Women coaches’ emotional labour as invisible, gendered work

Jesse Porter, Kirsty Spence

Sport, as an institution, remains entrenched in hegemonic masculinity, resulting in the ongoing marginalization of women coaches at all levels of sport in Canada. Responding to the call for research examining the invisible, unpaid, emotional labour of women in sport, this study investigates the emotional labour of women coaches. Emotional labour is defined as labour that requires effort to induce or suppress emotions in order to display the outward countenance that results in the proper state of mind in others. It has been suggested that women have been more socialized to engage in more emotional labour than men. While sport psychologists have explored coaches’ use of emotional labour and the potential negative effects on coaches’ mental well-being, our aim is to address a gap in the literature concerning the gendered aspects and broader social and political implications of coaches’ work. This study utilized a post-structural feminist perspective, conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews with nine white, cis-gender, able-bodied women head coaches of university teams in Canada. A Foucauldian discourse analysis, informed by post-structural feminism, was used to analysis the data. The results demonstrate the conflicting discourses coaches engage with to make sense of their emotional labour as invisible and gendered work, while simultaneously emphasizing its value and effectiveness. These results contribute to discussions on the gendered division of labour in Canadian university sports. Moreover, the results offer a feminist understanding of women coaches’ emotional labour within the gendered institution of sport, deepening our understanding of gendered discourses and power dynamics influencing women coaches’ working realities. The implications extend to institutional practices, suggesting adaptations in coach evaluations, coach education, and measures for safeguarding athletes.