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Combining knowledge from sport management, marketing, media, leadership, governance, and consumer behavior in innovative ways, this book goes further than any other in surveying current theory and research on the business of women's sport around the world, making it an unparalleled resource for all those who aspire to work in, or understand, women's sport. Featuring international perspectives, with authors from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, and insightful, in-depth profiles of real leaders within different sectors of women's sport in the global sport industry, the Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women's Sport offers an integrated understanding of the ways traditional media and social media impact both the understanding and the advancement of women's sport properties, businesses, teams, and athletes. Innovative case studies show how societal issues such as gender, power, and framing impact the business of women's sports and those who work in women's sport. An essential reference for any researcher or advanced student with an interest in women's sport or women in business, and useful supplementary reading for researchers and advanced students working in sport business, sport management, mainstream business and management, or women's studies.

This study examines the pivotal role of women’s participation in sports in the sociocultural metamorphosis of modern China, shedding light on the intricate dynamics among physical culture, gender norms, and societal transformation. By conducting a critical discourse analysis of publications by female sports activists during the Republican era, this study reveals how the portrayal of the female athlete’s body, as advocated by those authors with the aim of enhancing women’s self-awareness through modern Western practices, remains subtly entangled with masculine dominance through symbolic violence. Female sports educators’ reinterpretation of the “mind–body harmonization” concept integrates social and cultural dimensions that extend beyond the individual’s physical and mental well-being. It illustrates that women’s active engagement in sports catalyzed the localization of modern sports and significantly contributed to the reweaving of China’s sociocultural narrative. This process reshaped perceptions of gendered bodies, challenging established gender norms while unconsciously constructing new forms of masculine dominance in modern China.

To examine the effects of exercise type (competitive match vs. VAMEVAL test) and playing position on biomarker responses in elite female soccer players, twenty-one athletes (seven each: defenders, midfielders, attackers) participated in this cohort-based study. Blood samples were collected before and 3 minutes after both a competitive match and VAMEVAL test, analyzing 19 biomarkers including metabolic, lipid, protein, inflammatory, and immune parameters. Significant effects (p<0.001-0.004; ƞ 2 p:0.36-0.59[large]) were observed in biomarkers reflecting energy metabolism (glucose), protein turnover (albumin), inflammation (tumor necrosis factor and C-reactive protein), and lipid profile (apolipoprotein-B) across conditions. Match play increased glucose levels in defenders and midfielders (p<0.003) and inflammatory markers (p<0.014) compared to VAMEVAL. Position-specific responses emerged: attackers showed higher urea (p=0.032) while midfielders displayed unique lipid profiles (p=0.033) post-match. These findings, supported by significant interactions (p<0.05), emphasize the importance of considering both exercise modality and playing position when developing personalized training and recovery strategies in female soccer, highlighting the distinct metabolic demands across positions and exercise conditions.

Background: The evolution of women’s football over the past three decades has been remarkable in terms of development, visibility, and acceptance, transforming into a discipline with growing popularity and professionalization. Significant advancements in gender equality and global visibility have occurred, and the combination of emerging talent, increasing commercial interest, and institutional support will continue to drive the growth and consolidation of women’s football worldwide. Methods: The purpose of this study was to present a bibliometric analysis of articles on the evolution of women’s football in terms of scientific production as well as its causes and motivations over the past 30 years (1992–2024). A total of 128 documents indexed in the Web of Science database were reviewed. Outcome measures were analyzed using RStudio version 4.3.1 (Viena, Austria) software and the Bibliometrix data package to evaluate productivity indicators including the number of articles published per year, most productive authors, institutions, countries, and journals as well as identify the most cited articles and common topics. Results: Scientific production on women’s football has shown sustained growth, particularly since 2010. Key research areas have focused on injury prevention, physical performance, psychosocial factors, motivation, and leadership. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain have emerged as the most productive countries in this field, with strong international collaboration reflected in co-authorship networks. Conclusions: The study revealed a clear correlation between the evolution of women’s football and the increase in scientific production, providing a strong foundation for future research on emerging topics such as the importance of psychological factors, sport motivation and emotional well-being on performance, gender differences at the physiological and biomechanical levels, or misogyny in social networks, thus promoting comprehensive development in this sport modality.

This paper will show that sporting institutions that police the boundaries of women’s sports do so to keep sportswomen constrained in ways that men’s sports and male athletes are not. This paper explores three methods that sporting establishments have used to police and constrain women’s sports and sportswomen: the exclusion of women and the creation of different rules for men’s and women’s sports, the policing of international sporting administrations of which women can compete in women’s sports by invoking the specter of “gender fraud”, and the exclusion of trans women from sports by relying on conservative Christian notions of a gender binary motivated by a similar strain of homophobia that animated previous efforts to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage. Taken together, these three threads reveal that gender policing in women’s sports is not and has never been about “fairness” but about preserving heteropatriarchal systems of power that position women as weak and inherently less athletic than men.

