Sexual harassment in elite sport

In this chapter we examine the issue of sexual harassment in sport. To date, there has been limited research on sexual harassment in the context of sport. This is particularly troubling as the extensive body of research from other settings, such as the workplace and within academia, suggests that the sporting world has many of the features that promote a culture where sexual harassment can occur. For example, skewed gender ratios (e.g., an absence of women in managerial positions), sexualised atmospheres (e.g., scantily clad cheerleaders), and organizational power (e.g., the power held by coaches) have all been found to influence the incidence of sexual harassment. The problem of sexual harassment in sport runs so deep that even students of sporting disciplines (e.g., sports sciences) are at a greater risk of experiencing sexual harassment than students from other disciplines.