Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis.  Permission is given for 
a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and 
private study only.  The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without 
the permission of the Author. 
 



 

 

 

“Oh yeah, I’m a skateboarder” 

 

 

Exploring how girls in Auckland become members 

of the skate community 

 

 

 

 

 

A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the  

requirements for the degree of 

Master of Health Science  

In 

Environmental Health 

 

at Massey University, New Zealand 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacquelyn Anne Collins 

 

2021 

 

  



 

 

ii 

 

Abstract 

 

 

 

Youth inactivity is a global concern, and girls are a focus of many interventions 

because traditional opportunities to engage in sport do not appear to meet their 

needs. Girls’ opportunities to be active are affected by a complex network of socio-

cultural factors including gender role socialisation, objectification, sexism, and the 

male coding of many sports and physical activities. This thesis presents research 

based on hermeneutic phenomenological principles that explores the lived 

experiences of female skateboarders in Auckland, New Zealand. The multifaceted 

study focuses on novice female skateboarders and Girls Skate NZ, the girls-only 

skate school that has brought many girls into the skate community since 2018. 

Drawing on a focus group with skateboarding girls, interviews with the girls’ 

parents, interviews with adult skateboarders, and quantitative skate park 

observations, the study investigates what it is like for girls to enter the male-

dominated world of skateboarding. The study identified impeding factors to girls’ 

skateboarding, but also that Girls Skate NZ supports girls to overcome barriers to 

participation and increases their confidence on and off the skate park. Parents 

reported that learning to skate has enhanced their daughters’ resilience and given 

them opportunities to embrace alternative forms of femininity. The study 

participants reported that members of the skate community at the skate parks used 

by study participants have become increasingly accepting of female 

skateboarders. Although gendered barriers still exist that make it more challenging 

for girls to become skateboarders, the skate park experiences of the girls 

suggested that they had not experienced deliberate marginalisation from male 

skateboarders. Girls Skate NZ was shown to successfully provide opportunities for 

autonomy and competence-building in a supportive, female-friendly environment, 

which provides a useful blueprint for future initiatives intended to scaffold girls into 

male-dominated sports. 

 

Key words: skateboarding; gender; female skateboarding; gender role socialisation; gender 

stereotypes 

 



 

 

iii 

 

Acknowledgements 

 

 

Several people have played a crucial role in supporting me as I completed my 

research and wrote this thesis, and I’d like to thank and acknowledge them.  

 

Firstly, my husband, Tristan, who has once again demonstrated that he’s the 

kindest and cleverest person alive. His care, support, wisdom, and guidance 

enabled me to tackle what sometimes felt like an impossible task. Thank you also 

to Joseph and Harriet for being unfailingly loving and tolerant, even when Mummy 

was really busy and tired. 

 

Many thanks to my family for their support and encouragement, and in particular 

to my parents for all of their kindnesses, and for hosting their stressed-out daughter 

for a week of study leave at a crucial point in the writing process.  

 

I would like to thank Professor Karen Witten and Dr Octavia Calder-Dawe for jointly 

supervising me through an incredibly challenging 18 months of lockdowns and 

disruption. They encouraged me to expand the scope of my research and helped 

me to navigate my way through the challenging thesis-writing process with their 

thoughtful critiques and feedback.  

 

Thanks is also due to my nephew, Charlie Myer, who transcribed a vast amount 

of material for me, and my friend Kerry Blackshaw, who did a magnificent job of 

proofreading my final draft. Thank you also to my manager, Peter Caccioppoli, for 

his support and good cheer while I was juggling a lot of work- and study-related 

balls. 

 

Finally, a huge thank you to Amber Clyde, who is a true coach and the reason why 

this research exists, and to all my study participants for so generously sharing their 

stories with me. 

  

  



 

 

iv 

 

Table of Contents 

 

 

Abstract ii 

Acknowledgements iii 

Table of Contents iv 

List of Figures x 

List of Tables xi 

Chapter 1: Introduction 1 

1.1 The international trend of youth inactivity 1 

1.2 Inactive girls 1 

1.3 The New Zealand context 2 

1.4 The benefits of being active 3 

1.5 Problematising active girls 6 

1.6 Research focus 8 

1.7 Research questions 10 

1.8 The significance of the research 11 

1.9 Thesis structure 12 

Chapter 2: Case Study 14 

2.1 The history of Girls Skate NZ 14 

2.2 Occupying skate parks for girls-only lessons 14 

2.3 The Girls Skate NZ approach 16 



 

 

v 

 

2.4 Expanding the reach of Girls Skate NZ 16 

2.5 Raising the profile of female skateboarding 18 

2.6 The value of Girls Skate NZ as a case study 18 

Chapter 3: Literature Review 19 

3.1 Conducting the literature review 19 

3.2 Studies of female skateboarding 20 

3.3 Factors that influence girls being active 21 

3.4 Supporting girls to be active 41 

3.5 Gaps in the existing research 47 

Chapter 4: Methodology 49 

4.1 Research questions 49 

4.2 Methodology 50 

4.3 Skate park observations 54 

4.4 Key informant interviews 57 

4.5 Focus group session and parent interviews 59 

4.6 Data analysis 62 

4.7 Data interpretation 66 

4.8 Reflexivity 68 

Chapter 5: Skate Park Observations 70 

5.1 Quantitative study 70 

5.2 The gender balance of skate park use 70 



 

 

vi 

 

5.3 Skateboarders at the study sites 71 

5.4 Activities at the study sites 72 

5.5 Observation of study subjects 73 

5.6 Conclusion 74 

Chapter 6: Findings and Discussion 75 

6.1 Reasons to skate 76 

6.2 Becoming a skateboarder 83 

6.3 Participating in the skate community 91 

6.4 Girls Skate NZ: supporting girls to learn to skate 105 

Chapter 7: Conclusion 119 

7.1 Addressing the research questions 119 

7.2 Research review 120 

7.3 Recommendations 121 

7.4 Future research opportunities 122 

References 123 

Appendices  

 Appendix 1: Participant paperwork 136 

 Appendix 2: Interview and focus group schedules 153 

 Appendix 3: Skate park observation schedule 159 

 Appendix 4: Transcriber confidentiality agreement 160 

 Appendix 5: Developmental Theory of Embodiment 162 

 Appendix 6: Skate park observation data 163 



 

 

vii 

 

List of Figures  

Figure 1: Skate park locations 56 

List of Tables  

Table 1: Summary of previous studies of female skateboarders 21 

Table 2: Study themes and sub-themes 66 

Table 3: Gender balance of study subjects 70 

Table 4: Gender balance of skateboarders in the study 71 

Table 5: Skateboarders in the context of all skate park users 71 

Table 6: Activities at study sites 72 

Table 7: Female skateboarders compared with male scooterers 72 

Table 8: Study participants 76 

 

 



 

 

1 

 

Chapter 1: Introduction 

 

 

1.1 The international trend of youth inactivity 

 

Across the developed world there is widespread concern that young people are 

insufficiently active, and that girls are less active than boys. In the United 

Kingdom the Chief Medical Officer recommended that children and young 

people engage in at least one hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity 

every day, ideally for several hours daily (Youth Sports Trust, 2018). However, 

research indicated that only 32% of boys and 24% of girls regularly achieve 

these recommended levels, and that activity levels lessen from childhood to 

adolescence (Edwardson, Gorely, Musson, Duncombe, & Sandford, 2014). In 

the United States of America fewer than 50% of young people achieve a 

mininum of 60 minutes of ‘at least’ moderate aerobic activity each day, as well 

as muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening activities – the activity goal 

set by the US Center for Disease Control (The Tucker Center, 2018).  Some 

countries’ youth activity recommendations may appear unrealistic in the context 

of young people’s busy lives, but this notwithstanding, available data suggests 

that many countries are right to be worried about youth inactivity. 

