emphasis on new public management and corporate managerialism where revenue generation, cost recovery, accountability, and efficiency are prioritized, while neglecting gender equity and other social justice values (Frisby et al., 2004; McKay, 1999; Thibault et al., 2004). Critically examining the culture of sport organizations forces organizational members \"to hold open to scrutiny many of the most fundamental aspects of the organization — its language, meaning systems, values, norms, and practices\" (Ely & Meyerson, 2000, p. 600). Meanings and Practices of Gender Equity Knowing that the meanings of gender equity are rarely openly discussed (Bryson & de Castell, 1993), it would not be surprising to find that sport managers assume there is a single common meaning of gender equity for athletes and that this organizational value has 42 been successfully put into practice once there are equal numbers of male and female participants. Because of their positional power and their ability to dictate agendas and to initiate and guide dialogues, there is a danger of sport managers taking for granted the meanings of gender equity and failing to recognize that some voices are privileged and that meanings are not shared. This is particularly important given the reluctance of some women to take up the gender equity cause and the resistance to it from men and upper administrators. Attention must also be directed at meanings of gender equity in sport because there is evidence to suggest there are inconsistencies between espoused commitments and organizational practices. Some administrators and high-ranking volunteers in Canadian national sport organizations believed that their organizations were gender equitable because they had policies when such policies did not even exist (Hall et al., 1989, 1990). In their study of a leisure service gender equity policy that was ratified, Doherty and Varpalotai (2000) found resistance and barriers in the implementation phase. Similarly, Shaw (2001) found that while sport administrators believed that their organizations were gender equitable, their claims were largely based on numbers of participants and did not consider equity in relation to other organizational practices, such as resource allocations or decision making. Positioning Gender Equity as a Women's Issue Like organizational studies more generally (cf. Ashford, 1998; Ashford, Rothbard, Piderit, & Dutton, 1998; Martin & Meyerson, 1998), researchers and research participants in sport studies often position gender equity as a women's issue (cf. Bell-Altenstad & Vail , 1995; Blinde et a l , 1993, 1994; Jacob & Mathes, 1996; McClung & Blinde, 2002; McKay, 1994; Staurowsky, 1995). McClung and Blinde (2002) interviewed 20 female athletes at one American university to explore their sensitivity to gender issues. The researchers suggested that women's participation in sport could either facilitate or hinder their awareness of and identification with issues such as empowerment, feminism, discrimination, gender stereotyping, gender equity, and patriarchy. They found that although some female athletes were aware of these issues as a result of their coursework and involvement on sport teams, many of them showed limited sensitivity to gender issues and held negative beliefs about feminism. McClung and Blinde (2002) attributed female athletes' lack of identification to a lack of time to get involved, limited discussions on these issues with coaches and 43 adrninistrators, negative stereotypes associated with feminism, and a reluctance to get involved in issues that did not direcdy affect them. Because female athletes have brought the majority of gender discrimination lawsuits against university athletic departments in the United States, Jacob and Mathes (1996) asked 121 female athletes to fill out a questionnaire on their knowledge of the Tide I X legislation. They found that women had limited awareness of it, but were generally satisfied with their program's compliance with it. However, they found the female athletes who were most knowledgeable of Tide I X were more critical of program compliance and were more likely to use the legal system to contest injustices. Jacob and Mathes (1996) concluded that knowledge of the legislation contributed to athletes' action, while a lack of knowledge contributed to complacency. While it is important to hear from women, as their voices have traditionally been silenced in research (Martin, 1994), it can also be argued that the choice to include only women reinforces the notion that gender equity is the responsibility of women, perpetuating a myth that men do not have a gender and that they are not responsible for ensuring equity (Martin & Meyerson, 1998). Respondents in studies of gender equity in sport have also positioned gender equity as a women's issue, even when the researchers did not explicitiy do so. McKay (1997, 1999) concluded that respondents understood gender equity as a women's issue because such initiatives typically addressed barriers to women's involvement and advancement in sport. Generally, women attributed gender inequities to the masculine culture of sport and networking, while many men attributed gender inequities to natural outcomes of tradition and meritocracies in that women's abilities were inferior to those of men (McKay, 1999). Since women are viewed as the disadvantaged group in sport, it is commonly assumed they willingly act as or take on the role of the advocate for gender equity (Hall et al., 1989, 1990; Inglis et al., 2000; McKay, 1997; Yule, 1997). Hall et al. (1989, 1990) found that male managers categorized it as a women's issue, because they themselves did not experience discrirnination and did not think about it on a regular basis. Positioning gender equity as a women's issue has been identified in other research as doing something for women (Liff & Cameron, 1997) or a woman-centred ideology (Yule, 1997). This is problematic because there was littie sense of shared responsibility for gender equity, or recognition that it requires a modification of men's involvement in and dominance of sport (Hall, 1996, McKay, 1997). 44 According to Staurowsky (1996a, p. 206), this view persists because in \"a patriarchal system, it is far easier to blame women than it is to take on the male power elite.\" Although gender equity is often positioned as a women's issue, there is some literature to suggest that not all women in sport are supportive of or wish to champion for it (cf. Blinde et al., 1993, 1994; McClung & Blinde, 2002; McKay, 1997, 1999). Much of the research rests on the assumption that women and men are homogeneous groups and thus fails to recognize the diversity of their interests, backgrounds, and experiences (Hargreaves, 1990; Martin, 1990a). Associated with this, because gender equity initiatives are usually directed towards women, there can be some resentment from men in part because the ideology of hegemonic masculinity is threatened and fear of reprisals from women (Staurowsky, 1996a, 1998). Some researchers have proposed that policies, programs, and initiatives should be opened up to a broader notion of equity that respects and appreciates the range of differences between men and women (Alvesson & Billing, 1997), recognizing that gender is \"no more a privileged site of difference than race, class, or any of a host of other possible differences\" (Bryson & de Castell, 1993, p. 352). A post-structuralist feminist perspective to gender equity goes beyond the simple 'he-she' dichotomies that characterize gender equity studies by encouraging the complexity and variations in the meanings of it be made visible and by questioning the process of knowledge production. This perspective questions dominant discourses, such as the idea that gender equity is a women's only issue (Ely & Meyerson, 2000) and considers the \"rich variation in the way organizations carry gender meanings\" (Alvesson & Billing, 1997, p. 4). Summary of Relevant Literature In this chapter I examined literature on post-structuralist feminism, organizational values, and gender equity in sport organizations to develop a lens to guide my study and to demonstrate how it will address some knowledge gaps. I found that much of the mainstream organizational values and gender equity in sport literatures privilege the voices of upper management and assume there are shared meanings of organizational values. As a result, dominant discourses of organizational values are seen as fixed and unitary and go unchallenged because they are embedded in the structures, practices, and cultures of organizations and are reinforced through broader historical, social, and political forces. I also found that traditional thinking about gender equity in sport has been inadequate because 45 there have not been substantive changes to the system and culture of sport so that male and female athletes are equally valued. Adopting a post-structuraHst feminist perspective with its focus on the complex relationships between knowledge, power, and gender encouraged me to examine and unpack the taken for granted assumptions in the meanings and practices of gender equity and to search for new or alternative meanings of it that do not perpetuate inequities. By opening the discussion on gender equity to athletes, coaches, and women and by examining the practices associated with it in relation to other competing values that drive university athletics, this study provides a more accurate understanding of the meanings associated with it, which in turn can shed light on practices requiring change. In the next chapter, I outline the data collection and analysis processes that were employed to address the research questions and discuss the ethical issues that arose during the research process. 1 Some researchers refer to this paradigm as post-structuralist feminism or post-structural feminism, where the emphasis is on taking a post-structuralist perspective to achieve feminist ends (cf. Alvesson & Billings, 1997; Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000; Calas & Smircich, 1996). Others refer to it as feminist post-structuralism (cf. Fletcher, 1998), which emphasizes a post-structuralist outlook with a feminist agenda (Hearn & Parkin, 1993). Still others like Weedon (1997) interchange both terms in their work. I have chosen to refer to this paradigm as post-structuralist feminism, primarily because at that time my research interests were in the gendering o f organizational values. \" According to Fraser (1997, p. 155), structuralists focus on language or the \"symbolic system or code\" while ignoring the \"social practice and social context o f communication.\" Post-structuralists view this approach as problematic because it overlooks issues of power and inequity in the production of knowledge and can not explain the processes that contributed to the dominance of particular discourses as common sense, natural, and legitimate (Fraser, 1997). This understanding of structure differs from the management viewpoint, which focuses on the complexity or differentiation of roles and responsibilities, formalization o f rules and regulations, and centralization of power in organizations. For the purpose of this study, I was interested in the practices of knowledge production, which fits the post-structuralist view of structure. m The Sports Network (TSN) is a specialty cable channel in Canada dedicated to sports programming and owned and operated by C T V Specialty Television Inc. In September 2001, C T V Specialty launched Women's Television Sports Network (WTSN), which was devoted to women's sports programming. W T S N existed for two years, having gone off the air at the end of September 2003 due to \"the result o f lower-than-expected growth and limited access to advertising revenue, as well as the high cost o f running a live event sports service\" {CTV to close WTSN, 2003). l v I describe the process of deconstruction in more detail in chapter 3. v Male football players were included as a separate group because they often received special status in athletic departments. 46 3 The Research Project In this chapter, I described the research design, the data collection and analysis processes, and conclude with a discussion of ethical issues. Research Method: Collective Case Study This study was based on case studies of four sport programs situated in one athletic department at a large Canadian university (LCU). 