ABSTRACT
What is the interplay between gender and group dynamics? Are group interactions gendered? These are precarious questions. Intentional or not, direct comparisons of males and females often are colored by our cultural milieu in which males and masculinity commonly are privileged over females and femininity. The institution of sport magnifies this effect as male athletes consistently receive greater resources, status, and social and economic power than female athletes (1). Approaching the realm of group dynamics by emphasizing gender differences essentializes male and female characteristics (i. e., generalizes attributes across all females or all males); that is, it promotes that there are innate characteristics we are born with and that cannot be changed. For example, the stereotype that females are more emotional than males connects the personality characteristic of being emotional to the biology of being female. Conflating personality characteristics, learned behaviors, and biology leads to the assumptions that certain groups of people are identical, irrespective of social and cultural influences, and that these characteristics will not change.