This study was conducted to design a model of Iranian international women’s sport diplomacy. This research was performed qualitatively using the grounded theory strategy. The research population included documents related to the field of research, university faculty members and experts in the field of sports diplomacy, and women’s sport. Sampling was done purposefully via a snowball approach and the subjects were interviewed in semi-structured interviews. In this study, using the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin (Grounded theory in practice, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1997), the existing documentation related to the field of research and interviews with participants (17 interviews) in three stages of open, axial, and selective coding in 5 sections: Causal conditions, context conditions, mediating conditions, strategies, and outcomes were analyzed. The analysis showed that paying attention to women’s sport diplomacy and using its capacity can lead to the development of peace, relations and security, economic development, socio-cultural development, and also the development of women’s sport.

Over the past ten years there has been a dramatic rise in female sport participation and accompanying female professional national leagues across multiple sports, yet research has not followed suit. Although there are known variations between female and male physiology, training protocols in female sport are predominantly underpinned by research undertaken in male athletes. The hormonal variability experienced by women across the menstrual cycle, as well as the menstrual cycle variability between women, may contribute to the complexity of conducting rigorous physiological studies, leading to a paucity of robust sports-specific research that can be confidently applied to female athletes. Moreover, barriers exist in female sport that potentially limit the ability to conduct research, including the lack of full-time programs and limited resources. Recently, there has been increased interest in the potential effects of fluctuations in the female sex hormones, progesterone and oestrogen, on sport performance across different phases of the menstrual cycle. However, current research evaluating the menstrual cycle and physical performance (such as strength, speed, aerobic fitness, and athletes’ perception of their performance) have shown inconsistent results. Additionally, methodological design across studies has shown little consistency, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions, which potentially prevents female athletes optimising their physical and sporting performance. It further impacts coaches and sports science researchers in their ability to provide appropriate training recommendations and educational opportunities. It is important to progress in female athlete research with an understanding of how the unique physiology of female athletes may influence their ability to physically perform in their respective sport, which requires representation in sports science research. This paper will provide an overview on current evidence and limitations within menstrual cycle research and provide considerations and directions for future research in this space within team sports.

PurposeThe purpose of this research was to examine the role of intersectionality (multiple marginalized identities) in narratives used within online media coverage of women's sports. The authors adopted an intersectionality lens and drew from sports media literature to explore the representation of Black athletes in women's sport.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a quantitative content analysis of online articles from ESPN, CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated from the 2020 WNBA Season. The authors coded the number of times an athlete was mentioned in an article, the athlete's race, publicly disclosed sexual orientation and gender expression. The authors used hierarchical regression to examine the relationship between an athlete's social identities and frequency of media mentions.FindingsWithin mainstream online sport media, Black WNBA athletes receive less media attention than white WNBA athletes. Black athletes who do not present in traditionally feminine ways receive the least amount of media attention, while white athletes have the freedom to express their gender in a variety of ways and still capture media interest. Within league press releases, however, there is no difference in media mentions based on race, sexual orientation or gender expression.Practical implicationsThe findings in this research are important for sport media professionals who write stories and player-activists who are pursuing racial justice. Outlets should commit to antiracist storytelling practices. Players, player agents and players' associations—all of whom have shown their power to create change for a more equitable industry and society—should also advocate for and organize around practices that create more equitable media coverage.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few empirical investigations of women's professional sport that examines the influence of intersecting social identities.

Guided by network theory the purpose of this paper is to explore the consumption networks of Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) fans. Through an egocentric network analysis, the authors utilize hierarchical linear modeling to examine the strength of consumption ties among WNBA fans during the 2019 season. Initial results revealed an unexpected finding: the presence of participants who reported having no fan-to-fan ties, whom we term IsoFans. A second sample of men's basketball fans was then collected to serve as a comparative confirmation of the unexpected result, whereby IsoFans occurred in the men's sport sample at a much lower rate. In the third step of the study the authors examine the differences between WNBA fans consuming in isolation, IsoFans, and WNBA fans consuming with alters, whom we call Social Fans. Results from the hierarchical linear modeling of Social Fans revealed that attributes of both ego (i.e., focal fan) and alter (i.e., individual with whom ego shares a tie) affect the strength of fan-to-fan ties within the women's sport context.

Methods: 15 college-aged female athletes (age 19.4 + 1.06 yrs; height 165.13 + 6.25 cm; mass 66.03 + 15.7 kg; body mass index 24.05 + 5.23) volunteered for this investigation. Discussion: Previous research has demonstrated SMR can be effective for improving static and dynamic balance scores on female athletes using a foam roller on the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves for 2 minutes at a similar pain tolerance. Brief intermittent use of SMR on connective tissue has been demonstrated by previous literature to increase athletic performance markers in female college athletes.