Iron Moms: Toward an Endurance Sport Identity
ISBN: 978-1-80262-994-1, eISBN: 978-1-80262-993-4
Publication date: 14 December 2023
Abstract
This chapter focuses on a population that I call iron moms: women who negotiate work, family, and endurance sport identities. This research sheds light on how mothers with families, full-time jobs, and other responsibilities fit a high level of endurance training into their lives. Looking at endurance sport through the lens of gender and parenthood helps uncover the unique complexities that iron moms face juggling their multiple identities. Included is an assessment of how iron moms manage their status on the athletic visibility continuum as a process associated with identity construction and maintenance. Based on an analysis of in-depth interviews with 20 active iron mom competitors and textual analysis of triathlon blog postings, this work uncovers the details of how these women attempt to find satisfaction in multiple areas of their lives. This chapter suggests that navigating one's status on the athletic visibility continuum in addition to navigating the complex web of dominant social discourses surrounding motherhood play a critical role in shaping how women craft their existence as an iron mom. Findings stress the value of “me time,” the pervasiveness of “mom guilt,” and the importance of reframing dominant discourses about motherhood.
Keywords
Citation
Cohen, D.T. (2023), "Iron Moms: Toward an Endurance Sport Identity", Ortiz, S.M. (Ed.) Family and Sport (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 19), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 107-121. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420230000019008
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024 Diana Tracy Cohen. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited