Navigating gendered dynamics in the workplace: a qualitative exploration of hostile work environments for women sport employees

Purpose Reports from the sport industry illustrate widespread employee/stakeholder sexual harassment, sexism and “unacceptable” work conditions. Although research has explored women’s experiences in the sport workplace, few studies explore how women make sense of these gendered environments. Therefore, we examine meanings and interpretations of lived experience of women who have encountered hostile work environments in the sport industry. Design/methodology/approach We used a phenomenological approach to conduct semi-structured interviews with 21 women with experience of working in sport in the United States. Findings Three themes were created: coping behaviors, interpreting signals and hostility from women. Our participants engaged in coping behaviors to survive the hostile, male-dominated spaces they worked in. They interpreted signals during interviews and early in their careers, which many perceived as an indication of organizational culture and group norms. Although some of our participants softened hostile behavior from men, they interpreted it differently when enacted by women. Originality/value Our findings offer insights into how women employees navigate conflicting gender, racial and organizational identities. They expressed a belief that the presence of women in an organization signals a positive culture; however, while they excused harassment from male colleagues, they rejected problematic behavior from women colleagues. In line with phenomenology, we bring in social identity theory and critical mass theory to explain our findings. Specifically, women working in the sport industry experience social identity complexity because of their multiple social identities, and the presence of women within sport organizations alone is not enough to change organizational culture and group norms.