Framing of female athletes in Ghana, a study of two selected newspapers

Abstract

This research examines how female athletes in Ghana are framed by local sports newspapers and investigates the perceptions of the female athletes towards the frames used. The study was based on the framing and feminist theories. The study used qualitative method for the data collection and analysis. Two major local sports newspapers with the highest circulation- the Graphic Sports and the 90 Minutes were selected for the study. In addition, interviews were conducted with six female athletes to complement the analyses of stories from the newspapers. The major findings in this research revealed that the field of sports is clearly a gendered profession that not only welcomes men enthusiastically than women but also serves as a site for celebrating skills and values clearly marked as masculine. This study also showed that female athletes are often overlooked and marginalised as they are deemed inferior in skills and knowledge to their male counterparts. Furthermore, the study showed that, in the area of sports, women are treated as “outsiders” by virtue of their gender but “insiders” by their adherence to athletic norms and values. The study concludes that men in Ghana continue to dominate and have all the authority in the field of sports and this eventually leads to the underrepresentation of women in the profession.