A1 Journal article (refereed)
Superwomen? Young sporting women, temporality and learning not to be perfect (2020)

Ronkainen, Noora J; Allen-Collinson, Jacquelyn; Aggerholm, Kenneth; Ryba, Tatiana V (2020). Superwomen? Young sporting women, temporality and learning not to be perfect. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Early online. DOI: 10.1177/1012690220979710

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Ronkainen, Noora J; Allen-Collinson, Jacquelyn; Aggerholm, Kenneth; Ryba, Tatiana V

Journal or series: International Review for the Sociology of Sport

ISSN: 1012-6902

eISSN: 1461-7218

Publication year: 2020

Volume: Early online

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690220979710

Open Access: Open access publication published in a hybrid channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/73339

Abstract

New forms of neoliberal femininity create demanding horizons of expectation for young women. For talented athletes, these pressures are intensified by the establishment of dual-career discourses that construct the combination of high-performance sport and education as a normative, ‘ideal’ pathway. The pressed time perspective inherent in dual-careers requires athletes to employ a variety of time-related skills, especially for young women who aim to live up to ‘superwoman’ ideals that valorise ‘success’ in all walks of life. Drawing on existential phenomenology, and in-depth interviews with 10 talented Finnish sportswomen (aged 19–22), we explored their experiences of lived time when pursuing dual-careers in upper secondary sport schools. Exploring participants’ bodily experiences of inhabiting the achievement life-world, we analyse how these sportswomen either learned ways of living up to this ambitious script or came to understand the detrimental effects of the script, necessitating other ways of being. For those who experience a disjuncture between the ‘perfect’ and their embodied experience, self-care practices are needed to restore life-world harmony, and orient to alternative futures.

Keywords: athletes; women; experiences (knowledge); identity (mental objects); performance (physical capacity); education and training; career development; phenomenology

Free keywords: superwoman; existential phenomenology; lived time; women’s dual-careers; identity

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Ministry reporting: No, publication in press

Preliminary JUFO rating: 1