ABSTRACT

Background: These days women are employed in every field of the sports sector in management positions. Football is one of those fields. However, this is clear that woman employment is not enough. There are few studies about management positions of women in football.

Aim: This study, which was carried out to understand the situation women managers are in football, aims to examine the career barriers they face in football.

Methods: The study has been conducted through a qualitative research method, utilising a phenomenology design. The study participants include four women managers and eight women footballers in amateur women's football clubs in Sakarya province. There are four women managers in the Sakarya province, and all of them participated in the study. The participants were selected by criterion sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods. Women managers working in women's football and women footballers voluntarily participated in this study. Researchers obtained the data for the study through face-to-face interviews with semi-structured questions. The data obtained in the study were analysed by the content analysis method.

Results: Accordingly, five main themes, namely Career, Gender Advantage, Gender Disadvantage, Social Perception and Career Barriers, were formed.

Conclusion: The findings of the study have complied with the previous research in the literature arguing for career barriers before women, and showed that women managers in women's football face similar obstacles stemming from sexism and social perception.

Keywords: Women Manager, Career Obstacles, Football