1 This method is referred to as a collective case study in which \"a number of cases [are studied] in order to investigate a phenomenon, population, or general condition\" (Stake, 2000, p. 437). The case study approach is one in which a specific phenomenon is examined in-depth within a particular bounded system defined by a certain time and place, which in this study was the athletic department from 1999 to 2001 (Creswell, 1998; Stake, 2000; Yin , 1994). This approach relies on multiple methods to collect data, requires some time commitment from the researcher, and focuses on a phenomenon in detail (Creswell, 1998). In comparison to conducting an ethnography, case studies require a shorter time commitment and researchers are not as immersed in the setting they are investigating. Thus, I chose to conduct this research using this approach in order to ensure the project was manageable and could be accomplished in the time allotted for graduate work. The case study approach was a suitable methodology for examining the meanings and practices associated with gender equity for athletes for three reasons. First, it was appropriate given the epistemological and theoretical framework mforrrring this study. Post-structuralist feminism is based on a subjectivist epistemology, or \"a way of understanding and explaining how we know what we know\" (Crotty, 1998, p. 3). Unlike an objectivist epistemology in which phenomena are believed to have intrinsic meaning or a single reality, the subjectivist epistemology rejects universal truths and suggests there are multiple realities or understandings (Crotty, 1998). From this viewpoint then, by using a case study approach that entailed interviewing a variety of individuals who were involved in various sports, I recognized there would likely not be one meaning of gender equity or one way of implementing it. Gender equity could be understood in different ways depending on one's experiences and exposure to particular institutional conditions, such as the team's operating 47 structure or level of programming opportunities for male and female athletes. Although constructionism also recognizes multiple realities in that individuals ascribe different meanings to objects and situations as a result of engaging with them, subjectivist epistemology suggests that individuals do not construct meanings in a vacuum (Crotty, 1998). Their understandings are influenced by their experiences, interactions with others, thoughts, and so forth. Based on subjectivist epistemology, one's understandings of gender equity and how it should be implemented are influenced by the way it was defined in policy documents, translated into practices in other athletic departments or universities, or verbalized in discussions. Using a case study approach I examined how the historical, political, social, and economic contexts surrounding this athletic department and the C I A U influenced the meanings ascribed to one organizational value and the manner in which it was put into practice (Yin, 1994). Second, this approach was suitable for examining the organizational value of gender equity because it provided the researcher with a picture of the institutional conditions in a particular setting to reveal taken for granted or hidden assumptions that influenced how it was understood and enacted (Marshall & Rossman, 1999; Rao et al., 1999; Schein, 1985). Information was gathered about the structure, physical setting, and institutional conditions of the four case study sport programs (Creswell, 1998; Stake, 2000), which allowed me to better appreciate gender equity within the bounded system of this department. Third, with its emphasis on multiple sources and methods of data collection, the case study approach fostered a more in-depth picture, by highlighting the commonalities, contradictions and gaps between the data collected from field notes, observations, documents, and in-depth interviews (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Marshall & Rossman, 1999). Additionally, the use of multiple methods provided me with a significant volume and diversity of data on which to base my interpretations and analysis (Stake, 2000). Site Selection A n important consideration in the selection of a research site was choosing one that was similar to others in order to foster transferability of fmdings (Marshall & Rossman, 1999; Reinharz, 1992). Therefore, I selected an athletic department that was comparable to others in Canada in terms of the types of sports offered and the governance structure. The selected department supported all but two sports (men's and women's wrestling) that were part of the CIAU's sport contingent. A recent trend within Canadian athletic departments 48 was to operate as ancillary units as compared to a unit associated with an academic department (Schneider, 1997). Ancillary departments, like food services or the bookstore, provide goods or services, but do not receive operating funds from the university and are expected to operate in a more business-like manner to ensure revenues cover expenses (Danylchuk & MacLean, 2001). Recognizing this trend and assuming that expectations to break even financially conflict with social pressures to be gender equitable (Frisby et a l , 2004), I selected a department that was run as an ancillary unit. I would expect to find similar meanings and practices in the same sports in other Canadian athletic departments that share similar contexts and institutional conditions. Case Study Selection Time wise it was not feasible to include all 30 teams from the selected department; therefore, I identified institutional conditions that were used as criteria for the selection of the sport programs:\" 1. Programming opportunities for men and women. A l l but two university sports supported by this department were available to both men and women. Football and baseball were offered to one gender, men in both cases. Not discounting the historical masculinity associated with these sports, I narrowed the selection to those sports with balanced gendered offerings to facilitate comparisons of meanings and practices related to gender equity. 2. Operational structure. University sports functioned in either a segregated or integrated manner (Dryden, 1997; Matthews, 1974). A n example of a sport with a segregated structure was basketball where male and female athletes practiced and competed on separate teams. The two teams had a separate coaching staff and operating budgets. In contrast, some sports, such as track and field, cross-country mnning, and swirnming, functioned for the most part within an integrated structure, where male and female athletes shared coaching staff, training facilities, and operating budgets.1\" O n their web site, the C I A U labeled these as \"combined sports.\" I included one sport program that functioned in an integrated manner and three that operated in a segregated manner, assuming the structure may influence the participants' understandings of gender equity. 3. History of co-existence. There were some sports, like swirnming and basketball, where men and women had participated for similar periods of time. With other sports, like 49 wrestling and rugby, the opportunity to participate had only recentiy been extended to women. I selected sports with different histories of co-existence because in those with a recent or short history of co-existence I expected more discrepancies in meanings and practices, in part because initiatives geared towards improving gender equity are sometimes seen as a threat to the historical privileges and traditions afforded to men (Greendorfer, 1998; Staurowsky, 1996a). 4. Institutional designation. In many Canadian universities sport programs are informally designated as \"major\" and \"minor\" sports (Dryden, 1997; Matthews, 1974). Teams identified as major sport programs\"' competed for CIAU-sanctioned championships and were assumed to be of interest to the general public, media and sponsors, who were all key stakeholders of athletic departments. These programs were deemed valuable for their revenue generating potential. Minor sport programs included those that did not compete for CIAU-sanctioned national championships and those that were CIAU-sanctioned but drew few fans and generated littie, i f any, revenue. This distinction was significant because it was tied to the level of resource support from the department. I selected three major and five minor sport programsv because there seemed to be a gender order (Connell, 1987) related to the designation. A t this institution only two women's teams (basketball and volleyball) in the entire department were identified as major sports compared to four men's teams (basketball, football, ice hockey and volleyball).\" Based on these criteria, I selected the following sport programs: basketball, because there was a long history of co-existence and both teams were considered major sports; ice hockey, because the men's team was a major sport and the women's team was a minor sport; rugby, because the women's program was recendy added as a C I A U sport, while the men's team was not a C I A U sport, but was the oldest university sport on campus; and swimming, because the program was run in an integrated manner (see table 1 for a detailed description of each of the sport programs in relation to the four selection criteria). I met with two upper administrators prior to data collection to ensure my assessment of the sport programs in relation to the selection criteria was accurate. 50 Table 1. Selection Criteria for the Your Case Study Sport Programs Sport program Selection criteria Basketball Ice hockey Rugby Swimming Programming opportunities • teams for men & women • teams for men & women • teams for men & women • teams for men & women Operational structure • segregated • segregated • segregated • integrated History of co-existence • men's & women's teams in existence since 1915 • men's team in existence since 1915 • women's team existed from 1915-1922, 1979-1983, & 1995-current • men's team started in 1906 • women's team established in 1991 • men's & women's teams established in 1915 Institutional designation • both were major sports • men's team: major sport • women's team: minor sport • both were minor sports • both were minor sports Data Collection For this study, I relied on four data collection methods, field notes, document analysis, observations, and in-depth interviews, realizing that there was not a best source of information about organizational values. I recorded field notes in research journals throughout the data collection and analysis processes to chronicle information relevant to the study and to note my assumptions and role as a researcher. Reflexivity is one strategy that qualitative researchers use to ihurninate and confront their assumptions, emotions and reactions, realizing that they influence the interpretations of the researcher (Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000; Ristock & Pennell, 1996). Espoused values can be identified in organizational documents, such as policy statements, mission statements, and internal and external communications, and compared with other sources of data to reveal consistencies, gaps, or contradictions (Frisby, 1995). Observations of team practices and competitions 51 helped me to appreciate the culture and institutional conditions of the sport programs and to witness firsthand i f and how gender equity was manifested in organizational practices (Wilkins, 1983). Finally, in-depth interviews with administrators, coaches, and athletes associated with the four sport programs provided me with detailed insight into their understandings of the meanings and practices. By drawing on information from various methods, sources, and sport contexts, I hoped to call attention to aspects of gender equity that might have been overlooked or de-emphasized through the use of only one method, source of data, or sport (Martin, 1990b; Reinharz, 1992, Richardson, 1994). For example, while I gained insight from the in-depth interviews into the meanings of gender equity as understood by key stakeholders, observations of competitions provided me with valuable information regarding organizational practices such as promotions and resource allocation. Temporal Order of Data Collection Data collection for this research project was conducted over a two-year period, and field notes were kept throughout the data collection and analysis period. Documents were collected from October 1999 to July 2001, observations were conducted from February 2000 to June 2001, and interviews were carried out from March 2000 to May 2001 ( see table 2 for a schedule of data collection). Although data were collected from the four methods concurrentiy, I speak to these methods in the order in which I started utilizing them: field notes, documents, observations, and in-depth interviews. 52 Table 2. Time Frame and Sequence of Data Collection Month / year Data collected Sports Details October 1999 document (1) document — athletic department mission statement February 2000 observations (5) basketball observation — women's basketball practice observation — women's basketball practice observation — basketball games (men & women) observation — men's basketball practice observation — men's basketball practice March 2000 interviews (2) document (1) interview — male administrator (A5)™ document — L C U policies interview — female administrator (Al) April 2000 interview (1) documents (2) basketball interview — female coach (B6) documents — national & regional conference policies media releases for 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 seasons May 2000 interviews (2) document (1) basketball hockey interview — female athlete (B2) document — financial statement 1998-1999 season interview — male coach (H6) October 2000 interviews (4) observation (1) hockey basketball interview — female athlete (HI) interview — female athlete (H2) interview — female administrator (A3) observation — women's hockey game interview — female athlete (B3) November 2000 interviews (2) hockey interview — female athlete (H3) interview — male administrator (A4) January 2001 observations (3) interviews (2) document (1) hockey swimming rugby observation — men's hockey game observation — swim meet (men & women) interview - male coach (H7) interview - female administrator (A2) document — department policy observation — women's rugby game February 2001 interviews (4) basketball swimming rugby interview - female athlete (Bl) interview — male coach (S5) interview — male coach (B7) interview — female athlete (R2) March 2001 interviews (4) observation (1) hockey basketball rugby interview — male athlete (H4) interview — male athlete (H5) interview — male athlete (B4) interview — male athlete (B5) observation — men's rugby game April 2001 interviews (3) rugby swirrmiing interview — female athlete (RI) interview — male athlete (R3) interview — female athlete (SI) 53 Table 2 - Continued Month / year Data collected Sports Details • May 2UU1 .nterviews (4) swimming rugby interview - male athlete (S3) interview — male coach (R4) interview — male athlete (S4) interview — female athlete (S2) June 2001 observation (1) swimming observation — swim practice (men & women) July 2001 document (1) financial statements for 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons Note: I did not include the field notes in this table as they were written on regular basis starting in October 1999. News releases for the 2000-2001 season were collected on a weekly basis. Field Notes Grace (1997) stated, \"[t]he research process is neither value-free nor objective, because there are always assumptions shaping the research design whether these are made visible or not\" (p. 26). Reflexivity is one strategy that qualitative researchers use to iUuminate and confront their assumptions, emotions, and reactions, realizing that they influence the interpretations of the researcher (Ristock & Pennell, 1996). I addressed the issue of reflexivity by writing detailed and regular field notes in a research journal (Hughes, 1994; Richardson, 1994; Sanjek, 1990). During data collection and analysis, I kept four types of field notes described by Richardson (1994): i) methodological notes on issues and decisions pertaining to the research process, such as the sampling criteria and assigning coding labels; ii) observational notes collected during my observations of practices, competitions, and interviews; iii) analytical