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Does Sexism Cause Psychological Illness in Females?

Lisa Anderson
Ottawa University
Abstract
This bibliographic essay can be used to inform the population about how sexism effects
women in the sports that they participate in. Sexism continues to grow as women sports grow.
The purpose of researching this topic is to try to understand it more and to answer the question of
if sexism in sports causes an increase in physical and psychological problems in women? The
Significance of this subject is that women sports are breaking boundaries every day. There is
more pressure on women now than there has ever been. There are just as many who cause
adversity as there who support women. The intended accomplishment would be to educate the
general public about what female athletes go through today just to be successful in their sport.
This topic has been researched before in great detail. The thing that will be different is analyzing
physical and psychological problems other than focus on how they are treated differently. For
example this essay will explain how preconceived images can cause eating disorders. This essay
will include different kinds of sources including scholarly journals, websites, books, and articles.

Introduction

With the amount of girls starting to break the boundaries of the status quo sexism is also
growing. Being a victim of sexism you may acquire psychological problems and mental
illnesses. In todays society the pressure to be successful is infinite. There are many factors that
cause psychological problems and because of lack of knowledge people do not stop to think that
sexism could be the cause of the problem. Sexism is not usually thought of when evaluating
athletes. In some cases women are strong enough to overcome by turning the negative into
something positive. Some of the things that I will be focusing on sexism, physical and
psychological issues in female athletes, and how this can be prevented.

Sexism
Sexism can be defined by the dictionary as discrimination based on gender. Sexism can
effect both sexes but it is usually affiliated with women. On the website Safe at School they give
the gist of how sexism can effect women. How the effects of sexism could be detrimental to their
well-being. Not only does the Ontario Teachers Foundation expand on the outcomes but they talk
about the indicators. The act of this concept may start to influence women in how they feel.
These painful and confusing feelings may lead to a range of indicators that young women are in
difficulty. Internalized anger may lead to depression and other mental health problems, and to
self-destructive behaviors such as eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse and self-harm.
Teachers and coaches may notice that some young women are quieter in class or practice, that
they are hesitant to share their opinions, to express themselves, or to speak out, especially in
mixed-gender situations. They may hold back and be reluctant to participate in activities. Early
experiences of sexism and sexist violence may lead to a cycle of violence, as women and girls
learn to undervalue themselves and their worth. (Ontario Teachers Federation, 2013)

In Janet Finks scholarly article Hiding in Plain Sight: The Embedded Nature of Sexism
in Sport she is trying to create awareness about how sexism is still relevant in sports. She talk
about how there are different forms of sexism in different industries of sport. (Finks, 2016) Janet
Frank is credible by all her degrees and current and previous held position. She has a B.A. in
Physical Education, a M.S. in Higher Education and Student Affairs, and a Ph.D. majoring in
Sports Management with a miner in Human Resource Management. This journal was written to
try to reach others and explain to them why sexism needs to be abolished and how that can be
done.

Physical Issues
This concept is so powerful that the things that affect the mind takes a toll on the physical
aspects of the athlete. In the article Perceptions of Female Athletes Based on Observer
Characteristics, the authors talk about because now that females are starting to participate in
more masculine sports which require them to be built for that sport. This starts to become an
issue because it can cause an image problem. Athletes should not have to worry about their
image as they are competing. It causes the participating females to focus more about their
appearance than actually competing. Participating in these masculine sports and being expected
to maintain an unrealistic feminine physique. Along with that this article includes information
about participant athletic identity, ratings of female athlete athleticism, and perceived
attractiveness. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed. The authors at
the time that this article was written were students at the University of Tennessee studying sports
psychology. This article has been peer reviewed which means it is superb to all the rest even if at
the time they were college students.

In 2011 an article titled Conformity to gender norms among female student-athletes

was published. There were studies and surveys to see how girls who play sports feel about
themselves. They talk about all the things that girls are exposed to and how their bodies react to
certain things. This articles talks about what girls are at risk of while playing sports and how it
will affect them. It includes not only graphs but other visual aids. All of the authors of this
articles all went to universities that are accredited. Hailee Carter specializes in Behavioral
Science, Cognitive Psychology, and Developmental Psychology. Steinfeldt is affiliate with
Counseling and Counselor Education, and Counseling Psychology.
In 2013 there was a periodical released written by Laurie Penny. She is known to be a
columnist, author, and a feminist. She has contributed many articles to publications but more
prevalent articles may be The Guardian and the New Statesman. Penny has also written two
books about the subject of feminism. The article discusses a report from the Girlguiding
organization on social and psychological challenges facing girls in relation to issues including
self-esteem, career expectations, and physical appearance. This connects to the research question
because in the article they are talking about the expectations of society and how girls find them
selfs conforming to this lifestyle and not being true to who they are.
Authors Hope Landrine who is connected to the Public Health Foundation, Elizabeth A.
Klonoff who works for the Behavioral Health Institute and is associated with California State
University came up with a study in 1995 calculating the correlation between sexists event and
symptoms that women have. This relates to the research question because it talks about the
physical symptoms that women experienced when these sexists events went on. They found that
results revealed that sexist discrimination contributed significantly to the variance in womens

