The GEMS Scorecard

Gendered Environmental Measures in Sport

The Issue

Our Gendered Environmental Approach proposes that ACL injury to be a biosocial phenomenon, where sports are situated in hihgly gendered environments that shape the athlete, whether consciously or subconsciously. We propose that these broader gendered aspects of sport environments (i.e., expectations and beliefs created by society) may influence sport opportunities and experiences for girls, and potentially set them up for increased risk of ACL injury. Many girls feel they are visitors sporting spaces, reporting they feel uncomfortable and even unwelcome in traditionally masculine spaces such as weight rooms or gyms.

Why this matters?

Gendered inequities are present across the sport system, and manifest within the everyday experiences of women athletes and can lead to a variety of negative health and injury outcomes. The sports injury literature currently lacks a tool or instrument that can quantify the gendered environmental factors affecting injury experience and outcomes for girls.

Project Aims

The GEMS Scorecard project looks to create a valid and reliable quantitative tool that can measure gendered aspects of sporting environments for teen girls.

To pilot the project, we will be exploring weight rooms.

Tool creation will involve:

Identifying gender-related challenges teen girls face in the weight room;
Understanding how existing tools measure sporting environmental features, including gendered aspects; and
Creating a preliminary list of constructs and items to be included in the GEMS Scorecard.