DISCUSSION

Willis (2000) posited that sport can provide a unique opportunity to facilitate change, including challenging gendered assumptions and patriarchal structures. The creation of CGB was to do just that. This arts-informed research study aimed to explore how girl-identifying youth participants and junior coaches navigated their experiences of gender in a girls-only baseball environment. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has captured the experiences of girl-identifying youth in the baseball context. In exploring their lived experiences through textual excerpts from the interviews and PMMs, as well as the visual elements depicted in the PMMs, researchers found that the girls-only environment at CGB was a pivotal factor in fostering inclusion, sense of belonging, and connection among girls, crucial elements that were often reported absent from mixed-gendered or boy-dominated sport spaces. Moreover, the supportive and inclusive nature of the organization made participants feel valued within the community and more comfortable expressing themselves. Further, being immersed in an environment that felt safe and provided access to girl-identifying peers and women mentors made participants feel empowered and fostered personal growth. While previous studies have documented the various barriers that girls face when accessing sport, limited research has focused specifically on how girls experience and navigate a girls-only sport environment, particularly in a Canadian sport-for development context. Through centering the experiences of girl-identifying youth and junior coaches, this study produced rich and nuanced insights on how inclusive and high-quality programming in a girls-only environment can disrupt harmful gendered relations, encourage positive development, and foster empowerment. In the following sections, we discuss how this study relates to previous research and outline implications.

Participants outlined their experiences navigating the gendered culture of baseball, and sport more generally, while also highlighting the importance of women mentors in creating transformative shifts in sport culture. Participants often recalled feeling excluded or being teased by boys in mixed-gendered or boy-dominated sport and baseball environments. When playing sports with boys, participants described feeling like they had to “work harder” to prove themselves and normalized being treated differently than the boys. These findings reflect patterns reported by Carlman and Hjalmarsson (2019) who evaluated a mixed-gendered sport-for-all program and found that boys produced harmful gender stereotypes about girls’ abilities to excel in sport, often bullying them and excluding girls from playing. Girls’ and women’s experiences in sport continue to be shaped by feminine ideals, including fragility and inferiority, that have been constructed by historical and sociocultural constructions of gender (Clark, 2019). From a critical feminist perspective, these findings demonstrate the ways that sport continues to be a gendered institution where gender inequalities are manifested and reinforced (Persson, 2023). Deconstructing the discriminatory structure and culture present within all levels of baseball is necessary to overcoming the gendered division in the sport, and increasing the prevalence of women and gender diverse leaders can reshape narratives surrounding inclusion in the sport (Travers & Berdahl, 2022).

While Pavlidis (2018) discussed the importance of moving beyond making space for girls and women in sport, CGB worked to create a structure and pathways where girls and women feel safe, valued, and were able to lead. Specifically, Marra (2015) spoke of the importance of (a) self-organization: recognizing that individuals and groups need to have the capacity to engage in programming and (b) embeddedness: the role of relationships in generating trust and sustaining desired behaviors in the contextual environment when it comes to evaluating programs related to gender equity (Marra, 2015). Based on the study findings, CGB seemed to have the internal capacity to support gender equity in programming through quality relationships, which together, fostered empowerment and contributed to shifts in gendered norms within baseball. Such findings contradict findings from Jeanes et al. (2021) who explored the gendered complexities and norms of a community-based football and net club that was originally a men’s club that later expanded its programming to include women’s teams. Within Jeanes et al.’s work, the men at the club perceived the club’s expansion to foster an inclusive and friendly environment, the women athletes still perceived gender hierarchies to be present which disrupted their sense of belonging within the club.

Despite this, some junior coaches still experienced gendered resistance in their role. This finding illustrates the potential of intentionally structured girls-only programming in supporting social changes at localized and relational levels, even while broader structural inequalities still exist. Drawing on a feminist perspective, Shaw and Frisby (2006) argued that changes contributing to gender equity in sport can be uneven across organizations and are often restricted by structural and cultural conditions. As such, gender equity initiatives at organizational and relational levels cannot be understood in isolation, as they exist within broader systems of power that shape and limit possibilities for change. Participants in this study perceived their involvement in CGB to create shifts in a traditionally men-dominated sport by creating opportunities for sport continuation and exposure to women mentorship. At the same, some junior coaches experienced their authority being questioned by men family members of the youth they coached. These findings are similar to previous literature on how women community sport coaches often have to prove their worth to men coaches, players, and parents (Hoye et al., 2025). Similarly, in a study from Stone et al. (2024), women in sport leadership positions frequently expressed being met with combative behavior from men colleagues and coaches despite succeeding in their positions. While increasing women’s representation in leadership positions is important for modeling sport continuation and normalizing women’s involvement in sport, it is crucial to acknowledge that there are still systemic barriers upheld that restrict widespread equitable practice.

