Gender Role Orientation in Turkish Female Athletes and Non-Athletes

The purpose of this study was to compare gender role orientation and classification of elite female athletes aged between 18 to 30 years with age-matched female non-athletes in Turkey. Additionally, gender role differences with regard to types of sport in elite female athletes were examined. In this study 306 elite female athletes (Mage = 22.17 ± 2.51) and 264 female non-athletes (Mage = 21.34 ± 3.14) were participants of this study. Female athletes were selected from feminine sports; ballet dancing, aerobic dance, swimming, ice skating, tennis, volleyball (n = 70), from masculine sports; basketball, handball, soccer, wrestling, weight lifting, taekwando, karate, judo (n = 127), and from gender-neutral sports; track and field, shot putting and javelin throwing (n = 109). The Bern Sex Role Inventory was administered to assess the gender role orientations of participants. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that there were significant differences in gender role orientation between elite female athletes from different types of sport and female non-athletes (Hotelling’s T2 = 0.145; F(6,112) = 13.63; p<.01). In a follow-up univariate analysis, a significant difference in masculinity (F(3,569) = 26.07; p<.01) scores between female athletes from different types of sport and female non-athletes were observed. In addition, a chi square analysis showed a significant difference in gender role classifications between elite female athletes from different types of sport and female non-athletes (X2 = 68.22; p<. 01). Based on these findings it was concluded that there were significant differences in gender role orientations between Turkish elite female athletes and nonathletes.