notes in which I documented my assumptions and the process of data analysis and interpretation; and iv) general field notes that included anecdotal information relating to changes in the organization, such as the hiring of a new men's basketball coach. Although time consuming, I found it most convenient to record all four types of field notes in a research journal that I carried around with me at all times, which gave me the opportunity to record ideas, thoughts, questions, new information or data while they were still fresh in my rnind. In total I ended up with three journals of notes and periodically reviewed them, which allowed me to identify some of my assumptions, to be aware of my changing analytical interpretations, and to remind myself of decisions that influenced the 54 ditection of the study. To illustrate, at one point I jotted the following assumptions that I had made: • women would notice many inequities and be pissed off about them • men would be reluctant to talk about gender equity • athletes would know about other athletes' situation • gender equity would elicit some strong emotions either way • male coaches are not supportive of female athletes and women's teams, (analytical notes, June 2001) In looking back at these notes, I realized that many women did mention examples of preferential treatment of male athletes, but some women justified the differences as being 'just the way things are.' I expected more women to be upset by the inequities, but many accepted them without much question. None of the men I interviewed were openly hostile or defensive to discussions of gender equity. I had hoped that athletes would be aware of the inequities in sports other than their own, thus reinforcing the notion that they were widespread and systemic rather than isolated and limited to one team or one sport. However, I should not have been surprised by their limited awareness as they led busy lives, and many of them did not interact with other university athletes outside of their own sport. Reflecting on these assumptions, I had stereotyped how men and women would react. Reviewing these field notes helped me to identify and challenge these assumptions and to understand how they influenced my analysis of the data. Comparing these assumptions to the emerging data forced me to question why I made these assumptions and helped me to address why these assumptions were not always evident in the fmdings. Some of my assumptions were explained in that my critical perspective to the research made me more mclined to focus on examples of inequity than on examples of equity (analytical notes, Apr i l 2000). As a result, I often paid attention to the worst (e.g., denial of gender inequity from men and women) and the best (e.g., men and women as advocates of change), but overlooked something in between. In other situations, I made assumptions based on my experiences, which not everyone shared. I also realized that men and women have a variety of interpretations and experiences. For example, one interview with a man felt like I had interviewed myself as he voiced ideas and interpretations 55 very similar to the way I was ihmking (analytical notes, February 2001). I had expected these thoughts from some women, but was surprised to hear these understandings from a man. Documents For this study I obtained and analyzed copies of the athletic department's mission statement, policy documents, news releases, and operating budgets. These documents were helpful in that they provided information on the historical, political, social, and economic contexts of the site and the institutional conditions of the sport programs. As well, they indicated what was formally written about gender equity for athletes and contributed to my appreciation of meanings and practices associated with it (Hodder, 2000). Since documents possess naturalistic and noninteractive qualities, I was able to explore and analyze this organizational value without having to work direcdy with those who produced or provided access to the documents (Reinharz, 1992). Organizational values are often revealed or explicidy stated in the organization's mission statement (Collins & Porras, 1996; Halford & Leonard, 2001; Sinclair, 1993). A framed copy of the mission statement was symbolically posted at the entrance to the athletic department's offices and served as a public symbol of their commitment and dedication to it (observational notes, 2000). Since two upper administrators (one male, one female) indicated that gender equity was part of the department's mission, I examined it for evidence of gender equity as a formally stated value. As a unit of L C U and a member of regional and national athletic conferences, the athletic department was responsible for abiding by policies set out by those organizations. These policies directed and guided their practices and procedures, mcluding how gender equity for athletes was implemented. I collected policy documents, mcluding the operations manuals of the regional and national conferences and L C U ' s policy guidelines. As Reinharz (1992) indicated \"documents .. . shape norms; they do not just reflect them\" (p. 151). Thus, policies reflect the prevailing norms and through legislation they contribute to the construction of norms by defining key concepts and identifying acceptable practices. Operations manuals were obtained direcdy from the regional and national conferences and the university. I requested a copy of the athletic department's policies but was told by the male athletic director and the female intercollegiate coordinator they did not exist. According to the athletic director, they followed L C U ' s policies and those of the athletic conferences, which negated the need for separate department policies. In addition, the 56 intercollegiate coordinator (Al) indicated they were not \"a policy making kind of department,\" and added gender equity had not been a problem, therefore there was no need to develop policies for it. Yet, the community development officer provided me with a copy of a written departmental policy that she had authored for the purpose of demonstrating to the university senate the department's stance on gender equity and scholarships (see appendix A for the complete version of the policy). I was surprised that neither of the upper administrators explicidy mentioned or appeared to know about that policy, especially since it was one of the few formal departmental policies. To more fully understand the department's commitment to promoting male and female athletes, I obtained and examined their news releases over three seasons: 1998-1999, 1999-2000, and 2000-2001. News releases are a public relations and communications tool to highhght and promote athletes. They often consist of season previews of teams, announcements of new recruits, information about upcoming athletic events, results from competitions and notices of significant accomplishments and awards. News releases and other forms of media communications have been critiqued because they privilege particular values and taken for granted assumptions, such as men's teams are more valued in society (Kane, 1996; Snyder, 1986). I obtained copies of the news releases for the 2000-2001 season direcdy from the department's web site. News releases from the two previous seasons had been compiled into binders and were kept in the assistant communications coordinator's office. I contacted him to borrow them and to photocopy what I needed (methodological notes, Apr i l 2000). I examined the department's operating budgets for the seasons 1998-1999, 1999-2000, and 2000-2001 to better understand the distribution of financial resources among the selected men's and women's sports. These budgets revealed how much money was allocated to those teams overall and for what purposes, which allowed for detailed comparisons. I obtained these documents from the comptroller's secretary. Observations Observational data were collected to gain firsthand knowledge about how gender equity was enacted in organizational practices and to situate myself in the culture of university athletics (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). With observations, I was able to collect a large amount of data in a short period of time (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). As well, personally observing the contexts in which athletes practiced and competed gave me 57 additional information to compare to the information collected from other sources (Merriam, 1991; Ristock & Pennell, 1996). For example, both the male athletic director and female communications coordinator implied that the department provided the men's and women's hockey teams with adequate equipment. Yet, at the two games I attended it was apparent that the quality of equipment differed dramatically, with the men's team having coordinated uniforms and equipment and the women's team being outfitted in mismatched uniforms and equipment (observational notes, October 2000, January 2001). Over two seasons (1999-2000 and 2000-2001), I attended four team practices (two for basketball; two for swimming) and seven competitions (two for basketball, two for ice hockey, two for rugby, and one for swimming).™ Because of my strategy of attending one competition per team, my interpretations were only partial. One of the difficulties of carrying out observations was determining what to concentrate on, as it was easy to become overwhelmed by the detail and to lose focus on what was potentially valuable for my study (Boomstrom, 1994; Marshall & Rossman, 1999). Thus, I took detailed observational notes on four areas of cultural manifestations: physical surroundings, artifacts, people, and rituals (cf. Martin, 2002) (see appendix B for a full list o f observation categories). For example, I observed the physical surroundings and layout of facilities and how that related to access to the facilities for male and female athletes, and examined artifacts such as the placement of banners or plaques, which could be indicative of the department's commitment to celebrating accomplishments. I documented evidence of artifacts, such as posters advertising upcoming games, to assess the department's approach to marketing men's and women's teams. As well, I noted the quality and quantity of equipment and uniforms and evidence of sponsorship, such as logos on uniforms and equipment. During the competitions and practices, I recorded the presence of various types of people. For example, I observed i f the athletes and teams had access to support staff like trainers and managers and i f there were game-day staff such as announcers and ticket takers at competitions, which implied a level of resources allocated to the men's and women's teams. A t competitions, I recorded the presence of media and fans, as an indication of the level of interest from other stakeholders. Rituals, like opening and closing ceremonies, are common within the sports world so I paid attention to them at games and practices and noted the similarities and differences in them between teams. 58 It was possible that some participants took their sport's culture, mcluding physical surroundings, artifacts and rituals, for granted and thus overlooked obvious or mundane details, which nonetheless might be quite revealing (Boomstrom, 1994; Martin, 2002). Therefore, it was important for me to observe and record observational notes on these cultural manifestations of the selected sport programs and then discuss some of these details with interviewees. For instance, before interviewing the swimmers I attended a swim meet, during which I noticed male and female swimmers standing together on the pool deck and cheering on their teammates (observational notes, January 2001). I found this demonstration of support between male and female teammates to be particularly interesting given my experience with university basketball where male basketball players rarely came out to watch and support the women's team, but female basketball players often stayed following their game to support the men's team. This could be explained as a game preparation issue, in that the men needed to prepare for games that were scheduled after the women's game, but it could also indicate that women's role of supporting men was reinforced. The example from swimming suggested that male and female athletes in that sport support each other, but this was likely due to the integrated structure that facilitated closer contact between the two teams. The researcher's role during observations can vary from complete observer or observer as a non-participant to complete participant depending on whether or not individuals know they are being studied and on the extent to which the researcher participates in the activities being studied (Marshall & Rossman, 1999; Merriam, 1991; Reinharz, 1992). Generally, I took on the role of a partial participant during the observations, with my participation being as a spectator or a student (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). My choice to act in this role was to observe the settings in which athletes practiced and competed without having these athletes know what I have observed (Reinharz, 1992). This way I was able to check my understandings with what they were willing to share with me during their interviews, and I was able to gather data in an unobtrusive manner because my attendance did not require the cooperation or permission of others (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). As a member of the public, I could freely attend events and 'hang out' in the athletic facilities on campus. During competitions I situated myself near other spectators. During basketball and swimming practices it was common practice, at this university, for students or other individuals to sit in the bleachers and do homework, study, read, visit, or 59 sleep. For those two sports, it was easy for me to blend in by pretending to read or do homework, while actually observing the practices (observational notes, 2000, 2001). The ice hockey arenas and rugby pitches were open to the public as well, but students did not frequendy hang out in those facilities during practices. My presence then at those practices might have been disruptive or suspicious. Therefore, I chose to only attend competitions for ice hockey and rugby. Overall I found that observing competitions was more meaningful than observing team practices, because there were more cultural details to observe. In-depth Interviews Researchers often rely on surveys and questionnaires to study organizational values (Martin, 2002). Although these methods allow them to efficiently collect opinions, the participants are usually responding to pre-determined or researcher-driven meanings of the values that appear as items on a scale (Martin & Frost, 1996). Additionally, because of the limited nature of questionnaires, researchers are not able to probe into the deeper understandings of values (Trice & Beyer, 1993). Interviews, however, permit respondents to provide and elaborate on their own interpretations of organizational values and often reveal multiple or contradictory understandings (Martin, 2002; McKay, 1994). As well, they are typically conducted in a natural setting and are useful in understanding complex phenomena such as organizational values (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). As indicated in the next section, I interviewed each respondent once for a total of 28 interviews. If I had interviewed each person twice I could have asked additional or follow-up questions, but some athletes were graduating, thus making it difficult to guarantee I could schedule a second interview with every respondent. A second interview would have privileged the administrators and coaches who had more permanence in the department. The interviews ranged from 35 to over 100 minutes, depending on the participant's interest in and knowledge of the topic. A l l participants consented to having the interviews audiotape-recorded. I used an interview guide to ensure that all participants were asked common questions (Marshall & Rossman, 1999); however, the interviews proceeded in a conversational manner. I did not always ask the questions in the same order, and participants framed their responses in a manner that suited them (e.g., brief answer, anecdotal response) (Bernard, 1994; Fontana & Frey, 2000; Marshall & Rossman, 1999; Wolf, 1996). 