Women in Sport: The Sociological Problem in Senegalese Culture
Aminata Diack Ndiaye, Senegal
Wolof culture, in spite
of its contact with other civilizations with the indirect means of
colonization
and in spite of its socio-economical cultural evolution, does not yet
stick
in a meaningful way to the practice of sports and physical training.
Among the possible causes we could put forward the fact that it is a
culture
that does not accept some customs which could lead the woman to
representations
linked to their gender. Surely, in relation with the Òhabitus wolof,
sports is an acculturation practice seen as a male attribute.
Ever since, for a rational
identification of the causes of that lack of sticking to the physical
practices
and above all, the weaknesses of performances, this study has considered
a psycho-sociological analysis of the facts. Measuring wolof womenÕs
attitude towards those diverse practices and lifting up the frequencies
of behaviors are in question.
The methodology centered
on the maintenance technique is going to be based on two samples.
The first is composed of three categories of fifteen subjects (A, B, C),
suppose forty-five women chosen in a hazardous manner.
The second population is
composed of thirty high-level athletes practicing different
disciplines.
Through the study, we try also to know the administrative authoritiesÕ
point of view that are responsible for the practice of sports in Senegal.
The statistical treat
of the obtained data and the content analysis has revealed rather edifying
results if we consider the hypothesis of the study. The attitudes
of women toward sports, which is a practice extenal to wolof society, have
developed in a significant way from the 1940 to the present.
However, that state does
not constitute a sufficient condition for the practice of sports to be
effective in the female sphere. We must then integrate the
importance
of some psychosocial factors particularly the status of the body which
has systematically been identified by the hazardous sample. Such
a fact can be justified in so far as the body status in the wolof context
is the consequence of preestablished norms adopted from an early
socialization
process based on a gender differentiation.
The question of high level athletes refers to that same corporal
variable
but in an implicit way. But form the moment when they feel a
pressing
need to please men, to absolutely come up to their desires, according to
the social rules, they confer to that status of the body, a very important
dimension in the appreciation of the phenomenon.
So they assert at the same time that early in their marriage,
if their husbands do not agree with them for practicing sports, they will
take the decision to stop that career. In other respects, they
clearly
put forward the socio-economical variable and the lack of sports policy
as a reason for the limited performance of women in sports.
In another way, the administrative authorities think that the
socio-cultural
factor constitutes the fundamental cause that explains the insufficiency
of female performances and the feelbleates of interest in sports.
From these results, we can assert that in the wolof community
there is a determination between ÒcorporeiteÓ and women performances in
sports.
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