symptoms. They had also found that women are more likely to than men to exhibit a variety of
psychiatric symptoms, with symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Published by Womens Health in January 2014 Racial and Gender
Discrimination, Early Life Factors, and Chronic Physical Health Conditions in Midlife made the
population aware of problems that young women encounter every day that cause health
problems. Most studies of perceived discrimination have been cross-sectional and focused
primarily on mental rather than physical health conditions. The authors examined the
associations of perceived gender discrimination reported in adulthood with early life factors and
self-reported physician diagnosis of chronic physical health conditions. This connects to the
research question because it explains the social pressures like sexism that causes physical health
problems. One of the authors Jasmine McDonald is qualified to write on the subject because of
her vast knowledge in the research that she has done. Her research portfolio integrates health
behaviors and the physical, social, microbial environment with biology.
Written by Casey Knifsend and Sandra Graham and published in April of 2012 Unique
Challenges Facing Female Athlete in Urban High Schools talks about the struggle for equality.
The start by saying Although the passage of Title IX secured equity of treatment and
opportunity for female high school athletes in the United States, little research has examined the
social well-being of girls who participate in sports during high school. The current survey study
investigated how 9th grade sports participation relates to perceived gender discrimination from
peers and adults at school over four time points spanning 10th through 12th grade. Casey
Knifsend is known for her background in many subjects such as, Developmental Psychology,
Adolescence, Extracurricular Involvement, Social Identity Development and Complexity,
Intergroup Attitudes, Cross-ethnic peer relationships, and Influence of School and Interpersonal

Conflicts on Adolescent Development. These subjects all deal with sexism in some shape or
form.

Psychological Issues
In Vincent Granitos article Psychological response to athletic injury: Gender
differences. Journal of Sport Behavior he talks about how women get treated differently in the
rehabilitation process with injured athletes. It shows how women are under-minded in the
training room because of their male colleagues. They would not feel as important and thus it
took longer for them to get better. Stress is one of the main causes why athletes doing get better
or get injured. The author of this journal is a professor at John Caroll University and has a degree
in Education. He specializes in sports psychology which makes him the perfect person to refer to
when talking about psychological problems in athletes. The intended audience could be the
general public.
In 2005 Hinton and Kubas wrote an article about how psychosocial correlates of eating
disorders in female athletes. This journal talks about how female athletes are more at risk for
eating disorders. A study was done to measure psychological factors that may contribute to it. It
focuses on different categories one being social pressures. This source is credible. Both authors
have a background in medicine and Hinton has a PhD. It would help to reach my intended
audience because of the information. This journal was published in 2005. It is not too relevant
but information is really solid. The objective of the study was to develop an athletics-oriented
measure of psychological predictors of disordered eating and to test its initial reliability and

validity. Female athletes from 3 National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I
universities completed a written questionnaire designed to assess psychosocial factors associated
with disordered eating in athletes. Five distinct and internally consistent factors (Drive for
Thinness and Performance, Social Pressure on Eating, Performance Perfectionism, Social
Pressure on Body Shape, and Team Trust) were positively associated with and predictive of
disordered eating behaviors in female athletes. The athlete is a reliable and valid measure of
psychological predictors of disordered eating in athletics and will be useful in studying the
etiology of disordered eating in female athletes.
Three years ago an article was published that studied the relationship between sexism and
psychological distress (Hurst and Beesley, 2013). This study examined whether self-silencing
mediated the relationship between perceived sexism and psychological distress in a sample of
U.S. college women. Hurst is a Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) that works Duke
University and Beesly is affiliated with the Department of Educational Psychology, University of
Oklahoma. Both have backgrounds in psychology and both have written journals.