60 The interview guide was developed based on the research questions: RQ1: What meanings did administrators, coaches, and athletes associate with gender equity for athletes? RQ2: Which meanings of this organizational value were implemented into organizational practices related to four different sport programs? RQ3: How did the adrninistrators, coaches, and athletes explain any uncovered gaps between meanings and practices? To start the interviews, I asked all the interviewees about their involvement with the athletic department. These questions allowed participants to become comfortable with the interview and provided me with background information about them. Each participant was asked to define gender equity with respect to athletes (RQ1), reflect on it as an organizational value (RQ1), and speak about how that value had been implemented (RQ2). I asked about their individual impressions of the current situation of gender equity, which was aimed at understanding the relationship between meanings and practices (RQ3). I was also interested in the influence of individuals, particularly vocal advocates of gender equity, in shaping the meanings and practices. I assumed if there were vocal advocates in positions of power, they would take on an active role to police the practices and ensure they were in line with espoused commitments (RQ3). Finally, I asked them to consider alternative or new meanings and practices of this organizational value in the context of Canadian university athletics (RQ1 & RQ2). This question allowed participants to draw upon new or different discourses to envision possibilities for change (Rao et al., 1999). I used probes to encourage respondents to elaborate on their responses, clarify their statements, and uncover more in-depth responses (see appendix C for the interview guide). While the interviews primarily functioned as a means for me to gain insight into meanings and practices associated with gender equity, in some situations they also served as an opportunity for participants to reflect on their experiences. A number of respondents, both male and female, indicated they had not thought about gender equity in much detail until the interview. After being asked to define it, one female a(iministrator (Al) remarked, \"I've never really put it into words before. Y o u sort of had it in the back of your head.\" A male athlete (S4) noted, \"I only had a look at the questions this morning. It got me thinking about it, and it'll kind of make me a litde more aware of things relating to gender equity.\" Similarly, when I asked one male athlete (B5) i f it was relevant to his athletic experience, he 61 responded, \"I've never really thought of it until I read the questions.\" Although his statement could be indicative of male privilege, it also underscored the importance of including organizational members, particularly men, in the study who may not regularly think about gender equity. For others, it appeared that the interviews were cathartic and therapeutic, serving as a time for them to be heard (Opie, 1992). For example, near the end of an interview with one female athlete (SI), during which she touched on the difficulties of balancing academics and athletics, communication problems with coaches, and a recent shift to more respectful interactions between male and female athletes, she said, \"I guess it's our time to just vent to you and have you listen.\" I appreciated that I was able to provide a reciprocal service for some respondents. Selection of interviewees. Organizational research tends to emphasize the interpretations of a few select stakeholder groups, usually male upper-level executives, because they determine the direction of the organization and the behaviour of the organizational members (Frost & Stablein, 1992; Wiener, 1988). In particular, a majority of empirical research on organizational values has been built on the viewpoints of upper-level executives (Agle & Caldwell, 1999). Similarly, much of the current literature on Canadian university athletics has centred on the viewpoints of athletic administrators because they are considered to be the primary decision makers (cf. Armstrong-Doherty, 1995a, 1995b, 1996; Danylchuk & Chelladurai, 1999; Hoeber & Frisby, 2001; Inglis, 1988, 1991). Martin (2002) has criticized researchers for putting too much faith in upper management's interpretations of organizational values because it reinforces the assumption of shared meanings and presumes that they are a homogenous stakeholder group that can and do speak for all members of the organization. A post-structuraHst perspective on organizational research, in contrast, searches for the \"voice [s] of displaced, marginalized, exploited and oppressed people\" (Rail, 1998, p. xv), as well as including dominant ones, thus recognizing the diversity in organizations. I interviewed various members of the department to determine whether there were different viewpoints from the dominant, male upper management position (Alvesson & Billing, 1997; Ferguson, 1994; Gergen & Gergen, 2000; Reinharz, 1992). Rao et al. (1999) argued that disrupting the status quo and uncovering alternative meanings of gender equity can be accompHshed by incorporating and including multiple voices. 62 I sought out, listened to, and incorporated the voices of representatives from three internal stakeholder groups in university athletics: adrrririistrators, coaches, and athletes, as it was possible that there would be differences in their understandings based on their status, roles, and experiences in the department. I selected administrators who dealt with gender equity at a strategic decision making level (Danylchuk & Chelladurai, 1999) and because of their roles might have considered it with the interests of the entire department in mind (Hoeber & Frisby, 2001; Sanger & Mathes, 1997). Coaches were included because they acted as intermediaries between the administrators and the athletes. Because they had more direct contact with athletes, they might have a better understanding than would adrninistrators of this organizational value as it related to athletes. As well, coaches were involved in some decisions, such as determining facility access and scheduling of practices that impacted the implementation of this value. I included athletes because they were the direct recipients of organizational decisions and practices in athletic departments (Malloy & Taylor, 1999; Riemer & Chelladurai, 2001). Despite their designation as \"the prime beneficiaries of the [varsity] program\" (Armstrong-Doherty, 1995a, p. 88) and their function as human capital for the department (Malloy & Taylor, 1999), athletes' views were rarely solicited because they typically had litde input or decision making power in sport organizations (Armstrong-Doherty, 1995a; Blinde & Greendorfer, 1992). As a result, their interests were often overshadowed by the concerns expressed by other potentially more influential stakeholder groups mcluding university adrninistrators, media, and alumni (Hoeber & Frisby, 2001; Riemer & Chelladurai, 2001). Description of interviewees. I conducted interviews with 5 administrators (3 women, 2 men), 6 coaches (1 woman, 5 men), and 17 athletes (10 women, 7 men) for a total of 28 interviews (14 women, 14 men) (see table 3).1X Five administrators - the athletic director, intercollegiate coordinator, communications coordinator, development officer, and event management and promotions officer - were purposely selected from a total of 14 administrators based on their job tides and responsibilities. I selected them assuming they had the most knowledge of and experience with gender equity as a result of their direct involvement with implementing it into organizational practices, such as programming, promotions, budget allocations, and staffing. The male athletic director, who oversaw the competitive and recreational programs, and the female intercollegiate coordinator, who was specifically responsible for the 63 competitive, university sports, had been in their respective positions for over five years. The female communications coordinator, who managed all advertising, marketing, and media relations for the university sports, was recendy appointed to this position but had worked for the department in other capacities for over five years. The female development officer had held her position for less than three years and was responsible for alumni fundraising. The male event management and promotions officer had been employed fuU-time on a ten-month contract to coordinate game day events, but also had prior part-time experience with the athletic program as a game day staff member. Table 3. Profile of Participants Based on Stakeholder Group, Gender and Sport Program Sport program Stakeholder group Basketball Ice hockey Rugby Swimming Total Administrators - women n/a n/a n/a n/a 3 Administrators - men n/a n/a n/a n/a 2 Coaches - women 1 0 0 0 1 Coaches - men 1 2 1 1 5 Athletes - women i i 3 i j ~> t It) Athletes - men 1 Total 7 7 4 5 | 28* a T h i s number represents the total number of interviewees and includes the five administrators who were not affiliated with a particular sport program. The primary criterion for selecting coaches was that they were affiliated with one of the selected sport programs - basketball, ice hockey, rugby, or swimming. I contacted eight coaches and six agreed to participate. One male coach, who later resigned from the department, declined to participate on the grounds that he did not \"have strong feelings on gender equity\" (observational notes, Apr i l 2000). The male coach of the men's rugby team did not respond to my repeated requests for an interview. His lack of response could have reflected a disinterest or reluctance to speak on the topic, or a lack of time to participate. O f the six coaches who agreed to participate, four were full-time head coaches and two were part-time coaches. A t the time of the interviews, two fiiU-time coaches had been in their positions more than five years, two coaches (one fun-time, one part-time) had been 64 employed by the department for five years or less, and the two coaches (one fuU-time, one part-time) had been employed for less than one year. In total I interviewed 17 athletes: 5 basketball players (3 women, 2 men); 5 ice hockey players (3 women, 2 men); 3 rugby players (2 women, 1 man); and 4 swimmers (2 women, 2 men). Despite the variations in roster sizes in the selected sport programs (e.g., basketball teams usually consisted of 12 to 15 players, while the women's rugby program supported between 35 to 50 athletes), I elected to interview two male athletes and two female athletes per team to be consistent. Generally, I included the first two male and female athletes per sport who agreed to participate. However, in two situations I deviated from this principle and included additional athletes because their understandings, knowledge, and experiences would be particularly useful for this study. I interviewed a third female basketball player because she was one of the few athletes identified as having 'strong feelings' about gender equity. I included a third female hockey player because, as president of the athletic council, she was privy to conversations with athletic adjriinistrators about decisions and practices relating to gender equity. The athletes varied in their education and responsibilities with the department. Their education ranged from first year undergraduates to a graduate student and a medical student. Eight of them were working towards a degree in kinesiology and six were enrolled in an arts program. The remaining three athletes were enrolled in commerce, engineering, and health sciences. Nine athletes had taken on additional responsibilities with the department. Two students (one man, one woman) had recendy finished their athletic eHgibility and were involved as assistant coaches with the athletic department. Four athletes (three women, one man) served on the athletic council. One male athlete served on a hiring committee for a new coach, one female athlete organized fundraising initiatives for her team, and another female athlete was responsible for all the administrative matters for her team. Contact process. Contact information for the selected acmiinistrators and coaches was obtained from the athletic department's web site. Most interviews with the athletes were arranged through referrals from one of three sources: a coach, teammates or the president of the athletic council. When I contacted individuals or asked for referrals, I indicated that I was interested in a variety of understandings of gender equity and I did not just want to speak to those who supported or advocated for it. In doing so, I hoped to alleviate the concerns of those who 65 felt they had a viewpoint that differed from mine or who felt they had httle to say about this issue. My intention was to ensure that people realized I was sincerely interested in what they had to say and in turn, they felt comfortable enough to provide lengthy responses to my questions. Although the referral strategy worked well, in my attempts to set up interviews with male rugby players, I exhausted all sources and ended up only interviewing one player.