Sexism and racism in women’s professional golf: the 2019 US Women's Open

Matz, R and Bowes, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5635-106X, 2021. Sexism and racism in women’s professional golf: the 2019 US Women's Open. In: The professionalisation of women’s sport: issues and debates. Emerald studies in sport and gender . Bingley: Emerald, pp. 105-122. ISBN 9781800431973

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Abstract

The chapter details the development of one of the most lucrative professional sports for women in the world, whilst drawing attention to institutionalised issues of racism and sexism in the sport. We discuss the history of women in professional golf, from the roots of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), through the modern-day game where women now play for large sums of money each week. We then shed light on the development of a global tour which started with the likes of Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, and Se Ri Pak dominating a once Americentric tour, and how the LPGA struggled to embrace this cultural shift via the Five Points of Celebrity marketing plan and the contentious English-speaking rule. The discussion then moves to focal point of the chapter: the US media’s reaction to long time American professional golf coach and former radio broadcaster Hank Haney’s disparaging comments before and at the conclusion of the 2019 Women’s US Open. Twenty-five articles were collected from US golf and sport media outlets and coded resulting in four themes: (a) a downplaying of the remarks, (b) ambivalence to the women’s game, (c), a privileging of men, and (d) a global Tour. The chapter concludes with remarks that highlight the media’s struggle to find the appropriate framing and language to cover the incident and how an intersectional approach reveals that oppression of women on the LPGA Tour exists beyond gender.

Item Type:	Chapter in book
Creators:	Matz, R. and Bowes, A.
Publisher:	Emerald
Place of Publication:	Bingley
Date:	20 September 2021
ISBN:	9781800431973
Identifiers:	Number Type 1475919 Other
Rights:	This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	11 Oct 2021 11:35
Last Modified:	25 May 2023 09:29
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/44390

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