Résumé
Research on leadership in sport has focused largely on male perspectives (Bucci et al., 2012; Camiré, 2016). While research has highlighted differences between male and female teams and leaders, participants in these studies are more often male (Murata, et al., 2023). In the sport of ice hockey, one study found 82% of sport psychology research comprised all-male samples (Robertson et al., 2019), emphasizing a need to for more purposeful and targeted research focused on girls, women, and female athlete participants. The purpose of this study was to explore perspectives of sex and gender differences in sport leadership within high-performance women’s ice hockey. Fifteen coach and athlete-leader dyads (i.e., N=30) were purposefully sampled from high-performance youth women’s leagues (i.e., U18 AAA) for representation across Canada. Each participant engaged (individually) in a semi-structured interview towards the end of the season, focused on leadership, including specific questions exploring perceptions of leadership among men and women coaches and athlete leaders. Participants did not perceive differences in the capabilities of men and women coach and athlete leaders, but they did perceived differences in their respective leadership styles. Specifically, themes emerged in three key areas: (a) relatability of women athletes and athlete leaders with women coaches compared to men coaches; (b) social environmental differences between women’s teams and men’s teams; (c) communication style differences between women coaches and athlete leaders compared to their men counterparts. Findings are discussed in the context of previous and potential future research, with a particular focus on practical implications.