 

1.2 Inactive girls 

 

Youth inactivity is a gendered problem. An assessment of female activity levels 

across 100 countries identified that 95 per cent of women and girls do not meet 

a recommended target of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity each day 

(Corr, McSharry, & Murtag, 2019).  Scandinavian, British, Irish, Canadian, 

American, and Australian studies have all reported that girls are generally less 

active than boys, engage in fewer physical activities, and exercise less often 

(for example, Slater & Tiggemann, 2011; Women’s Sport and Fitness 

Foundation, 2012; Eime et al., 2015; Lauderdale, Yli-Piipari, Irwin, & Layne, 

2015; O’Connor, McCormack, Robinson, & O’Rourke, 2017). Past studies of 

physical activity levels have typically focused only on recreational physical 

activity and have reported that boys are more active because they find more 



 

 

2 

 

opportunities for sport and recreation: they play more team sports, engage in 

active free play in open spaces, and use school breaks and other discretionary 

time periods to be active (Beighle, Morgan, Le Masurier, & Pangrazi, 2006; 

Leversen, Torsheim, & Samdal, 2012; Watson, Eliott, & Mehta, 2015). Boys 

also tend to dominate school PE classes because of their competitiveness, 

dominance of physical PE space, and superior physical skills, all of which 

alienate many girls and can contribute to early restrictive beliefs that sport and 

physical activity is mainly for boys (Azzarito, Solmon, & Harrison Jr, 2006). This 

reduced engagement in school PE can have lasting consequences for girls, 

reducing their opportunities to develop the fundamental physical literacy 

needed to engage effectively in sport and active recreation going forward, which 

further reinforces gendered perceptions that girls are physically less able to 

participate (Klomsten, Marsh, & Skaalvik, 2005; Azzarito et al., 2006). 

 

1.3 The New Zealand context 

 

Although most young people in Aotearoa New Zealand are active to some 

extent each week, achieving recommended activity levels varies by age, 

ethnicity, and gender (Aktive, 2018). The trend of youth inactivity in New 

Zealand can be tracked for at least 30 years and indicates a decline in activity 

levels over the past two decades. Data from the late 1990s showed that 74% 

of boys and 64% of girls regularly achieved the recommendations at that time 

of at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity on most days of the week, 

(Hamlin & Ross, 2005). However, more recent data indicated that only 53% of 

boys and 41% of girls aged 15 to 17 years old meet current recommended 

physical activity guidelines of at least an hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical 

activity each day (Sport New Zealand, 2018a).  

 

Changing study parameters and physical activity target amounts make it 

challenging to directly compare data over time, but the downward trend for 

youth activity levels appears clear, and also demonstrates the gendered 

difference in activity levels observed internationally. The 2018 Active New 

Zealand Survey further emphasised this gendered difference, with 53% of 

males and only 24% of females being assessed as sufficiently active (Smith et 

al., 2018). Some past research focused on organised sport and overlooked 



 

 

3 

 

other ways to be active, such as walking to school or participating in dance 

classes, and this may have distorted findings in favour of male-dominated 

activities. However, in the Sport New Zealand 2011 Young People’s Survey 

participants chose from a broad range of play, recreation, and sport activities 

and indicated how often they’d engaged in them over the previous year, and 

despite this wider definition of ‘being active’, the findings confirmed that boys 

are more active than girls (Sport New Zealand, 2012). Ongoing concerns about 

female inactivity have resulted in the New Zealand government releasing its 

2018 Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation Strategy and increased 

funding to support initiatives to encourage girls to be active (Sport New 

Zealand, 2018b).  

 

1.4 The benefits of being active 

 

The phenomenon of inactive young people is a continued topic of research and 

discussion because being active has significant physical, mental, and 

emotional health benefits (Tucker Center, 2018). Supporting young people to 

access these benefits also brings an inherent reduction in the manifold 

disadvantages caused by being insufficiently active.  

 

1.4.1 Summarising the benefits 

 

Being physically active can support good physical health by reducing the risk 

of developing chronic diseases like diabetes and acute diseases like cancer, 

and by strengthening bone density and reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Active 

people are more likely to maintain good blood pressure and a healthy weight, 

and these health benefits accrue from as early as young childhood (Fredrickson 

& Harrison, 2005; Vu, Murrie, Gonzalez, & Jobe, 2006; Slater & Tiggemann, 

2010; Tucker Center, 2018). Active children are also more likely to grow up 

understanding the lifestyle choices that support good health (Svender, Larrson, 

& Redelius, 2012; Eime et al., 2015; Tucker Center, 2018). Being active as a 

child boosts physical literacy and the development of motor skill competencies 

and eye-hand coordination, and these factors increase the likelihood that 

people will enjoy being active and thus choose to prioritise it (Cherney & 

London, 2006; Tucker Center, 2018). Sport New Zealand (2019) has also noted 



 

 

4 

 

a positive correlation between being physically active and achieving various 

wellbeing indicators (such as healthy eating and sufficient sleep), all of which 

further promote good physical health.  

 

Direct benefits of being active include a reduced risk of anxiety, depression, 

and susceptibility to stress, and increased capacity to manage mental health 

conditions (Cooky & McDonald, 2005; Sport New Zealand, 2018b; Tucker 

Center, 2018). Indirect benefits include increased self-determination and 

confidence, a strengthened positive self-perception and sense of identity, and 

a greater sense of empathy, and more defined moral identity (Bailey, Wellard, 

& Dismore, 2005; Fredrickson & Harrison, 2005; Thorpe & Chawanksy, 2016; 

Tucker Center, 2018). The mental health benefits that accrue from being 

physically active are stronger for girls than for boys, particularly in the short term 

(Bailey et al., 2005).  

 

Social benefits accrue from regular physical activity because most sport and 

active recreation involves contact with other participants, in both team and 

individual sports and activities. This enables young people to make new friends 

and broaden social networks, building their interpersonal skills (Murray & 

Howat, 2009; Eime et al., 2015; Tucker Center, 2018). Young people may also 

develop a community identity through physical activity, either by becoming part 

of a team or by aligning themselves with a sub-culture that surrounds a 

particular sport or activity (Svender et al., 2012; Sport New Zealand, 2018b; 

Tucker Center, 2018). Participating in team sports can nurture conflict 

management and decision-making skills, and an increased understanding of 

group dynamics (Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, 2012; Tucker Center, 

2018). These benefits can also accrue to participants of individual sports if 

taking part requires the shared use of a space. Skate parks are an example of 

this, and constant verbal and non-verbal communication between participants 

helps to prevent accidents and support multiple users to share a space 

effectively. 

 

Boys may draw greater social and intrinsic benefits from participating in 

organised sport and recreation activities. Boys typically enjoy testing and 

improving their physical competence, including in sports-based activities with a 



 

 

5 

 

perceived element of ‘fairness’ – in other words, with agreed rules, and often 

with competitive elements (Slater & Tiggemann, 2010; Youth Sports Trust, 

2018). Sport participation can support boys’ sense of masculinity and give them 

a socially acceptable opportunity to have fun with their friends, particularly as 

older adolescents (Slater & Tiggemann, 2010). Many girls are raised to 

prioritise friendships and social relationships, and Messner (1990) suggested 

that competitive sport dynamics may potentially threaten social relationships. 

Murray and Howat’s (2009) study of adult female rugby players emphasised the 

value of social interaction as a motivator to be active, and Slater and 

Tiggemann (2010) suggested that enhancing the sociable elements of sport 

could increase its appeal to girls.  

 

Evidence also suggests that being active may improve cognitive performance. 

The Tucker Center (2018) highlighted cognitive functioning, intellectual health, 

and improved critical thinking abilities as benefits of physical activity, and 

Fredrickson and Harrison (2005) claimed that vigorous physical activity may 

materially change brain structure and boost cognitive performance. Other 

contextual factors, including parental involvement, the stability and healthiness 

of home environments, and access to good nutrition and sufficient rest, also 

influence young people’s cognitive development.   

 

1.4.2 The gendering of ‘risky behaviour’ 

 

Research suggests that physically active young people are less likely to engage 

in risky behaviour such as substance abuse, truancy, and antisocial acts (Sport 

New Zealand, 2018b; Tucker Center, 2018). Analysis of this claim reveals the 

highly gendered nature of identifying ‘risky behaviour’. Studies linking low 

physical activity levels and risky behaviour often portray girls as particularly 

susceptible to engaging in behaviour described by researchers as risky. The 

behaviour of boys rarely attracts similar critiques.  

 

The Tucker Centre (2018) reported that girls who play team sports begin sexual 

activity at a later age, have fewer sexual partners, and demonstrate a reduced 

likelihood of substance abuse. This research constructs teenage girls’ sexual 

activity as ‘risky behaviour’ and equates it to substance abuse, signaling the 



 

 

6 

 

enduring stigma of teenage girls as sexually active beings, denying their 

agency, and challenging their right to feel and express physical desire. Cooky 

and McDonald (2005) claimed that physically active girls have reduced risk of 

abuse from male partners, and a lower likelihood of unwanted pregnancies. 

While a correlation with reduced risk of abuse is obviously a positive finding, 

the repeated linkage of ‘reduced sexual activity’ and ‘reduced risk of teenage 

pregnancy’ represents a strongly heteronormative attitude towards teenage 

sexual activity. 

 

Researchers who align girls’ sexual behaviour with their physical activity levels 

suggest a dichotomy of ‘good’ sporty girls who aren’t sexually active and ‘bad’ 

girls who are physically inactive but sexually active. This demonises normal 

sexual behaviour and represents a patriarchal construct that seeks to control 

and police women’s behaviour from young adulthood. These issues are 

complex and it seems difficult to conclude definitively that being physically 

active necessarily results in girls avoiding ‘risky behaviour’. Questions arise 

about whether the research findings represent correlation or causation, and The 

Tucker Centre (2018) acknowledged that further research is required to explore 

how participation in organised physical activity influences broader behavioural 

choices. Notwithstanding, future research would be strengthened if the 

experiences of women and girls were centred in discussions regarding the 

benefits of girls being physically active, and if research was designed and 

analysed from a feminist perspective to avoid explicitly or inadvertently 

describing normal behaviour as deviant. There is merit in the general assertion 

that making healthy choices in one area of life – such as being active – may 

support the likelihood of making similarly healthy choices in other areas of life, 

but care should be taken that, for girls, the idea of ‘healthy choices’ does not 

present a patriarchal construct.  

 

1.5 Problematising inactive girls 

 

1.5.1 Framing girls’ inactivity 

 

It is unsurprising that many studies have focused on girls’ lower activity levels, 

given the benefits of being active and the health risks associated with a 



 

 

7 

 

sedentary lifestyle. Recent research acknowledges that framing the issue as 

one of personal choice or poor decision-making problematises girls and implies 

that the solution lies in motivating individual girls to make better decisions about 

being active (Bäckström & Nairn, 2018). Rather, it acknowledges the complex 

network of factors that influences girls’ choices to be active and advocates that 

studies should reflect the broader context in which girls are less active than 

boys (Azzarito et al., 2006; Taverno Ross, Dowda, Beets, & Pate, 2013). For 

example, Svender et al. (2012) has argued that it is unhelpful to link adolescent 

girls’ susceptibility to obesity and eating disorders with a disinterest in being 

active, because inactivity may be an outcome of alienation that restricts 

opportunities to be active.  

 

1.5.2 The impact of gender role socialisation 

 

Inactive girls are a product of the prevailing socio-cultural environment, which 

systematically undermines girls’ agency and participation. Physical activity is 

one of many arenas in which girls face considerable challenges. The barriers 

to girls being active are systemic and cannot be ‘solved’ easily. Gender role 

socialisation lies at heart these barriers, disempowering girls and influencing 

their self-perceptions, how the world perceives them, and their likelihood of 

being active (Vu et al., 2006; Paechter & Clark, 2007; Leversen, et al., 2012; 

Taverno Ross et al., 2013). However, being active can also address many 

barriers faced by girls. Garrett (2004) claimed that being physically active helps 

girls to construct a version of femininity that challenges gender norms. As the 

literature review in chapter 3 will discuss, gender role socialisation and gender 

stereotypes underpin many of the barriers that limit girls’ opportunities to be 

active. Supporting girls to reject those stereotypes may be a transformative way 

to improve their mental health.  

 

1.5.3 The impact of adolescence 

 

Piran’s (2017) Developmental Theory of Embodiment is a theoretical framework 

that explores the interrelationships between bodily experience and wellbeing. It 

presents a series of dimensions described as ‘Experiences of Embodiment’, 

each with two poles that represent positive and negative experiences. Piran’s 



 

 

8 

 

work describes how younger girls enjoy significant physical and mental 

freedom, only to be subject to physical and mental ‘corsets’ as they grow older 

and are put under increased pressure to conform to gender stereotypes (Piran, 

2017).  

 

Adolescence is regarded as the stage at which girls’ activity levels fall behind 

those of boys. In addition to reduced participation in organised sport, girls also 

engage in less informal play activity from the age of 12 onwards (Sport New 

Zealand, 2018c). However, girls in New Zealand and elsewhere become less 

active than boys before adolescence (Youth Sports Trust, 2018; Sport  New 

Zealand, 2019). This is consistent with Piran’s finding that girls start feeling 

pressure to conform to gender stereotypes and be less playful and active from 

nine years old (Piran, 2017). Drawing on this evidence, programmes intended 

to encourage girls to be more active should expand to include younger girls, 

rather than continuing to focus primarily on adolescents. 

 

1.6 Research focus 

 

1.6.1 Underpinning my research with my values  

 

My decision to pursue research that addresses girls’ access to physical activity 

is values-driven. Feminism is an integral dimension of my identity. I embrace 

and express feminist beliefs and engage in feminist discourse, and my feminist 

perspective influences how I construct my identity as a spouse, parent, child, 

aunt, friend, researcher, employee, and colleague. I have also served as a 

committee member for the feminist organisation Women in Urbanism Aotearoa.  

 

My feminist identity has influenced my work as an Activation Advisor at 

Auckland Council, specialising in the development of programmes and 

initiatives to support young people to be more active. Young women are one of 

my target populations, largely in response to the Sport New Zealand research 

that identifies the ongoing need to better support women and girls to be more 

active.  

 

  



 

 

9 

 

1.6.2 My previous feminist research 

 

This thesis is my third study regarding factors that influence girls’ opportunities 

to be playful and active. In late 2017 I contributed to Designing Walkable Future 

Neighbourhoods: Considering Diversity by producing a synthesised literature 

review addressing access to play in neighbourhoods (Austin, Collins, Scanlen, 

& Smith, 2019). I concluded that boys enjoy far greater independent mobility 

and therefore have more opportunities to engage in free play (ibid). This work 

led me to further explore the gender balance of public play space in my Honours 

dissertation: No girls allowed? A study of access to public play space in 

Auckland, New Zealand (Collins, 2018). 

 

My dissertation research concluded that although public playgrounds are used 

by both boys and girls, boys enjoy greater overall access to public play and 

recreation spaces in Auckland (Collins, 2018). The balance is tipped in boys’ 

favour because children who outgrow playgrounds have limited access to public 

recreation spaces, and skate parks are one of the few leisure facilities provided. 

