Promoting girls' participation in sport : discursive constructions of girls in a sports initiative

• What does it mean to promote girls’ participation in sports and which girls are seen as needing support? In this article we focus a government-financed sports venture and scrutinize the frames governing what is possible to say about girls and their participation in sports. By analyzing project applications from local sport clubs we investigate how the category of girls is discursively constructed in projects designed to promote girls’ sports participation. The study employs the Foucauldian concepts of governmentality, power, biopower and normalization. The analyses show that teenage girls in particular are in focus and a number of ideas are presented about what becoming a teenage girl means. We consider the projects as part of governmentality. Framing girls as both ‘capable’ and ‘at risk’ is reasonable in liberal governing, where they become subjects of scrutiny, regulation and productivity.

Keyword

Gender

girls

gender equality policy

Foucault

governmentality

power

normalisation

Samhällsvetenskap/Humaniora

Social Sciences/Humanities

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)