This research provided an enhanced understanding of how valuable exposure to women and girl-identifying peer mentors can be, as many participants perceived this opportunity to be a crucial factor in reshaping gendered narratives of girls in baseball, and sport more generally. Prior to being involved in CGB, many participants recalled rarely or never having a woman mentor in baseball. For several participants, seeing women in leadership positions reinforced the idea that girls belong in sport and motivated them to continue their involvement in baseball. Elliott et al. (2020) explored girl athletes’ participation and retention in football and concluded that several girls decided to participate in the sport because they found inspiration and a sense of belonging through identifying with women role models. From the same study, many girls shared that they were motivated to participate in football so they could join a ‘sisterhood’ that would challenge societal and cultural perceptions of girls in sports traditionally dominated by men. Similarly, providing girls with a safe space with access to women mentors not only challenged restrictive gender roles, but also prompted the development of new norms in the community that encouraged girls’ agency and personal development (Collumbien et al., 2019). Moreover, findings from this study reinforce Tjønndal’s (2019) research whereby having women coaches aided with feelings of safety, trust, and belongingness. The increased representation of women mentors in CGB motivated participants to continue playing baseball, and for some junior coaches, it inspired them to be part of changing the narrative in baseball. These findings reinforce existing evidence that identified mentorship as a key factor in advancing women in leadership positions and resisting gendered norms in sport (LaVoi et al., 2019), especially in those typically dominated by men (Figueroa & Roper, 2023).

This study also offers a new perspective on the value of inclusive and safe sport programs for girl-identifying youth. The girls-only environment within the organization was described as a sport space where participants felt safe, supported, and respected, which facilitated social connection, empowerment, and personal growth. Several participants spoke about how the girls-only environment made them feel like part of a community based on the emphasis on relationship building and enjoyment. These findings echo previous studies that have identified enjoyment as a crucial factor in maintaining girls’ retention in sport (Litchfield & Elliott, 2021). The inclusive and supportive environment at CGB made participants feel safe making mistakes and more comfortable expressing themselves. This study provided a nuanced understanding of how establishing girls’ inclusion in sport is not simply achieved by ‘allowing’ girls to participate in sport but rather creating or transforming sport spaces that actively dismantle cultural norms and encourage feelings of belonging (Timperley & Phillips, 2021).

The safe, supportive nature of CGB and the unique opportunities it provided contributed to participants personal growth and positive developmental outcomes, including confidence, competence, and leadership. Many junior coaches expressed feelings of enjoyment and accomplishment when providing youth players with a safe space to express themselves and learn life skills. These findings reinforce existing evidence suggesting that intentional leadership opportunities and pathways (i.e., junior coach) can create mutually beneficial opportunities, including supporting personal development, relatability, and enjoyment in sport (Shaikh & Forneris, 2018). In both sport and non-sport contexts, offering opportunities to engage in leadership training and/or programming have been effective in developing positive outcomes in youth, including confidence, social awareness, and personal responsibility (Puxley & Chapin, 2021; Shaikh et al., 2019).

Being immersed in an environment with girl-identifying peers and women mentors was empowering for participants’ which made them feel competent in their athletic abilities and inspired them to reimagine understandings of gender in sport. Participants shared that being in a girls-only environment made them feel stronger, confident, and powerful. These findings are aligned with previous research demonstrating that girls’ and women’s sport participation can be an act of resistance to gendered norms, especially in men-dominated sports (Ekholm et al., 2019), such as baseball. Fernandez-Lasa et al. (2020) argued that playing men-dominated sports can provide women with opportunities to reject gendered stereotypes which can empower girls and women to reimagine what it means to participate in sport. From a critical feminist standpoint, these findings illustrate how empowering girl-identifying youth and giving them a voice can contribute to their inclusion and belonging in sport (Katsiampoura, 2024). Several junior coaches spoke about how their leadership role not only fostered empowerment in the youth athletes they coached, but also that it made them feel empowered as well, which was a motivating factor to continue coaching. These findings contextualize research from Streetman and Heinrich (2024) that argued that sport participation has the potential to elicit empowerment not only through increasing girls’ self-esteem, but through combating gender stereotypes, promoting leadership, encouraging collective action, and creating structural changes in sport.