\" As a result, my understandings of gender equity in relation to men's rugby were limited to his understandings and experiences. Another drawback with this strategy was my limited control over who was referred to me. Despite my requests to speak to athletes with different viewpoints, in a few instances I was referred to individuals who held similar views to the referent, appeared to be supportive of gender equity, or were expected to not say anything controversial. In one instance, after scanning a list of approximately 25 players, one male, full-time head coach provided me with just two names saying they would be the most thoughtful and helpful (observational notes, January 2001). Another time when I asked one male athlete for names of other athletes to contact, he said \"he knew other [athletes] but wanted to give me names of people who would actually do it\" (observational notes, May 2001). Although they were probably trying to be helpful by not referring me to people who were unlikely to participate, I might have drawn additional insights from interviewing athletes who were less interested, opposed to, or even resentful of this value. Overall it appeared that gender equity was not a usual or frequent topic of discussion in the department and as a result, I doubt that people knew how others interpreted it. A n interesting trend developed in negotiating the location of the interviews. My primary concern was to schedule them at the most convenient time and place for the participants. I interviewed most administrators and coaches in their offices or at a location near where they worked. Essentially I was in their space. I sat in the visitor chair and looked around at their furnishings in their office. I was unable to control interruptions like people stopping by or telephoning. In contrast, most of the athletes did not have space on campus aside from access to a practice facility or locker room. As a result, most of them agreed to meet at a public space like a cafeteria or an empty seminar room. I interviewed the other one-third of the athletes in a space near where they trained. I had intended to interview more of them in their training or competition facility, but was not willing to risk poor sound quality from audiotape-recording in a large gymnasium or hockey arena. 66 Reflections on Data Collection My research plan for this study consisted generally of collecting documents first to get some background information on the selected sports, then conducting some observations of team competitions and practices. In doing so, I had some information about the institutional conditions and was able to ask the interviewees to comment on them where applicable. If I were to repeat this study again, this is how I would sequence the data collection: 1. I would collect documents first as this would allow me to gain some grouncling about the sport programs and the site, such as how gender equity was formally enacted. 2. Next I would conduct preliminary observations of team competitions and practices to provide me with some sensitivity and insight to the structure, institutional conditions and cultural elements of the sport programs. 3. Then I would conduct in-depth interviews with stakeholders in which they would be asked to comment on the structure, institutional conditions or cultural elements of the sport programs or about aspects of the documents that I have already analyzed. 4. After the interviews I would carry out follow-up observations whereby I would focus on cultural elements or organizational practices that are mentioned during the interviews, but not observed initially. These observations would also be useful in confkming i f the data collected from the previous round of observations are typical or unique. 5. Finally, I would conduct follow-up interviews, which would allow me to check their understandings of meanings and practices and to clarify any discrepancies between the various data collection methods. Like much qualitative research, this study proceeded in a nonlinear manner, with data analysis going on concurrendy with data collection. I analyzed data as soon as the first interview was transcribed, the first document was obtained, and the first observation was completed in my field notes. Nevertheless, I chose to write about these two processes separately for the ease of the reader, and I now turn the reader's attention to the data analysis process. 6 7 Data Analysis Strauss (1994) described qualitative data analysis as on-going and concurrent processes, mcluding organizing, managing, reading, reviewing, memoing, reflecting, describing, coding, categorizing, making comparisons, and developing the final account. My analysis of the data followed similar processes. Initially I analyzed the data by converting documents (i.e., mission statement, athletic department policy document), field notes, and interview transcripts to electronic documents and reviewing them. Analyzing data early on in the research process allowed me to build on and revise emergent patterns and themes as I continued to collect additional data and review the literature (methodological and analytical notes, 2000). After I had collected most of my data, I analyzed them through the formal processes of deconstruction, content analysis, coding, and categorizing. I analyzed data collected from four different methods using a combination of analysis techniques. The data in field notes were compared to data collected by other methods through the process of deconstruction that consisted of uncovering hidden meanings and silences and chaUenging dominant understandings. The documents (mission statement, policy documents, news releases, and operating budgets) were separately analyzed using content analysis and deconstruction. Observational notes were content analyzed and themes were developed as to the extent to which gender equity was observed in various cultural manifestations. Finally, interview transcripts were coded and categorized. Deconstruction Many qualitative researchers, including post-structuralist feminists, use deconstruction to examine the hidden or gendered meanings of texts, mcluding written documents, verbal accounts, and body language. Deconstruction rejects the premise of fixed, finite or universal meanings of texts, but acknowledges overlooked meanings along with obvious or literal meanings of texts (Bradshaw, 1996; Crotty, 1998; Fletcher, 1999a; Martin, 1990). For example, by paying close attention to texts, obvious gaps in logic that signal contradictions and discrepancies are identified and can be analyzed. Another way to deconstruct texts is to recognize that they include oppositions (e.g., 'male' and 'female') in which one term in the opposition is \"presented as hierarchically superior\" (Bradshaw, 1996, p. 99). Through challenging and disrupting the idea of hierarchical meanings, the devalued terms or phrases are exposed and challenged. For example, in news releases some men's teams were identified without a gender marker (e.g., basketball team instead of men's 68 basketball team). In contrast, women's teams were never identified without a gender marker. This practice implied that women's team required a label to distinguish them as 'other' than and inferior to the 'real' men's teams (Parks & Roberton, 2002). Deconstruction encourages researchers to \"see beyond the obvious\" (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, p. 92) in the data by analyzing contradictions, critiquing instances of shared assumptions and challenging the neutrality claimed by taken for granted terms and phrases. To illustrate, a significant pattern that developed early on was that individuals defined gender equity simply as 'equal opportunities' without much elaboration (analytical notes, May 2000). As a result of my background in university sports, I assumed I shared the same understanding of 'equal opportunities' as them, in that it referred to the same numbers of teams. In doing so, multiple understandings of it were left unsaid. After some reflection, I realized there might be other understandings of it, including equal chances to travel, to compete, or to be coached by a qualified individual. In subsequent interviews I explicidy asked respondents to expand on their understandings of equal opportunities. By questioning my own understandings and those of the respondents I engaged in the process of deconstruction. Deconstruction is often applied to one particular text, for example, Martin's (1990a) deconstruction of an executive's story; Peterson and Albrecht's (1999) analysis of a maternity policy, or Stern's (1996) deconstruction of a single advertisement. Martin (1990a) used deconstruction to 'read between the lines' of a story told by a company president about how his company was responsive to the needs of women employees. She employed various deconstructive techniques such as paying attention to contradictions, revealing the underlying assumptions of metaphors, exarnining silences and reconstructing the text using a substitution of phrases. In the original story, the executive spoke about his company's efforts to support a pregnant employee. Martin reconstructed the story by showing how the company would have reacted in a different manner had the employee been a man undergoing a heart bypass. Through the application of these techniques she revealed that the language the executive used actually favoured the interests of the company over the concern for the woman's family life. Deconstruction provided a means for illustrating how \"in a text, dominant ideologies suppress conflict by eliding conflicts of interest, denying the existence of points of view that could be disruptive of existing power relationships, and creating myths of harmony, unity, and caring that conceal the opposite\" (Martin, 1990a, p. 340). 69 Reinharz (1992) discussed feminist intertextual deconstruction whereby the researcher searches for contradictions, silences, and gaps between various texts (e.g., Bradshaw, 1996). While I deconstructed specific documents in isolation (e.g., silences in the mission statement), I also used the intertextual deconstruction technique to 'make the familiar strange' (Foley, 1992) and to challenge organizational rhetoric that was often passed off as truths or facts (Martin, 2002). I periodically re-read the raw data and analyzed them by paying particular attention to contradictions, alternative meanings, gaps, or what was left unsaid (Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000; Reinharz, 1992). For example, through deconstruction, I identified that respondents made litde mention of gender equity policies, yet there was evidence of departmental and conference policies. These situations were noted as memos in Adas.ti, a computer software data analysis program, and were instrumental in the development of the final themes. Analysis of Field Notes - Memos Methodological, analytical, and general field notes were typed into Adas.ti and saved as memos, which are defined as written accounts of the analytic process (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). I periodically went back to these memos to check for patterns and connections with the other sources of data. As well, once codes, categories and themes were developed, I re-read the field notes to check i f these were plausible given the field notes that were taken during the process of data collection (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). Analysis of Documents - Content Analysis The mission statement, policy documents, operating budgets, and news releases were content analyzed. I analyzed them quantitatively by counting particular phrases or incidents (e.g., the number of lines devoted to women's basketball in a news releases, or the number of lines dedicated to gender equity policies) (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Marshall & Rossman, 1999), qualitatively by noting significant silences, meanings, gaps, or contradictions (e.g., definitions of it in policy documents, or the absence of season highhghts in the news releases) (Reinharz, 1992). While the data from the documents could have been entered into Adas.ti, it was more convenient to keep it in appendices that could be easily referred to (see appendix E for the analysis of the mission statement, appendix F for the analysis of the policies, appendix G for the analysis of the operating budgets, and appendix H for the analysis of the news releases). This information was periodically reviewed in conjunction 70 with the analysis of the data from the interviews and significant connections or discrepancies were noted in memos. Mission statement. The department's mission statement consisted of a one-page document. The purpose of analyzing this document was to ascertain i f gender equity was formally identified as an organizational value by the department. I summarized the content of the three paragraphs of the document and scanned for references to this value. Since there were no specific references to gender equity, I deconstructed the content of the mission statement and paid particular attention to the silences in it (see appendix D). Policy documents. Content analysis of the policy documents consisted of visually scanning the documents and noting i f and how gender equity was defined in them. I also noted the location, length, and context of these policies within relevant manuals and handbooks (see appendix F for the analysis of policy documents). Finally, I deconstructed the content of the policies in light of data gathered from other sources. For example, many respondents assumed there were broad policies similar in scope to Tide I X legislation in the United States. In reality, the operations manual of the C I A U outlined four policies that direcdy related to gender equity for athletes, while the Regional Conference identified three gender equity policies (see appendix F). With the exception of the CIAU's detailed harassment and discrimination policy that was over six pages long, these policies were between one to five lines in length (see appendix F), which suggest they were not comparable in scale to Tide I X legislation. Operating budget. The content analysis of the department's operating budget entailed a comparison of budget figures over 3 seasons (1998-1999, 1999-2000, and 2000-2001). I focused on the level of funding to men's and women's teams for travel, coaches' salaries, facility rentals, and other operating expenses. I summarized the budgets for each of the sport programs and broke down the figures by gender when possible.1\" Discrepancies in the budget figures are documented in tables (see appendix G and chapter 6). This information was indicative of the department's allocation and prioritization of financial resources to the four men's and women's sport programs. 