GENDER DIVERSITY AND STRUCTURAL INEQUALITIES IN INDIAN OLYMPIC SPORT: A MULTI-CASE ANALYSIS

Abstract

CGender diversity in elite sporting settings is an important structural aspect of social equity, especially in the Olympic Games where national representation is linked to social and cultural systems of inequality. Despite notable advances in women’s participation on international sporting platforms, inequalities continue to exist in sporting communities, necessitating a need for in-depth investigation into the mechanisms through which gender inequalities are created and maintained and the ways that they can be overturned. Based on the qualitative multi-case analysis methodology and drawing on Critical Feminist Theory and Social Role Theory, the paper investigates the complexity of the issue of gender equality in the context of five selected Indian Olympians - Geeta Phogat (Wrestling), P.V. Sindhu (Badminton), Dutee Chand (Athletics), Rani Rampal (Field Hockey), and Sania Mirza (Tennis). Despite the success on the sports arena of these sports heroes, discoveries indicate that the excellent results achieved on the pitch are not reflected in success off the field, as structural shortcomings can be observed in all four categories of the defined issues, namely the systematic undervaluation of women's performances in evaluation processes, discriminatory processes of funding and sponsoring production, media representations of women in sports that trivializes their worth, and governing bodies' policies that define their absence and restrict their capacity to participate in decision-making. Therefore, the authors identify three mechanisms of systematic reproduction of exclusion. This is accomplished through the use of gendered institutional logic, cultural nationalism that derives women's sports achievements while limiting their power, and intersectional problems based on caste, class, regional and religious identification, which make women face discrimination according to the gender criteria. Finally, the authors present the Gender Equity Ecosystem Model (GEEM), which is a new concept that explains how institutional actors, cultural practitioners, and institutionalities function.