Research on Self -employment and Gender Equality of Female Athletes in Heavy Competitive Sports

Self-empowerment and gender equality serve as effective approaches for female athletes in heavy competition sports to resolve gender role conflicts. Employing a combined methodology of digital ethnography and qualitative analysis, this study examines the inherent logic, conflicting dilemmas, and developmental pathways in the construction of gender roles among female athletes. The research indicates that the internal logic of gender role construction primarily involves two aspects: firstly, an implicit resistance through adopting a“masculinized” image to attain physical empowerment, and secondly, a gender blindness in self-reinvention based on “masculinized” standards. The main dilemma arises from the role conflict between the realization of “female strength” and societal expectations of “feminine beauty”. Based on these findings, pathways to resolve the gender role conflict related to the “masculinized” image of female athletes in strength and combat sports are proposed: promoting a shift from “gender equality” to “self-empowerment” among these athletes; advancing the “degenderization” of sports to alleviate rigid perceptions of athletic disciplines; and breaking down biological gender stereotypes to open up new perspectives in “cyberfeminism”.