71 News releases. I analyzed over 420 pages of news releases by examining the order of stories and the number of lines devoted to each of the basketball, ice hockey, rugby, and swim teams. From that information I inferred the department's prioritization of particular teams. I designed a cover sheet on which I summarized the content of each release and specifically highlighted information pertaining to the selected sport programs. For each news release I recorded: • location of story I noted the page number and location (i.e., top, middle, or bottom) of every story pertaining to the four sport programs. I also identified the lead story, which was the top priority of the news release and noted i f it was a shared lead story.™ I interpreted this information as indicative of the prioritization of the teams. • number of lines per story I presumed that the length the story correlated to the importance of it and the particular team or sport. Realizing there were certain times during the competitive season when a team has a long story written about them (e.g., season preview, hosting a tournament), I calculated the longest and shortest story for each team and the average number of lines per story per team. • unusual or particular information for one team Unusual or particular information included mentions of attendance figures, announcements of recent recruits, previews, or athlete profiles. Being aware of not only what was included in the news releases, but also what was not written or mentioned was a way of paying attention to the silences and deconstructing them to determine i f certain pieces of information were typically only mentioned for some teams (Reinharz, 1992) (see appendix H for a summary of the content analysis and chapter 6 for analysis of news releases for particular teams). Analysis of Observations — Content Analysis Observational notes were typed into word documents. Since the volume of data from these notes (30 pages) was much smaller than the volume of data from interview transcripts (over 600 pages), I manually analyzed them rather than coding them through Adas.ti. I did this by noting examples of gender equity for athletes in relation to the surroundings, artifacts, people, and rituals at competitions and practices and compared the examples between the men's and women's teams in each of the selected sport programs. 72 After I analyzed the interview data and identified dominant organizational practices, I re-analyzed the observational data, identified examples that related to those organizational practices, and determined i f the practices, based on observational notes, were equitable. Additionally, I engaged in deconstruction by comparing the observational notes with the data from the interviews and identified examples of gender equity relating to organizational practices that were not discussed or contradicted by statements from interviewees. This information is identified in appendix I. Analysis of Interviews - Coding and Categorizing I transcribed the interviews verbatim into word documents, which resulted in approximately 600 pages of transcripts that were subsequentiy converted to rich text files and linked to Adas.ti. To analyze these data, I coded and categorized every interview transcript. Coding required first organizing data into smaller, manageable sections and then assigning words or phrases to those chunks of meaningful data (Strauss, 1994). Categorizing consisted of conceptualizing the data into an organized system of themes (Strauss, 1994). Throughout the process, the interview transcripts were deconstructed by paying attention to inconsistencies, omissions, and ambiguities within and between interviews. I relied on Adas.ti to assist with the analysis process by keeping track of codes and storing memos. It was also beneficial in that it allowed me to apply multiple codes to sections of data, easily change code labels, and facilitate the retrieval of quotations (Cote, Salmela, Baria, & Russell, 1993). The transcripts were coded using two stages of coding: open coding and axial coding. Open or descriptive coding consisted of summarizing sections of data (e.g., sentences or paragraphs) and assigning a label to that section (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). I re-read and re-coded the transcripts a number of times before settling on a set of codes that were meaningful without being overly specific and detailed. Open coding consisted of indexing data with two labels: a first-order code and a second-order code.xl\" The first-order code was a phrase or word that represented a broad analytical topic and served as an organizing mechanism. They evolved following many readings of the transcripts in which I developed some familiarity with the data and began to see patterns. The second-order codes were subsets of first-order codes and were more descriptive in nature. In some situations, second-order codes were derived direcdy from key words taken from the transcript (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) (analytical notes, 2000).X1V The following was an example of the open 73 coding stage used when I asked respondents to define gender equity for athletes. The first-order code for their responses was labeled DEFINITIONS in order to group all their definitions of gender equity. The second-order codes depicted the various definitions. I ended up with eight codes second-order codes relating to definitions, mcluding equal opportunity and equal resources. In total there were 16 first-order codes and 222 second-order codes (See appendix J for a full list of first-order and second-order codes). In the next stage of coding I searched for connections and relationships between the open codes (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Miles & Huberman, 1994). Strauss and Corbin (1990) labeled this axial coding, whereby the data are re-examined and reconfigured to find new relationships beyond those related to basic, descriptive first-order codes. Axial codes were used to create tighter, more meaningful, and broader categories from the second-order codes. Additionally, I re-examined the raw and analyzed data from the documents, observational notes, interviews and other field notes, including the memos that highlighted connections and patterns between the different sources of data, in light of the analytical categories emerging from the interview data. Development of Themes Connections between categories led to the development of sub-themes, followed by the identification of four main themes (see appendix K for a list of themes, and their related sub-themes, categories, and second-order codes). I relied on-Strauss' (1994) framework to identify the final themes. He suggested (p. 36) the most relevant themes should exhibit at least three of the following five characteristics: • centrahty: Was the theme central to the understanding of gender equity as an organizational value? • frequency: Was the theme mentioned by many of the respondents? • interrelatedness: Was the theme connected to other categories or themes? • theoretical implications: Was there theoretical support for the fmdings? • allowance of maximum variation: D i d the theme encompass positive and negative cases? Reflections on Data Analysis Given the large volume of raw data, I chose to initially analyze them separately based on their source. Once all the data were analyzed, I went back and manually searched for 74 connections between the sources. If I were to re-analyze them, I would also code the data from field notes, documents and observations using Adas.ti. These codes would include a tag denoting the source of the data, which would alleviate concerns that the interview data would overshadow the other sources of data. If all the data had been analyzed in the same manner and using the same system, it was likely the connections and patterns would have been easier to identify. Additionally, illustrative quotations and examples would have been easier to retrieve i f all the raw data were linked to Adas.ti. Following the analysis it was apparent that some sources of data were more relevant, revealing, and helpful than others for particular research questions. In-depth interviews were particularly valuable for gaining insights into meanings (RQ1), organizational practices (RQ2), and explanations for the gaps between meanings and practices (RQ3). Data from news releases, operating budgets, and observational notes were helpful in understanding how gender equity was implemented (RQ2). Other sources, like the mission statement and policy documents, provided limited knowledge of meanings (RQ1), but nonetheless were revealing in what was missing or not included. Although the analytical and general field notes were somewhat insightful in providing some explanations for the gaps between meanings and practices (RQ3), they were particularly useful in documenting the creative and ever-changing data analysis process and my role as a researcher. This was important because the qualitative researcher should strive to be reflective and recognize the circumstances under which knowledge is created (Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000). As Alvesson and Skoldberg (2000) argued, data collection and analysis \"does not take place in neutral, apolitical, or ideological-free space\" (p. 9). In qualitative research, the researcher is the instrument when she enters the lives of participants to collect and analyze data (Marshall & Rossman, 1999), and the researcher's personal life and experience are part of the research process because they influence how the data are interpreted (Reinharz, 1992). The last section of this chapter is a discussion of ethical issues in the research process, including my role in the production of knowledge. Trustworthiness Tmstworthiness refers to the soundness of qualitative research, which can be judged on four criteria: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Credibility is concerned that \"the reconstructions that have been arrived at via 75 the mquiry are credible to the constructors of the original multiple realities\" (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 296). I established credibility by spending over two years in the natural setting, by clarifying and comparing the findings from different sources, by hstening to a diversity of viewpoints, and by checking my interpretations during the interviews (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Transferability refers to the extent to which the readers of this study can apply the findings to other subjects or sites. In qualitative research, the responsibility of the researcher is to provide \"sufficient descriptive data to make such similar judgments elsewhere\" (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 298). I addressed this criterion by including thick descriptions of the historical, political, social, and economic context of the department and the institutional conditions of the four sport programs so readers can decide i f the fmdings are applicable to other similar situations. The third criterion, dependability, deals with the consistency and quality of the research process so that \"the findings of an inquiry [could] be repeated i f the inquiry were replicated with the same subjects in the same context\" (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 290). Keeping detailed methodological notes that included my rationale for making decisions ensured that others could judge the quality of the research process and could replicate the steps taken to conduct the same study with similar subjects in a similar site. ConfirmabiHty emphasizes the importance that the \"findings are grounded in the data [and] that the inferences based on the data are logical\" (p. 323). In particular, this criterion is concerned with the role and impact of the researcher in interpreting the results. I relied on multiple sources of data to crystallize the findings. I kept numerous analytical and general field notes of my assumptions and ongoing interpretations. As well, I periodically went back to the raw data (i.e., the transcripts, observational notes, documents) to check that my interpretations reflected the data. Ethical Issues Consent Before collecting the data, I obtained ethical approval from the Research Ethics Board (a pseudonym) (see appendix L). Next, I met with the athletic director to secure agency consent, which formalized my entry into the organization and validated my access to the department, its members, and sporting events (Stake, 2000). Initial communication with 76 the administrators and coaches was done by telephone and with the athletes via email. Following this initial contact, the consent form, letter of introduction, and interview questions were then faxed or emailed to the participants (see appendix M for a copy of the letter of introduction and consent form). Prior to each interview, I went through the ethical consent form to ensure that each participant understood his or her participation was voluntary and that he or she could withdraw from the study at any time. I also emphasized their responses were confidential and their identities and that of the university and athletic department would be kept anonymous. Gaining Trust Gaining trust and estabUshing rapport with respondents contributes to successful and meaningful interviews (Fontana & Frey, 2000). Developing trust was also important because respondents can have concerns about their organization affiliation, especially i f they were critical of it in any way. Assurances of anonymity and confidentiality contributed to the development of trust. Participants were told that their names, along with the names of the university and the athletic department, would not be used in any papers, publications or presentations resulting from this study. Instead, participants were identified in two ways. Sometimes I mentioned them by their gender, position, or sport (e.g., male athletic director, or female basketball player). In other situations, I referred to them by an identifier label that signified their gender, job tide, or sport (e.g., B l = the first female basketball player I interviewed) (see table 4). With respect to confidentiality, I conducted all the interviews and transcribed each interview myself. The tapes and transcripts were not shared with other individuals and are kept in a locked office. I also established some level of trust with the interviewees by providing a brief introduction of myself and an explanation of how my previous involvement in university athletics and my master's work contributed to my interest in gender equity and organizational values as research topics (Wolf, 1996). 