My observations demonstrated that skate parks were almost exclusively used 

by boys, contributing to boys outnumbering girls in play and recreation spaces. 

My observations indicated that skate parks are gendered spaces. I chose to 

learn more about skateboarding to better understand whether what I had 

observed was an accurate assessment of this physical activity. I was also eager 

to learn how to enhance opportunities for girls to become skateboarders. 

 

1.6.3 Using female skateboarding as a case study 

 

Skateboarding began in late 1950s and is described as an ‘alternative’ or action 

sport (although many skateboarders prefer to think of it as art instead of sport), 

seen as a physically expressive activity that is autonomous, anti-competitive, 

sociable, and intrinsically satisfying, and provides opportunities for universal 

participation (Donnelly, 2008; Yochim, 2010; Stormeon, Urke, Tjomsland, 

Wold, & Diseth, 2016; Glenny & Mull, 2018). Skateboarding was a male-

dominated activity from its outset, and although girls participated more 

extensively in its early days, when freestyle skateboarding on flat surfaces 

allowed for artistic aerobatic elements to be incorporated, the emphasis shifted 



 

 

10 

 

to a more masculine style of participation from the late 1970s onwards, first with 

bowl skateboarding in empty swimming pools, and later with transgressive 

street skateboarding and the development of aggressive skate park styles 

(Yochim, 2010).  

 

Skate culture presents a version of masculinity that differs from the hegemonic 

ideal, but research exploring the experiences of skateboarding girls and women 

is rife with descriptions of male participants refusing to take them seriously, 

deriding their abilities, using sexist names that minimise their value, and treating 

them as intruders in what are regarded as the exclusively male spaces of skate 

parks (Pomerantz, Currie, & Kelly, 2004; Kelly, Pomerantz, & Currie, 2005; 

Atencio, Beal, & Wilson, 2009; MacKay, 2016). The specific challenges faced 

by female skateboarders will be discussed further in the literature review in 

chapter 3. 

 

1.6.4 Girls Skate NZ 

 

After highlighting the gendered use of skate parks in my dissertation I was 

introduced to Amber Clyde, who established Girls Skate NZ, a girls-only skate 

school that delivers lessons in skate parks and aims to empower girls to 

become skateboarders who feel comfortable using these spaces. The chapter 

2 case study presents more detail about Girls Skate NZ and explains why it has 

been profiled for this study. 

 

1.7 Research questions 

 

This thesis uses female skateboarding to represent the broader dynamics of 

barriers and enablers that affect girls’ ability to be active. It addresses the 

following research questions: 

 

• What are the experiences of novice female skateboarders in Auckland? 

• How does Girls Skate NZ support girls to become skateboarders? 

 

Guided by the philosophy of hermeneutic phenomenology, I interviewed three 

female adult skateboarders and three male adult skateboarders, to increase my 



 

 

11 

 

understanding of the experiences of skateboarding participants. I also held a 

focus group session with six girls who currently skate with Girls Skate NZ, to 

learn about their experiences as novice skateboarders. To obtain further 

context I interviewed the skateboarding girls’ parents, learning about their 

perspectives as ‘invested observers’ who have experienced skate culture and 

witnessed their daughters’ participation through adult eyes. I supplemented my 

interviews and focus group with skate park observations, which quantitatively 

captured the current typical gender balance of skate park use and noted my 

non-participant reflections of how the space was used by study subjects. 

 

1.8 The significance of the research 

 

1.8.1 The value of capturing lived experiences 

 

This study explores the lived experiences of girls who have recently become 

skateboarders, as well as those of adult female skateboarders. By reflecting on 

the barriers they have encountered and overcome, and the enablers that have 

supported their participation, we can gain a richer understanding of the 

conditions that influence whether women and girls can be active. 

 

1.8.2 The value of learning from success stories 

 

Girls Skate NZ is a grassroots organisation that aims to increase girls’ 

participation in a male-dominated physical activity. Although girls remain a 

minority in Auckland’s skateboarding community, Girls Skate NZ has boosted 

female participation. Reflecting on the experiences of Girls Skate NZ students 

and their parents’ perspectives assists in identifying how Girls Skate NZ 

supports girls to become skateboarders.  

 

1.8.3 The value of using research to inform future practice 

 

As a practitioner I seek to be guided by research when designing and delivering 

initiatives and interventions. I contend that some current programmes designed 

to address female inactivity in New Zealand do not reflect the learnings 

available in recent research. Therefore I am motivated to extract lessons from 



 

 

12 

 

research and apply them productively. As well as exploring the specific context 

of girls’ skateboarding in Auckland, this study synthesises and helps to 

disseminate research that discusses the barriers and enablers to girls being 

active, supporting practitioners to design future initiatives that are grounded in 

appropriate theoretical frameworks and informed by robust studies. 

 

1.9 Thesis structure 

 

This thesis contains seven chapters. 

 

Chapter 1 is the introduction. It has discussed the trend of youth inactivity, 

physical inactivity in girls, and the various benefits that can be gained if young 

people are active. It has also explained the context of this study and its broader 

significance, and presented the research questions. 

 

Chapter 2 introduces the case study of Girls Skate NZ. It briefly discusses the 

history, practices, and significance of Girls Skate NZ’s work, and explains why 

it has been used as a case study. 

 

Chapter 3 provides a review of relevant literature. After synthesising the 

findings of several studies that explore the female skate experience, the socio-

cultural factors that influence girls being active are discussed. The chapter 

draws from play, sport, and active recreation research, with a focus on 

skateboarding and other action/adventure sports, and identifies gaps in existing 

literature that justify conducting this research.  

 

Chapter 4 presents the methodology. It discusses the hermeneutic 

phenomenological research approach and the philosophical elements that 

underpin it. It also presents the Developmental Theory of Embodiment as the 

theoretical framework that has been applied when interpreting data from the 

study. Finally, physical data collection and data analysis methods used for the 

study are presented along with reflexive comments and ethical considerations. 

 

Chapter 5 presents the quantitative findings drawn from skate park 

observations. 



 

 

13 

 

 

Chapter 6 presents and discusses four key themes identified across the 

qualitative data: reasons to skate; becoming a skateboarder; participating in the 

skate community; and Girls Skate NZ.  

 

Chapter 7 concludes the thesis by answering the research questions and 

evaluating the methodology, success factors and limitations that have 

influenced the study. Recommendations are presented to address relevant 

issues, and future research opportunities are identified.  

 

 

  



 

 

14 

 

Chapter 2: Case Study 

 

 

This chapter introduces Girls Skate NZ, Auckland’s first girls-only 

skateboarding school. The information is drawn from casual conversations with 

founder Amber Clyde between September 2019 and December 2020, and key 

informant interviews conducted with Amber in early 2020 as part of the study. 

 

2.1 The history of Girls Skate NZ 

 

Amber Clyde founded Girls Skate NZ in 2018, in response to her own 

experiences of intimidation and marginalisation as a young female 

skateboarder. Her goal was to support girls to participate in what she perceived 

to be a male-dominated activity. Although a skate school was already delivering 

mixed gender after-school skateboarding classes across Auckland, it appeared 

that most of the participants were boys. By starting Girls Skate NZ Amber hoped 

that novice skateboarding girls would receive the encouragement and skills 

required to become competent participants. Since beginning Girls Skate NZ 

Amber estimates that she has taught more than 500 girls through the various 

sessions and programmes she has delivered. The success of Girls Skate NZ 

has led Amber to hire other female coaches on a sessional basis. Although 

Girls Skate NZ remains female-focused, Amber also welcomes gender non-

binary and gender non-conforming participants to her classes. 

