“‘What’s acceptable’: infrastructure, sexism, and the retention of women in university sport

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the structures and practices of university sport and their influence on women’s participation within the institution. Grounded in the historical-dialectical materialist method, we administered an online questionnaire to 19 students affiliated with six student athletic associations (“atléticas”), organizing the data into thematic categories. The results indicate infrastructure constraints, the absence of specific policies, and the devaluation of sporting practice—especially for female students—combined with the overload of care work and sexist practices that naturalize gender hierarchies. We conclude that mere encouragement rhetoric, disconnected from budgeting, maintenance, and protection/safeguarding protocols, results in vague inclusion measures. We recommend affirmative policies, greater representation of women in decision-making bodies, and verifiable material changes, as well as comparative studies across other higher education institutions (HEIs), so that sport can fulfill a formative, critical, and emancipatory role in academic life.