Implications

Study findings may have important practical implications for coaches, sport program coordinators, and other interested sport parties. Specifically, findings reveal the potential of community sport spaces in developing girls’ and women’s personal fulfillment, self-esteem, and motivation to continue sport participation, despite experiencing gendered challenges (Timperley & Phillips, 2021). Moreover, given the limited representation of girls and women in leadership positions in baseball, and sport more broadly, these findings highlight the value of creating intentional and visible pathways, such as junior coach programs, to keep girls and women involved in sport. Having women in sport leadership positions is not only valuable for girls and women, but also for boys and men to normalize women’s involvement in sport and contribute to shifts in sport culture. Increasing the presence of women sport leaders, who can become role models, offer social support, and advocate for girls and women, are necessary to disrupt gendered power dynamics and increase gender equity (Timperley & Phillips, 2021).

These findings, and the associated CGB structure, can inform the development of more equity-driven, gender inclusive guidelines for sport organizations to cultivate environments that foster girls’ and women’s belonging in sport. This could include creating or re-designing existing programs and facilities to include safe spaces for girls to access sport and providing equal opportunities for girls to advance within mixed-gendered sport organizations. Moreover, while CGB was a positive and valuable environment for participants to develop fundamental baseball skills, limited opportunities were available to play at the competitive level. This study supports the value in creating more competitive girls-only opportunities in baseball, as well as other men-dominated sports, as providing girls with a safe and inclusive environment may increase their retention in sport and facilitate positive outcomes. Additionally, the insights from this study can be used to inform educational and training materials for coaches, parents, and other community sport parties on encouraging gender-inclusive practices. Increasing awareness on topics including gender bias and inclusive language may be useful in disrupting gendered power dynamics within sport. Lastly, this study may inform new ways to measure and understand the effectiveness of inclusion initiatives in sport (Timperley & Phillips, 2021). Given that allowing girls and women space to participate in sport does not necessarily equate to their feelings of belonging (Pavlidis, 2018), it may be valuable to focus on how sport programs can foster belonging, sense of community, and empowerment to make girls and women ‘feel’ included in sport.

Finally, this study has methodological implications about the use of personal meaning maps as a source of data. While not a main purpose of the study, engaging in this process was well-received by participants, as it encouraged meaningful self-reflection and increased their enjoyment in the research process. When discussing the process of completing their maps, participants shared statements including, “I feel like I’m doing something productive,” “I was able to express myself,” “It made me think about my past experiences which was nice to remember,” and “I wish we could do something like this every day… I’m really having fun.” While youth are often the focus of research studies, their voices and perspectives are not always amplified (Stride et al., 2022). Incorporating PMMs into youth-focused (and specifically with girls and gender diverse youth) research in sport and physical activity can offer a creative, hands-on approach that reinforces youth as agents of knowledge and centers their perspectives, aligning with the critical feminist standpoint of empowering marginalized voices.

Limitations and Future Directions

Study limitations must be acknowledged to provide a foundation for the direction of future research. The current study produced novel contributions by exploring girls’ experiences within a girls-only baseball environment, a sport under-researched in connection to girls and women. Future studies should not only aim to explore gendered experiences within baseball, but also address the limited work done on gendered sport spaces more generally as gendered power dynamics and ideals are aspects that permeate throughout all sport. While this organization is a nationally-reaching organization, participants were involved in programming from one major city in Ontario. As such, future research is needed to understand participants’ experiences within CGB nationally. Moreover, while all youth participants recalled very positive experiences at CGB and felt supported, there were some junior coaches that experienced pushback from men family members of the youth they coached. Future research could explore how youth and their women coaches perceive gendered dynamics differently, which could provide insight into the disconnect between youth and junior coaches’ experiences. Additionally, as all participants in our study self-identified as cis-gender; however, some participants acknowledged the fluid nature of gender by indicating “any gender can play baseball.” As such, future research could benefit from examining how gender is conceptualized by youth in through traditionally men-dominated sport spaces, as exploring these perspectives and conceptualizations can provide critical insight to how heteronormative gendered norms affect youth experiences. Additionally, in exploring girls’ gendered experiences, participants spoke of growth and development, including confidence and leadership. Future research is needed to explore the role of girls-only or women-led environments in shaping youth athletes’ psychosocial development. Finally, although this study gathered data at two timepoints and relied on recall of participation over many years, future research would benefit greatly from longitudinal qualitative research that continues to center participant voices, such as the use of digital storytelling or timelining that explore participants’ social worlds and lived realities over time.