 

2.2 Occupying skate parks for girls-only lessons 

 

Girls Skate NZ lessons are taught in public skate parks. Skate parks are not 

bookable spaces, so other skate park users are frequently present during Girls 

Skate NZ classes. Amber shares a schedule of weekly classes and invites 

participants to attend. The schedule is a mix of fee-paying classes and regular 

free coaching sessions, which Amber delivers to expand the reach of Girls 

Skate NZ and support the goal of removing barriers that restrict girls’ access to 

skateboarding. The free sessions provide girls and their parents with a low-risk 

opportunity to try skateboarding before making a commitment to pay for 



 

 

15 

 

lessons. Amber further increases the accessibility of her classes for new 

participants by maintaining a supply of skateboards, helmets, and pads, which 

are available to borrow for free during Girls Skate NZ sessions.  

 

Amber’s decision to situate her classes in skate parks was a deliberate attempt 

to exert the right of women and girls to be present in these traditionally male-

dominated spaces. Amber’s own experiences of trying to use skate parks as a 

novice skateboarder were challenging because she was typically the only 

female present, which made her feel intimidated and scrutinised by male 

skateboarders. She reasoned that, by setting up a girls’ skate school and 

delivering her lessons in skate parks, she would be able to help novice female 

skateboarders to feel more confident in the space. Teaching in skate parks also 

represents Amber’s reclaiming of the contested space of skate parks for her 

own participation. By delivering Girls Skate NZ sessions in skate parks she 

significantly increases the number of girls using the space, forcing male skate 

park users to concede space. Because the schedule of Girls Skate NZ classes 

is publicised, male skate park users who do not wish to skate with novice girls 

can choose to avoid certain skate parks during the lessons.   

 

Situating Girls Skate NZ classes in skate parks supports skateboarding girls to 

become part of the skate community. There is a clear etiquette to skate park 

use, and by learning to skate in these spaces Amber’s students abide by the 

mores of skate parks from the outset. Important elements include not cutting off 

other skateboarders and understanding how to take turns (and exert one’s own 

right to a turn) when sharing facilities like skate park bowls. Amber advocates 

that learning these ‘rules’ of skate parks at an early stage can help girls to gain 

confidence as skateboarders.  

 

Although some casual skateboarding classes are delivered at a South Auckland 

skate park by a skate park custodian based there, Girls Skate NZ is the only 

established skate school to focus on skate parks as a location for scheduled 

lessons. The largest skate school in Auckland teaches its male and female 

students in after-school sessions held in school grounds, which provides scope 

for children to learn the fundamental skills of skateboarding, but does not 

provide the lessons in skate etiquette that skate park lessons can facilitate.  



 

 

16 

 

2.3 The Girls Skate NZ approach 

 

Girls Skate NZ’s teaching techniques differ from those used by most 

skateboarding coaches, and may be unique to Amber. She promotes the value 

of physically supporting novice skateboarders by holding their hands as they 

learn to balance, drop over ledges, and drop into bowls. Her approach 

challenges the widely held belief in skate culture that falling and possible injury 

are an unavoidable part of the learning process. Amber’s justification for her 

approach is that it should not be necessary to risk serious injury in order to 

establish the muscle memory that helps students to learn basic skateboarding 

skills and thus feel confident to later attempt the same tricks unaided. After 

starting off with a student by holding their hands, Amber’s approach progresses 

to holding one hand, then to having a hand available to be grabbed by the 

student if necessary, then to having a hand nearby in case the student needs 

to be caught. Throughout the iterative process Amber reassures the student of 

her capacity to complete the trick, and incremental progress is captured on film 

and warmly celebrated. This helps to create a sense of community for Girls 

Skate NZ students, which is further supported by Amber’s habit of celebrating 

the girls’ birthdays and sharing merchandise she’s given by skate shops.  

 

Amber reports that her coaching techniques are frequently derided by other 

skateboarders, who appear to perceive them as a soft way to introduce people 

to what is traditionally seen as a high-risk physical activity. However, she 

maintains that helping girls to build confidence without the risk of serious injury 

helps them to progress far more rapidly than if they were learning through 

unsupported trial and error. 

 

2.4 Expanding the reach of Girls Skate NZ 

 

From 2018 Girls Skate NZ has offered school holiday programmes that take 

groups of girls to several skate parks during a day, providing opportunities for 

concentrated coaching and practice sessions. In late 2019 Amber invested in a 

van to increase her capacity for these programmes. 

 



 

 

17 

 

In 2019 Girls Skate NZ received KiwiSport funding to expand its programme to 

include school-based lessons, but most lessons continued to be delivered in 

skate parks. Amber was appointed as one of Aktive’s HERA ambassadors, 

which meant that Girls Skate NZ was promoted as an example of a successful 

initiative that encourages girls’ participation in sport and active recreation. 

 

Amber also recognised an appetite for novice skateboarding lessons for those 

aged 18 and over. In 2019 she established a programme of Girls Skate NZ 

evening classes in summer months to provide women with the opportunity to 

participate. This appears to be a very rare example of recognising that women 

may want to learn a new sport or physical activity, and require support and 

tuition in order to become participants. 

 

In 2020 Amber’s own schedule of skate park lessons was expanded further 

when Girls Skate NZ became a contractor through Auckland Council’s ‘Out & 

About Auckland’ programme of park-based activations funded on an annual 

basis by individual Local Boards across the city. The Out & About team 

recognised that Girls Skate NZ had developed a market for girls’ skateboarding 

lessons in skate parks. Providing funded Girls Skate NZ sessions enabled Local 

Boards to specifically acknowledge that girls may require targeted programmes 

to encourage them to be more active. The sessions were free for participants, 

with skate equipment supplied by Girls Skate NZ if required. By being part of 

Out & About’s delivery programme, Amber has been able to geographically 

expand Girls Skate NZ delivery into different parts of Auckland, which was one 

of her long term goals.  

 

From the outset Amber has organised girls-only skateboarding competitions, 

as a way of creating opportunities to compete for girls who would otherwise be 

grouped together in the same competitive category at mainstream skate 

competitions (which typically offer age-group categories for male participants, 

but only one category for female competitors). Amber has worked with the skate 

community and skateboarding retailers to attract sponsorship and support for 

her competitions.   

 

  



 

 

18 

 

2.5 Raising the profile of female skateboarding 

 

Amber is well-known in New Zealand’s skateboarding community  because of 

the success of Girls Skate NZ. Her work has attracted widespread mainstream 

media coverage in the form of radio interviews, television interviews and 

segments, and newspaper articles.  

 

Girls Skate NZ maintains a strong social media presence. Classes are 

publicised and filmed content is shared on Facebook and Instagram, and some 

of Amber’s students also upload frequent Instagram content to share their 

skateboarding achievements. Skate media has often been perceived as 

misogynistic and a key contributor of negative attitudes towards female 

skateboarders, and Girls Skate NZ’s social media posts represent an example 

of female skateboarders constructing their own images of participation.  

 

2.6 The value of Girls Skate NZ as a case study 

 

Female skateboarding is a niche activity in New Zealand, and Girls Skate NZ is 

one of a small number of nationwide initiatives intended to boost girls’ 

participation. It is also the best-known female skateboarding school in the 

country, and the only one operating in Auckland. Its growth and popularity 

suggest that the Skate NZ approach is striking a chord with girls who want to 

skate. Its popularity with the girls’ parents also indicates high trust levels.  

 

Research has identified several ‘enablers’ that support girls to be more active, 

and it appears that Girls Skate NZ fulfills some of those conditions. By 

interviewing Amber, as well as girls who have learned through Girls Skate NZ 

and their parents, this study endeavours to capture in more detail what those 

conditions are. Focusing on the factors that make a positive impact on girls’ 

participation in the male-dominated world of skateboarding can help to better 

understand what has contributed to Girls Skate NZ’s success. Learning more 

about the experiences of novice female skateboarders, and about Girls Skate 

NZ’s approach, can help to inform new interventions in other contexts where 

female participants are under-represented. 