77 Table 4. List of Identifier Labels for the Respondents Respondents' labels Description Total B l - B 3 female basketball players 3 H I - H 3 female hockey players 3 RI - R 2 female rugby players 2 SI - S 2 female swimmers 2 Total female athletes 10 B 4 - B 5 male basketball players 2 H 4 - H 5 male hockey players 2 R3 male rugby player 1 S3 -S4 male swimmers 2 Total male athletes 7 Total athletes 17 B6 female basketball coach 1 Total female coaches 1 B7 male basketball coach 1 H 6 - H 7 male hockey coaches 2 R4 male rugby coach 1 S5 male swimming coach 1 Total male coaches 5 Total coaches 6 A l intercollegiate coordinator 1 A2 development officer 1 A3 communications coordinator 1 Total female administrators 3 A4 event mgmt & promotions officer 1 A5 athletic director 1 Total male administrators 2 Total administrators 5 Total women 14 Total men 14 Total respondents 28 Providing the respondents with the interview questions beforehand was an effective strategy to make many of them more relaxed for the interview (methodological notes, 2000, 2001). This strategy addressed their apprehension about the focus and content of the interview or their anxiety about being unprepared to respond to the questions. Some individuals came to the interview with prepared notes. Others mentioned they had not thought about the topic until they read the interview questions, which suggested that this 78 strategy prompted some of them to reflect on gender equity before the interview (methodological notes, 2001). One drawback was that it was difficult to guide some interviews because a few respondents responded to questions before I had asked them, as they were already aware of them (methodological notes, October 2000). My Identity A n important aspect of reflective research was acknowledging that my identity, emotions, and feelings shaped my interpretations of the data (Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000; Fine, Weis, Weseen, & Wong, 2000; Richardson, 2000; Wolf, 1996). Fine et al. (2000) criticized researchers who 'simply insert themselves into the text' by providing limited biographical information believing that adequately demonstrated an open and reflective approach to research. In response to their criticism, I address my identity and experiences throughout subsequent chapters, in addition to describing and analyzing how I saw myself and how others reacted to me. The most salient facets of my identity in this study were that I am a woman, a graduate student, a former participant in the Canadian university athletic system, and a researcher drawing upon a post-structurahst feminist perspective. As a woman, I presumed I would easily connect with the female participants and would readily understand and appreciate their views. Additionally, I expected women to confide in me and men to be cautious around me. In some instances that did happen: I related to women who described experiences of being less privileged than many men. Nonetheless, I was caught off guard by alternative and non-stereotypical views that sometimes matched my own views being expressed by some men, and by the rationalizations used by some women to justify and normalize gender inequities. Contrary to my expectations, some women were reserved and cautious about discussing gender equity, while some men talked about it in an open and frank manner. During the interviews, I did not label myself as a feminist. I expected that i f I had done so respondents would have been reluctant to discuss gender equity. Participants in sport have often been characterized as conservative in their thinking and resistant to alternative views such as those espoused by feminists (Hall, 1996). I stand by that decision especially considering that a few of the women I interviewed revealed that they were reluctant to identify themselves as feminists. My feminist perspective of course played a role in the analysis. A post-structurahst feminist perspective that requires sensitivity to gender 79 relations and gendered understandings without assuming all women or all men shared the same experiences or understandings of gender equity underpins my interpretations of the findings (Alvesson & Billing, 1997). Additionally, my interpretations were based on challenging taken for granted meanings and practices, as well as my initial assumptions. I introduced myself as a graduate student with the expectation participants would see me as less threatening than a tenured professor. By emphasizing my student status, some athletes seemed to open up with me as a peer (observational notes, 2000, 2001). I purposely introduced myself as a former participant in the university athletic system in order to establish credibility and create a sense of shared lived experience with some participants (Neuman, 2000). A t times I drew upon my own experiences as an additional perspective to interpret the data and develop conclusions. With some respondents, my experience and awareness of university athletics worked to my disadvantage as they assumed I was aware of specific details of their sport involvement. For example, some ice hockey players gave few details about their practice schedules assuming I was aware of their time comrnitments. My experiences were limited to the sport of basketball, and therefore I had limited knowledge of what it was like to be a swimmer, ice hockey player, or rugby player. Representation Consideration of my identity is especially important in post-structurahst ferninist research where the aim is to listen to multiple voices (Ristock & Pennell, 1996). Underlying the analysis of these data was the issue of representation in the final analysis, particularly who was heard and who was left out or silenced in the fmdings. Representation is a frequent and important topic of discussion in the qualitative research area, particularly with feminist researchers (cf. Fine & Weis, 1996; Fine et a l , 2000; Gergen & Gergen, 2000; Millen, 1997; Opie, 1992, Reinharz, 1992). One aspect of representation is ensuring that the researcher's transcriptions of the data match that of the participants (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). A common method to accomplish this is to have respondents review the transcripts or the data analysis. I did not choose to follow this practice as I felt most interviewees would not have the time nor be interested in undertaking such a tedious task. However, I did check my interpretations by periodically asking them during the interviews i f my understandings reflected what they intended to say and by repeating or rephrasing what they said in the interviews. I also 80 encouraged them to contact me i f there was anything they wanted to add, clarify or delete from the interviews. One area of particular concern is when there are differences between the researcher's and respondents' understandings of a situation (Fine & Weis, 1996; Millen, 1997). In her study of female academics, Millen (1997) interpreted comments from female participants as obvious examples of gendering, discrimination, and hegemonic relationships, while they did not characterize them as such. I found some participants accepted inequities in organizational practices, such as inadequate facility access, as natural or as being 'just the way things were,' whereas I labeled them as examples of gender inequities that needed to be challenged through deconstruction. I paid closer attention to the possible reasons why we would have different understandings, recognized that a single, shared interpretation was unnecessary and undesirable, and acknowledged that the findings were based on my interpretations of the data (Opie, 1992). Participants maintain their interpretations of experiences independent from the ones ascribed to it by the researcher (Millen, 1997). Essentially then, I analyzed my interpretation of the interviews and it is the one that is presented here. Interwoven with the issue of representation was a concern for multiplicity. Even though the resonance of qualitative research stems from the inclusion of quotations from many respondents, thus allowing the reader to 'hear' their understandings about the research topic, it was neither possible, nor desirable, to represent all voices equally (Fine et al., 2000; Nilges, 2001; Ristock & Pennell, 1996). In their work on poverty, Fine and Weis (1996) noted they often looked for the unusual, exciting, and shocking stories or quotations, while Opie (1992) selected quotations that highlighted contradictions because they \"challenge the notion of rationality\" (p. 60). I looked for and included quotations with 'punch' such as those describing inequities, those from individuals with influence, as their understandings impact decisions and practices, or those that included clearly articulated ideas. Following the precedent set by feminist researchers who emphasize the voices of those who have been historically marginalized (Fine et al., 2000), I did, to some extent, emphasize the voices of women over men and the voices of athletes over administrators and coaches, especially in situations of contradictory evidence. So while I paid attention to all voices, some were more prominent than others in the written document. 81 Interviewees' Roles Issues of power between the researcher and the researched are not often discussed when pubMshing or presenting findings (Ristock & Pennell, 1996). When it is acknowledged it is usually from the perspective of the researcher who controls the formulation of the research questions, the research methods, and the analysis of data, with limited or no involvement from the participants (Frisby, Reid, Millar, & Hoeber, in press). Discussions about power relationships must also acknowledge that in some situations the researched can and do exert power (Ristock & Pennell, 1996). In this study, interviewees exercised power through their referrals, refusals and hesitations to participate and through gatekeeping. In setting up the interviews, a few adrninistrators and coaches expressed they were not 'the right person' to speak to and referred me to an administrator they identified as the 'gender equity expert' (methodological notes, February & March 2000). While they might have believed I was only interested in the expert viewpoint, in fact I was interested in a diversity of interpretations. The combination of the participants' rights to refuse to participate and to drop out and my reliance on referrals meant that setting up interviews took much longer than I expected. In response to this setback, I decided to give all athletes a small honorarium as an incentive for participating. Since I interviewed coaches and adrninistrators in their roles as paid employees of the athletic department, providing athletes with an honorarium legitimized their role as representatives of the department as well. Some participants acted as gatekeepers who controlled and limited my access to sources of information (Neuman, 2000). In one situation, I asked a head coach to refer me to athletes I could contact to participate. After numerous unanswered requests, I called the assistant coach and asked for names of athletes, but he did not get back to me (methodological notes, Apr i l 2001). Although most coaches were helpful and readily provided names, in this situation the coaches indicated that they were protecting their athletes from unnecessary distractions.\" Another explanation could be that my research topic was not valued enough by the coaches to involve their athletes. Gatekeeping also occurred when I asked an upper administrator for a copy of the department's current operating budget. After over two weeks and numerous requests, I was eventually given a copy of their budget for the 1998-1999 season (methodological notes, Apr i l 2000). I had also requested a copy of the operating budget for the 1999-2000 season. In addition, the 'salaries and benefits' budget line was omitted from my copy. The administrator said that the salary 82 figures were deleted to maintain privacy, which was ironic given that the university published an annual financial report that stated the salaries of all L C U employees, including coaches and department administrators, who earned more than $50,000 ( L C U , 1999, 2000b; observational notes, May 2000).XV11 subsequentiy asked again for the budgets for the three seasons of interest for this study, hoping to get a complete copy of the first budget statement I obtained. It took a couple of weeks to receive the documents, which included the budgets for the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons, but I did not receive another copy of the budget for the 1998-1999 season (methodological notes, October 2001). As a public institution, the public can access financial statements from universities and their departments. Despite this, it was possible some administrators were hesitant to let the information out because they were afraid of criticism of their budgeting process. While many discussions of power centre on the researcher's location and position in the research process, these examples illustrate situations where the researched exercised power as well (Wolf, 1996). Summary of the Research Project This study was based on case studies of four sport programs in one Canadian athletic department. I collected data about gender equity from four sources: field notes, documents mcluding policy statements, news releases, mission statement, and operating budgets; observations of competitions and practice sessions; and interviews with administrators, coaches, and athletes. Data analysis consisted of coding, categorizing, and content analysis, along with deconstruction to reveal silences and hidden meanings. Ethical issues included obtaining consent, estabHshing confidentiality and anonymity, ensuring trustworthiness of the research, and acknowledging my identity and role in the research process. In the following chapters I described the historical, political, social and economic contexts of the athletic department and the structure and institutional conditions of the selected sport programs, which provided some grounding for the analysis of findings related to the research questions. 