Sue Rosser wrote a book about womens health about how things are missing in U.S.
medicine. This book talks about how much information that can be drawn from medical research
to support the inequality for women. Things that the public can see but not one person can see
with the naked eye. They talk about biochemical and biological traits as well that have
established over the years. This book has been but this information in it relates to my question.
This source has been used in current articles and research papers that are peer reviewed. In this
case the information doesnt have to be relevant to use (Rosser, 1994). In 1995, Rosser was
Senior Program Officer for Women's Programs at the National Science Foundation. From 1986

to 1995 she served as Director of Women's Studies at the University of South Carolina, where
she also was a Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine in the Medical School. She has
edited collections and written approximately 120 journal articles on the theoretical and applied
problems of women, science, and technology and women's health. She is author of twelve books.
Sue currently serves on the editorial boards of NWSA Journal; Journal of Women and Minorities
in Science and Engineering; Transformations; and Women's Studies Quarterly.

Prevention
In February of 2000 Linda Skrla and Pedro Reyes wrote an article about solutions to
sexism and how you can prevent it. The qualitative case study on which this article is based was
designed to break down some of those barriers by using a participatory research design that
included the women participants' own analyses of their experiences and that explored their
proposed solutions for the problems surrounding their inequitable treatment. The authors discuss
three interrelated parts of the study results. The sexism that is part of the culture of the
superintendence, the silence of the educational administration profession about women
superintendents' discriminatory experiences, and the study participants' proposed solutions for
the problems of sexism and silence. Pedro Reyes is affiliated with the University of Texas at
Austin, where he is an Educational Administration. Linda Skrla is professor of educational
administration, editor of Educational Administration Quarterly, and Vice President-Elect for
Division A of the American Educational Research Association. She has extensive work
experience in in public schools as a teacher and administrator. Her research interests focus on
school leadership and social justice, feminism, and qualitative research methodology.

Conclusion
The affects for sexism on female athletes has been under researched. This research would
not only be useful but it would be something that many would have not heard of. It would help
many understand the connection between sexism and physical and psychological issues or
illnesses. The research question Does sexism cause physical and psychological issues would be
something many researchers might look into because it is rare and not many people think about
writing on such a topic.

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Work Cited Page

Fink, Janet S. "Hiding In Plain Sight: The Embedded Nature Of Sexism In Sport." Journal

Of Sport Management 30.1 (2016): 1-7. Academic Search Premier. Web.

Granito Jr., Vincent J. "Psychological Response To Athletic Injury: Gender Differences."
Journal Of Sport Behavior 25.3 (2002): 243. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

Collection. Web.
Hinton, Pamela S., and Karen L. Kubas. "Psychosocial Correlates Of Disordered Eating
In Female Collegiate Athletes: Validation Of The Athlete Questionnaire." Journal Of

American College Health 54.3 (2005): 149. ERIC. Web.

Hoiness, Amanda R., Bart L. Weathington, and Abigail L. Cotrell. "Perceptions of
Female Athletes Based on Observer Characteristics." 2008. Web.

Knifsend, Casey, and Sandra Graham. "Unique Challenges Facing Female Athletes In
Urban High Schools." Sex Roles 67.3/4 (2012): 236-246. Academic Search Premier. Web

Landrine, Hope, 1954-, Elizabeth A. Klonoff, and Jeannine Gibbs. "Physical And
Psychiatric Correlates Of Gender Discrimination: An Application Of The Schedule Of
Sexist Events." Psychology Of Women Quarterly 19.(1995): 473-492. Education
Abstracts (H.W. Wilson)

McDonald, Jasmine A., Mary Beth Terry, and Parisa Tehranifar. "Racial And Gender
Discrimination, Early Life Factors, And Chronic Physical Health Conditions In Midlife."
Women's Health Issues 24.1 (2014): e53-e59. Academic Search Premier. Web.

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O., & C. (2013). Impact and Indicators of Sexism. Retrieved from

http://www.safeatschool.ca/plm/equity-and-inclusion/understanding-sexism- racism-andhomophobia/sexism-and-violence/impact-and-indicators

Penny, Laurie. "Wasting Outrage Over Girls." New Statesman 142.5187 (2013): 15.
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Rosser, Sue Vilhauer. Women's Health-- Missing From U.S. Medicine. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1994. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost).

Skrla, Linda, and Pedro Reyes. "Sexism, Silence, And Solutions: Women Superintendents
Speak Up And Speak Out." Educational Administration Quarterly 36.1 (2000): 44.
Education Research Complete.

Steinfeldt, Jesse A., et al. "Conformity To Gender Norms Among Female StudentAthletes: Implications For Body Image." Psychology Of Men & Masculinity 12.4 (2011):
401-416 16p. CINAHL Complete.