   



 

 

19 

 

 

Chapter 3: Literature Review 

 

 

In the past three decades there has been extensive research exploring the 

positive and negative experiences of women and girls in sport and active 

recreation. This literature review presents a discussion structured around a 

series of socio-cultural factors that emerge from that research. It uses previous 

studies of skateboarding and skate culture to illustrate how these socio-cultural 

factors influence female skate participation. The discussion then expands to 

consider strategies identified in past research that can support girls to become 

more active. The chapter concludes by identifying gaps in the current body of 

research and the rationale for the current study to help to address them. 

 

3.1 Conducting the literature review 

 

The literature search was conducted using online search functions and 

databases in the Massey University library website to identify relevant English-

language peer-reviewed studies. Databases used for the literature search 

included EBSCOHost, Informit, JSTOR, Ovid, ProQuest, and SAGE Journals. 

Non-academic sources of research included reports published by agencies 

such as Sport New Zealand. I also used grey research literature to enhance my 

general knowledge of skate culture and values, and to contextualise findings 

from the peer-reviewed studies. I began with a narrow literature focus, which 

broadened later to situate some studies in the wider context of action sports, 

and to learn about key theoretical frameworks that emerged from the literature.  

Key words and phrases from the first stage of the search (research of female 

skate experiences) were: 

 

• Skateboarding 

• Female / women / girls + 

skateboarding 

• Skate + culture 

• Skate + masculinity 

• Female + skateboarding + 

barriers 

• Female + skateboarding + 

enablers 



 

 

20 

 

For the second stage of the search (supplementary studies that explore female 

experiences in other action sports) the key words and phrases were: 

 

• Female + sport 

• Female + sport + barriers 

• Female + sport + enablers 

• Female + action + sport 

• Female + surfing (+ 

snowboarding) 

 

The third stage of the search (further information about relevant theoretical 

frameworks and concepts discussed in previous studies) included the following 

keys and phrases: 

 

• Gender + stereotypes 

• Objectification; Self + 

objectification 

• Emphasised + femininity 

• Stereotype + threat 

• Self + Determination + Theory 

 

3.2 Studies of female skateboarding 

 

The female skate experience has been minimally researched, with few studies 

focusing on women and girls in the sport. This reflects the minority status of 

women and girls participating in the sport – as Pomerantz et al. (2004) noted, 

“Skateboarding is not a common activity for girls and finding a girl on a 

skateboard is rare” (p. 550). The literature search did not find studies about the 

Australasian female skate experience. 

 

Some skate studies include male and female perspectives, but they typically 

include the voices of only a small number of women. However, these studies 

contribute to discussions about the universal nature of many female skate 

experiences, as the points made by female participants tend to be reflected 

across the broader body of female skate literature. 

 

The literature search also failed to uncover previous research exploring the 

experiences of queer, gender non-binary, or trans young people in the context 

of skateboarding or other action sports. As this chapter will later discuss, 

homophobia within skateboarding may present a significant barrier to LGBTQI+ 



 

 

21 

 

participation. Although this study focuses on the skate experience of women 

and girls, it may also resonate with LGBTQI+ skateboarders and the potential 

for marginalisation that exists for them within skate culture. 

 

Table 1 summarises the studies of female skateboarding that are used 

throughout this chapter to illustrate how different socio-cultural factors influence 

opportunities for women and girls to be active. 

 

Citation Research summary 

Beal, 1996 Colorado-based study of 41 10 – 25-year-old 

skateboarders, including four female participants 

Beal & Weidman, 2003 US study of male and female teenaged and adult 

skateboarders 

Young, 2004 US study of ten 18 – 29-year-old male and female 

skateboarders and snowboarders (including three female 

skateboarders) 

Pomerantz et al., 2004 

Kelly et al., 2005 

Kelly et al., 2008 

Canadian study of eight 14 – 15-year-old novice female 

skateboarders, focusing on their entry into skateboarding 

and negotiations for access to space in a skate park 

Kelly et al., 2008 Canadian study of 20 13 – 16-year-old skateboarding 

girls 

Atencio et al., 2009 Californian study of 33 16 – 28 male and female 

skateboarders (including eight female skateboarders) 

Bäckström & Nairn, 2018 Swedish study of 61 12 – 16-year-old female 

skateboarders 

Table 1: Summary of previous studies of female skateboarders 

 

3.3 Factors that influence girls to be active 

 

The following socio-cultural factors have an influence on opportunities for 

women and girls to be active in many contexts, but for the purposes of this 

chapter the discussion focuses on female skate participation, as illustrated by 

examples drawn from previous skate studies. 

 

  



 

 

22 

 

3.3.1 Gender role socialisation 

 

Gender role socialisation is the process of embedding a gender schema that 

teaches children how they should behave to conform to the current constructed 

meanings of ‘being a boy’ or ‘being a girl’ (Little, 2010; Leversen et al., 2012; 

O’Connor et al., 2017). Parents are typically the earliest proponents of gender 

role socialisation (both consciously and unconsciously), but it is normalised and 

reinforced by peers and wider society. It influences girls’ opportunities to be 

active from early childhood. Boys are encouraged to be active, adventurous, 

and independent, with toys that provide opportunities for mechanical and 

constructive play, but girls often lack encouragement to play in similarly active 

and adventurous ways (Hargreaves, 1994; Cherney & London, 2006; O’Connor 

et al., 2017). Many parents also demonstrate strongly gendered beliefs about 

rough-and-tumble play, expecting it of their boys but not of their girls (Women 

in Sport & Youth Sports Trust, 2015). 

 

As children grow older and are expected to be active in some capacity, they are 

typically encouraged to play sports or engage in physical activities that reflect 

what is considered appropriate for boys and girls, and often children grow up 

without any opportunity to consider the validity of trying ‘opposite-sex’ sports 

(Leversen et al., 2012). Male sports typically celebrate physicality and 

competition, and female sports focus on aesthetics and qualities such as 

gracefulness (Klomsten et al., 2005; Murray & Howat, 2009; Leversen et al., 

2012; Joncheray & Tlili, 2013). 

 

Some elements of physical literacy – such as running and throwing – required 

to participate in many sports are nurtured in boys but not in girls, increasing the 

likelihood that girls will develop less competence (Garrett, 2004; Clark et al., 

2011). Studies that test children’s physical literacy indicate that girls typically 

score lower than boys in measures such as strength, endurance, and 

coordination (Klomsten et al., 2005). Many boys are encouraged to try 

skateboarding because it provides an opportunity to demonstrate 

stereotypically masculine traits of strength, boldness, and aggressiveness, and 

because it is more socially acceptable for boys than for girls to bear the scars 

of past physical endeavours (Young, 2004). Young (2004) asserted that gender 



 

 

23 

 

role socialisation had reduced the likelihood of girls becoming skateboarders 

because they had been raised to avoid activities that involve a risk of injury. 

Kelly et al. (2008) made a similar point, highlighting that it takes some female 

skateboarders considerable effort to overcome the inhibiting influence that 

reduced childhood physicality has on their ability to engage in such a 

demanding activity. 