1 L C U (Large Canadian University) is the pseudonym for the university in which the case studies were situated. \" Detailed descriptions o f the institutional conditions o f the four sport programs are provided in chapter 4. m While these teams operated in an integrated manner for training purposes, officially male and female participants competed on separate teams and events. For example, male and female swimmers competed in 83 separate gendered events (e.g., men's 100m butterfly, women's 4x100m relay) and vied for separate gendered tides, awards, and championships. l v Other common designations for major and minor sports were: i) gate and non-gate sports, referring to the ability of teams to generate revenue from gate receipts; ii) revenue generating and non-revenue generating sports; and iii) big and small sports, referring to the level of resource support from the athletic department. v See table 5 in chapter 4 for the department's designation of sports. v l The distinction of major and minor sports also reflected regional interest in certain sports. For example, volleyball has a significant following in Western Canada, but little following in Eastern Canada. Men's and women's basketball, men's ice hockey, and men's football were commonly considered major sports in universities across Canada. ™ These codes refer to the identifier labels that I assigned to the respondents. See table 4 of this chapter for further information. v m The swim meet ran in an integrated manner with events for male and female swimmers alternating throughout the meet. \" Men and women were included in each of the three stakeholder groups so as not to perpetuate assumptions that gender equity was primarily a concern for women or that the views of males in upper management positions represented others in the organization. I interviewed only one female coach, but this was a function of the current gender structure among coaches in the department. When I started collecting data in 1999, there were 21 head coaches in the athletic department and only 5 of them were women. O f those five women head coaches, only two were associated with the four case study sport programs and one of them resigned before I contacted her to be a participant in my study. x The coach of the men's rugby program did not respond to my requests for information. Despite repeated requests and reminders the one male rugby player I did interview did not provide me with names of other male rugby players. The president of the athletic council could not help me because there were no male rugby players on the council. In hindsight, I could have approached the entire team after practice and asked for volunteers, but at the time I had not considered that as an option. x l It was not possible to provide a gender breakdown for the swim program because, unlike the three other sport programs, the athletic department did not provide a separate operating budget for the two swim teams. m For example, the first story of a news release could be entirely devoted to the men's basketball team, while the lead story of another news release could focus on both the men's and women's basketball teams. x m The terms 'first-order code' and 'second-order code' are derived from Labianca, Gray and Brass's (2000) analytical concepts of 'first-order themes' and 'second-order concepts'. x l v When the raw data text serves as an appropriate name for the code this is also referred to as in vivo codes (Atlas.ti, 1997). x v I relied on another source, the president of the student athletic council, to obtain names of athletes from that particular sport (methodological notes, Apri l 2001). x v i Some of die coaches or administrators did not make more than $50,000 per year in salary. Therefore, I was not able to fill in all the deleted information. 84 4 Situating the Four Sport Programs In this chapter, I situated the athletic department at L C U within its larger setting and describe the institutional conditions of the four selected sport programs, as it was important to understand the impact of broader contexts on the local production of discourses. Theberge (2000a) argued, \"the gendering of sport occurs within particular historical contexts and institutional conditions\" (p. 331). Post-structuralists often focus on the impact of historical and social contexts on the production of knowledge (cf. Scott, 1990; Weedon, 1997). While understandings of gender equity are shaped by these contexts, I argue that one must also consider the impact of others like the economic and political contexts. To illustrate, the meanings and practices associated with gender equity can shift with changes in legislation or decisions to cut back financial resources to athletic departments. Therefore, I focused on the historical, political, social, and economic contexts of the C I A U and the athletic department. Because analysis within the collective case study requires detailed descriptions of each case and discussions of themes within each case (Stake, 2000), I provided a description of the institutional conditions of the sport programs to situate the fmdings. My knowledge and appreciation of these contexts were based on a review of literature on Canadian university athletic departments (cf. Armstrong-Doherty, 1995a, 1995b, 1996; Danylchuk & CheUadurai, 1999; Danylchuk & MacLean, 2001; Hi l l , 1996; Hi l l & KikuUs, 1999; Hums et a l , 1994; Inglis, 1988, 1991; Inglis, Danylchuk, & Pastore, 1996, 2000; Matthews, 1974; Moriarty & Holman-Prpich, 1987; Schneider, 1997; Taylor, 1986). My knowledge of the structure and institutional conditions was gleaned from departmental communications and publications, campus newspaper articles, university reports, as well as data collected specifically for this study, mcluding interview transcripts, observational notes, and documents. 85 The CIAU Historical Context The early development of university athletics in Canada occurred between 1906 and 1919 and was primarily focused on the establishment of playing rules and regulations (CIS, n.d.; Moriarty & Holman-Prpich, 1987). However, some sport-specific, university orientated organizations such as the Canadian Intercollegiate Rugby Union and the Canadian Intercollegiate Hockey Union were established prior to that time (Matthews, 1974). A l l of these organizations were located in central Canada and mainly served the interests of male athletes. The modern C I A U was established in 1961 and included universities from across Canada. In 1969, a separate administrative body for women's university athletics was created - the Canadian Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CWIAU) (Keyes, 1974; Matthews, 1974). It was formed to establish and organize national championships for women's university sports and to promote and support female athletes, because \"women's sport in Canadian universities was neither being encouraged, developed nor supported\" (Keyes, 1974, p. 22). In 1978, the C W I A U and C I A U amalgamated to streamline funding requests to the federal government and to more efficiendy manage university athletics (CIS, n.d.; Hums et al., 1994). Following the merger, opportunities for women as athletes increased, but opportunities for them as administrators and coaches did not increase to the same extent (Inglis, 1988; Pomfret, 1986). The C I A U undertook a number of actions to rectify this situation mcluding adopting policies to ensure equal gender representation in voting and estabhshing apprentice programs for women in administration and coaching (Inglis, 1988). In 1999, the C I A U published results from a study on the numbers of male and female coaches and administrators in Canadian universities (CIAU, 1999). For the 1998-1999 season, it was reported that there were 107 female head coaches (full-time and part-time) compared with 434 male head coaches (full-time and part-time) for a ratio of approximately one woman for every four men in these positions (CIAU, 1999). In comparison, within the department studied, the ratio was approximately 1 female head coach for every 11 male coaches. Even though there was an increase in the number of female athletic directors, from 6 to 11, the increase was greater for male athletic directors, from 22 to 32 (CIAU, 1999). Although opportunities for women at the participant, coaching, and administrative levels in 86 the C I A U have increased over time, the opportunities for men also continued to increase at similar rates. The period between the late 1970s to the late 1990s saw the expansion of the CIAU's national championship roster. Championships in track and field and soccer were added for men, while national championships for women were added in track and field, cross-country running, soccer, ice hockey, rugby, and wrestling, with the last three being the most recent additions (CIS, n.d.; Inglis, 1988; Pomfret, 1986). A t the time of data collection there were 10 national championships for women (basketball, cross-country running, field hockey, ice hockey, rugby, soccer, swirnming, track and field, volleyball, wrestling) and 9 for men (basketball, cross-country running, football, ice hockey, soccer, swirnming, track and field, volleyball, wrestling) (CIS, 2002a). Economic Context In the 1970s, debates over governance models of athletic departments in Canada were closely tied to funding issues (Matthews, 1974; Schneider, 1997; Taylor, 1986). Some adrninistrators believed athletics should remain under the control of an academic department to ensure access to funds from university operating budgets, while others argued they should operate separately to increase their autonomy and ease the financial burden on universities (Schneider, 1997). Many departments have followed the latter route and established themselves as ancillary, autonomous units (Schneider, 1997). In response to their status as self-sufficient units on campuses, administrators looked for alternative sources of operating funds or made difficult decisions about financial cutbacks (Armstrong-Doherty, 1995b; Schneider, 1997). To meet athletes' demands for expanded programming, especially for women, the search for new sources of funds became even more of a priority (Mohr, 1986). Athletic departments now devote much of their time marketing their programs to sponsors and fans, encouraging alumni, corporations and community members to contribute to fundraising efforts, and lobbying for increases in athletic fees, all of which are significant sources of revenue (Armstrong-Doherty, 1995a, 1995b; Schneider, 1997). Fundraising has become a major concern not only for departments as a whole, but also for individual teams as they are encouraged to assume responsibility for raising money to cover operating costs (Author A & Author B, 1997). Some teams, primarily men's teams, are able to rely on financial assistance from their alumni and corporate sponsors to support their fundraising efforts. Newly 87 created teams, such as women's ice hockey, experience more difficulties because their alumni cannot yet be well established. Additionally, Canadian departments devote more promotions and marketing to men's sports, in particular football, basketball, and ice hockey, in part because of the belief that their investments are recouped in terms of greater interest from fans, the media, and corporate sponsors (Danylchuk & MacLean, 2001). A counter-argument was that more marketing should be directed to women's sports to raise their profile and advance their revenue generating potential instead of promoting the already popular sports (Danylchuk & MacLean, 2001). The Athletic Department The athletic department was situated in a large Canadian university with a student population' of approximately 35,000 where female students accounted for 56.9% of it (Author C, 2001^. They provided opportunities for over 500 students to participate on 30 competitive university teams (16 teams for men, 14 teams for women) in 16 different sports. The majority of the teams competed in the C I A U , while others competed against local community teams or university teams from the United States. Approximately 40% of athletes were female and 60% were male, which was not representative of the female-male ratio in the entire student body, but was sirnilar to the situation at many other Canadian athletic departments where men outnumbered women (Danylchuk & MacLean, 2001). In total there were 297 athletes from L C U registered in C I A U sports: 161 male athletes (54%) and 136 female athletes (46%) (CIS, 2002b). The remaining athletes participated in non-C I A U sports or as non-registered members of the CIAU. ' \" The greater number of men could be partially attributed to the fact that there were two more sports for men, with men's football and baseball having particularly large rosters and no female team counterpart. The athletic department at L C U operated under the guidance of the male athletic director who answered direcdy to the vice-president of students (Author C, n.d.). He was responsible for four areas: university athletics, campus recreation, fitness programs, and community sports. There were 14 adrninistrators (7 men, 7 women) and 22 head coaches (20 men, 2 women) involved with the university athletics area (Athletic Department, 2000-2001).'v Although the focus of this study was on gender equity for athletes, the gender balance of administrators and coaches was noteworthy. One female a