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Abstract

This secondary research was designed to understand the hardship female tennis players endured in their pursuit for gender equality, from nineteenth century participation to twenty first century professionalism. Triangulation of historical, discourse and semiotic methods of analysis will be used to investigate the key campaigns, figures and developments that brought about changes for the benefit of female professional tennis players. It will also highlight areas where historical patriarchal ideology persists.
The contextualisation of the history of women in tennis will allow for comparisons to be made between the past and present. I argue that although female tennis players are freer to express their identities and unique ‘femininities’ in twenty first century professional tennis, patriarchal ideology remains ingrained in the institution. I cover a variety of elements in female tennis which echo tradition. These include organisational issues such as the scheduling and treatment of women on tour, resistance to campaigns for equal pay, the media and clothing. Due to the development of commercialisation and tireless campaigning, female tennis is receiving more media coverage than it ever has before. However, this gives media agencies more opportunities to reproduce socially constructed stereotypes such as a woman’s domestic role. I outline how covert sexism and racism remain prevalent in professional tennis and due to the complexity and saturation of social media, it is harder to regulate and harder to recognise.

Course: Sociology and Criminology - BSc (Hons) - C0979

Date Deposited: 2022-05-16

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13901.html