 

Gender role socialisation also influences the development of social skills that 

can influence the likelihood of girls playing sport or being active. From early 

childhood girls’ play rarely focuses on games that produce clear winners and 

losers, because girls are raised to prioritise their relationships with others ahead 

of individual gain, and this focus on the importance of friendships and social 

status increases from puberty onwards (Bailey et al., 2005; Brown, Mackett, 

Gong, Kitazawa, & Paskins, 2008; Hohepa, Schofield, & Holt, 2006; Yungblut, 

Schinke, & McGannon, 2012; Women in Sport & Youth Sports Trust, 2015; 

Cardoos et al., 2017). This means that competitive behaviour can be seen as 

a potential threat to relationships with friends (Boyatzis, Mallis, & Leon, 1999). 

Boys are far more likely than girls to value competition and achievement as a 

source of enjoyment when playing sport, and don’t perceive it as something that 

can undermine friendships (Bailey et al., 2005; Hohepa et al., 2006). 

 

3.3.2 Gender stereotypes 

 

Gender role socialisation both reflects prevailing gender stereotypes and helps 

to perpetuate them. Because of the messages they receive in their formative 

years, children of both genders grow up with a perception that girls are weaker 

and less physically skilled than boys, and in many cases this is assumed to be 

a biological fact that can be used to explain girls’ apparent lack of interest in 

sport (Beal, 1996; Garrett, 2004; Cooky & McDonald, 2005; Swain, 2005; 

Donnelly, 2008; Watson et al., 2015; DiCarlo, 2016). Male skaters disregard 

their female counterparts based on stereotypes that girls lack physical bravery, 

coordination, and other natural traits required to skate well (Beal, 1996; Karsten 

& Pel, 2000; Borden, 2001; Beal & Weidman, 2003; Young, 2004; Kelly et al., 

2005; Donnelly, 2008; Sisjord, 2009). Broader studies of the gender dynamics 

of physical activity showed that boys will sometimes bully girls in physical 



 

 

24 

 

education and sporting contexts because of their beliefs about girls’ lack of 

ability, and may even convince themselves that their negative behaviour will 

motivate the girls to improve (Vu et al., 2006; Watson et al., 2015). Clark and 

Paechter (2007) theorised that boys who feel particularly threatened within 

masculine hierarchies are more likely to criticise girls’ sporting abilities as a way 

of trying to bolster their own self esteem. 

 

The existence of negative stereotypes about girls’ ability or inclination to be 

active may affect whether some girls can actually engage effectively in sport or 

physical activities. Hively and El-Alayli (2014) claimed that girls’ awareness of 

negative stereotypes can create a ‘stereotype threat’ and that may contribute 

to female underperformance in tasks or activities, even if the girl who is 

participating in the activity does not actually believe the stereotype themselves. 

This demonstrates the pervasive nature of the social construct of gender in 

sport, although the impact it has on girls will be influenced by other previous 

experiences and wider perceptions, and may impact girls’ differently at various 

points in their development. 

 

Gender stereotypes can often thrive despite efforts to dispel them. For example, 

the prevalent stereotype that women and girls do not wish to participate in risky 

sports or physical activities endures despite the existence of many women and 

girls who enjoy the risk-taking elements of skateboarding and other action 

sports, and have continued to skate despite incurring injuries (Atencio et al., 

2009). Female skateboarders identified gender stereotypes and the impact they 

have on male skateboarders’ attitudes towards them as a significant barrier to 

participation (Pomerantz et al., 2004; Kelly et al., 2005; Kelly et al., 2008; 

Atencio et al., 2009). 

 

3.3.3 Emphasised femininity 

 

Many girls grow up to embrace female stereotypes and use them as a 

fundamental identifying factor (Whitehead & Biddle, 2008). Female gender 

stereotypes can take the form of emphasised femininity, which for many girls 

has a significant impact on their likelihood of being active. Emphasised 

femininity represents a type of idealised femininity that requires women to 



 

 

25 

 

personify gender stereotypes directing them to be attractive, non-competitive, 

hesitant, nice, graceful, physically weak, dependent, and concerned primarily 

with the welfare of others (Pomerantz et al., 2004; Kelly et al., 2005; Jarvis, 

2006; Hardy, 2015; Holland & Harpin, 2015). Emphasised femininity is regarded 

as a patriarchal social construct that reflects the interests and desires of 

heterosexual men and diminishes female agency (Hardy, 2015). Gender role 

socialisation influences the construction of emphasised femininity by shaping 

girls’ sense of appropriate interests and behaviour from infancy (Young, 2004; 

Lodge, 2005; Granié, 2010). 

 

Most girls experience significant pressure to comply with gender stereotypes 

and emphasised femininity from puberty onwards, which (not coincidentally) is 

the age at which studies suggest that girls’ activity levels begin to reduce 

(Nayak & Kahily, 2008; Piran, 2017). Emphasised femininity is largely 

incompatible with female physical activity because elements such as being 

competitive, breaking a sweat, or valuing performance above appearance 

contradict this social conduct (Henderson, 1993). Studies showed that, 

although teenagers view it as socially acceptable for boys to break a sweat from 

physical activity, girls who sweat from sport are regarded as dirty and criticised 

for failing to pay sufficient attention to their appearance (Vu et al., 2006; Clark 

et al., 2011; Yungblut et al., 2012; Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, 

2016; Piran, 2017; Youth Sports Trust, 2018). The message transmitted by this 

version of femininity is that ‘real’ girls are disinterested in sport and the sweaty 

messiness and competitiveness that it embodies (Whitehead & Biddle, 2008). 

However, women and girls are also frequently subject to messaging that 

presents contradictory expectations of being fit, healthy, and active, without 

transgressing from the values of emphasised femininity (Yungblut et al., 2012; 

Piran, 2017). In other words, girls are raised to believe that they should look 

like they have regularly engaged in physical activity in order to maintain a slim 

physique, but without actually playing sport or being active. 

 

For female skateboarders, choosing to skate seems to represent a deliberate 

rejection of the standards of emphasised femininity. Kelly et al. (2008) identified 

two key themes in young women’s talk about skateboarding: the girls’ deliberate 

and calculated transgression of gender norms in order to enjoy their chosen 



 

 

26 

 

activity; and the value placed on skater style and its role in assisting the girls to 

reject emphasised femininity and its expectations of beauty and display. In 

critiquing the study of novice Canadian female skateboarders presented by 

Pomerantz et al. (2004), Bäckström and Nairn (2018) commented that these 

skateboarding girls have “…therefore been constructed as ‘other’ in relation to 

men, but also ‘other’ in relation to other women, especially those perceived as 

displaying stereotypical heterosexual hyper-femininity” (p. 427). Young (2004) 

also noted that the three female skateboarders regarded their participation in 

skateboarding as a way to differentiate themselves from the standards and 

expectations of mainstream femininity, helping them to develop a sense of 

individuality. Although there are sexist elements of skateboarding that will be 

discussed later in this chapter, many of the women and girls who skate 

recognise that their participation provides them with the personal agency to 

construct their own versions of femininity. 

 

3.3.4 The male coding of sport 

 

The growth in girls’ interest in traditionally male-dominated sports has been 

seen as evidence of a new ‘post-feminist’ context wherein previous gendered 

restrictions no longer apply (Pfister, 2010). While this behaviour is tolerated and 

often celebrated in younger girls, older girls who choose to forge alternative 

identities beyond the realms of emphasised femininity past puberty can be 

regarded by some as committing a deliberately transgressive act (Nayak & 

Kahily, 2008; Holland & Harpin, 2015). The reason being active is seen as 

transgressive is because sport has been regarded historically as a masculine 

activity (Pfister, 2010) and risky and demanding action sports such as 

skateboarding and snowboarding have been coded as ‘male’ almost from their 

outset (Sisjord, 2009, Olive & Thorpe, 2011). 

