ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how young women conceptualize leadership in sport by focusing specifically on the sport leadership perceptions of female athletes. Sport and gender scholars have examined women's underrepresentation in sport leadership by focusing on women who currently hold or have recently held leadership positions within various sport organizations. However, female athletes represent a large and often overlooked pool of qualified candidates who are a critical piece of the puzzle with perhaps the most promise to increase women's representation in leadership positions across all levels of sport. An important implication for sport leadership practitioners, especially coaches, is that they play a vital role in not only establishing peer leadership expectations, but also modeling sport leadership behaviors. Leadership development programs for female athletes and other young women in sport should continue to focus on a wide range of skills that can be transferred to a variety of other organizational leadership settings.