 

Sport has also been regarded as a way for male participants to prove their 

masculinity, and so female participation in sport and physical activity has been 

viewed as something fundamentally abnormal because it transgresses 

stereotypical beliefs, leading to the “cultural contradiction of female athleticism” 

(Malcom, 2003, p. 1388). Meân and Kassing (2008) described sport as a 

“gender demarcator” because sporting activities tend to present such a strong 



 

 

27 

 

binary between male- and female-appropriate activities, reproducing the 

attitudes that gender role socialisation instills and gender stereotypes 

perpetuate (Meân & Kassing, 2008, p. 127). Joncheray and Tlili (2013) 

presented sport as a male construct that values power and dominance and is 

therefore representative of masculinity and the patriarchy in general. Research 

also suggests that girls internalise gendered ideas that being ‘good at sport’ is 

important for boys but not for them, which reinforces the masculine coding of 

many sports (Klomsten et al., 2005; Slater & Tiggemann, 2010; Corr et al., 

2019). Female sports are also widely regarded as less skilled and less exciting 

to watch than male sports (Fink, LaVoi, & Newhall, 2016). 

 

Skateboarding is ingrained with ‘maleness’. One skateboarding book I 

reviewed, The Concrete Wave: The History of Skateboarding, illustrated this 

element of skate culture. ‘Legends’ were identified from different decades, with 

the 1970s legends comprising 16 male skateboarders and one woman; the 

1980s legends comprising nine skateboarders and no women; and the 1990s 

legends comprising 19 male skateboarders, and one woman (Brooke, 1999). A 

list of the best pro-skateboarders over a 40-year period included 63 males and 

only six females (ibid). Several eminent skateboarders contributed articles to 

the book, but they were all male. The language used to describe male and 

female skateboarders was highly gendered and suggested different standards 

being used to assess the value of male and female skateboarders – for 

example, Laura Thornbill is “A graceful freestylist”, but Tony Alva is a 

“legendary skater” (Brooke, 1999, p. 75; p. 78). Karsten and Pel (2000) claimed 

that skateboarding did not originate as a masculine activity. However, Brooke’s 

masculine focus is not an anomaly within skateboarding publications, and 

unless an academic article is seeking specifically to explore the sport from a 

feminist perspective, female skateboarders are seldom mentioned. Studies 

frequently present the experiences of male skateboarders as being universal 

for the sport without acknowledging the lack of female skateboarders involved 

in the work, and it is commonplace for studies to use male pronouns exclusively 

when referring to skateboarders (for example, Petrone, 2010). Female 

skateboarders have reported that their entry into skate culture is often facilitated 

by brothers or male friends, which is interpreted in some studies as a perceived 



 

 

28 

 

requirement because of the male coding of skateboarding and its perceived 

lack of suitability as a female pastime (Pomerantz et al., 2004; Young, 2004). 

 

The inherent maleness of skateboarding affects the gender balance of skate 

culture, and sites that are popular for street skating (Pomerantz et al., 2004; 

Kelly et al., 2005; Kelly et al., 2008; Atencio et al., 2009). Male participants 

frequently spend time together at skate parks, whereas female skateboarders 

are far fewer in number and therefore often lack opportunities to benefit from 

the camaraderie that male skateboarders take for granted (Young, 2004). 

Although skateboarding is regarded by male and female participants as an 

activity that is non-competitive and intrinsically satisfying, championing values 

of individualism, nonconformity, and creative self-expression, many of these 

benefits seem to accrue primarily to male skateboarders, because female 

skateboarders must negotiate their right to participate in the principally male 

domain of skate parks and other skate sites (Beal & Weidman, 2003). However 

the gendered hierarchies of sport and physical activity mean that skateboarding 

girls who can construct an identity in what is regarded as a challenging, male-

dominated culture are afforded significant cultural capital by non-skating peers 

who hold them in high esteem (Kelly et al., 2005). 

 

A challenge for girls attempting to integrate into skate culture is the apparent 

cognitive dissonance they experience regarding skate masculinity. 

Skateboarding studies have highlighted its ‘alternative masculinity’, with Beal 

(1996) claiming that skateboarding differs from the hegemonic masculinity 

enacted in organised sport because of an emphasis on participation and 

cooperation instead of competition. Signifiers of skate masculinity identified by 

researchers include the baggy clothes and longer hair common in 

skateboarding males, which have been seen as evidence of a softer persona 

that is likely to embrace all participants in the sport, including females, in a way 

that does not tend to occur in traditional sports (Karsten & Pel, 2000). However, 

Donnelly (2008) challenged this construction of skate masculinity. She noted 

that, although skateboarding and snowboarding cultures are portrayed in 

academic and mainstream articles, athlete interviews and event commentary 

as representing an alternative gender dynamic that embraces female 

participants, these sports are still heavily male-dominated and have formal and 



 

 

29 

 

informal practices that maintain stereotypical gender relations (Donnelly, 2008). 

Kelly et al. (2008) agreed, commenting that skate masculinity is less 

competitive than traditional sports but still relies on presenting a binary 

opposition to females and femininity to construct itself. Mechanisms designed 

to increase gender equality in sport, such as the USA’s Title IX legislation, have 

been largely ineffective in sports like skateboarding because action sports often 

operate outside the structure of mainstream sport and typically lack organising 

mechanisms to effect change (Wheaton & Thorpe, 2018). 

 

In contrast to its nonconformist and accepting reputation, skate masculinity 

presents as rigid a model as hegemonic masculinity in issues such as dealing 

with pain, as Petrone (2010) described: “…heckling was used as a way to 

implicitly teach the younger skater the appropriate cultural responses – 

psychologically, emotionally, and physically – to handling “failure” and pain” 

(Petrone, 2010, p. 123). The behaviour that Petrone described – heckling 

(verbal criticism) and snaking (deliberate close skating to unsettle or disrupt a 

fellow skater) is arguably aggressive, alienating behaviour that seeks to exert 

dominance over others. Skateboarding may claim to support different versions 

of masculinity – an article by Yochim (2010) mentioned ‘hardcore’, ‘poetic’, and 

‘sensitive’ personas – but these are all still masculine personas. From the 

perspective of female participants in past studies, the skate masculinities often 

seem to have the same limiting impact on their participation as hegemonic 

masculinity has on females in other sporting contexts. 

 

3.3.5 Surveillance and objectification 

 

Several studies featuring female skateboarders identified surveillance by male 

skateboarders as one of the most significant barriers to their use of skate parks. 

Male to female surveillance in skate parks is grounded in a broader issue: 

objectification, described by women and girls as the constant feeling of being 

watched by males in a way that reduces them to ‘things’ rather than recognising 

them as people (Fredrickson & Harrison, 2005; Klomsten et al., 2005; Piran, 

2017; Bäckström & Nairn, 2018). At puberty “girls learn that this new body 

belongs less to them and more to others” (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997, p193, 

original emphasis). Surveillance and objectification often extend beyond what 



 

 

30 

 

women and girls do, to include what they look like. This sense of girls’ bodies 

being ‘in the public domain’ underpins men’s assumed right to observe and 

evaluate female appearance, which lies at the heart of objectification 

(Greenleaf, 2005). This type of body-based harassment can begin from as 

young as eight years old and is almost ubiquitous by the time girls reach their 

‘tween’ years of nine to 12 (Holman, Johnson, & Lucier, 2013; Piran, 2017). 

 

Male skateboarders spend a lot of time at skate parks and customarily sit 

around the edges of the space while others are skating. Although skate park 

surveillance may simply reflect the sport’s cultural norms of skateboarders 

watching and critiquing each other’s performances, it is experienced by female 

skateboarders as intimidating and marginalising in light of the wider cultural 

practices of men objectifying women and men consistently devaluing female 

proficiency in sport and physical activity, reflecting the challenging gender 

imbalance that women and girls experience at skate parks (Pomerantz et al., 

2004; Kelly et al., 2005; Kelly et al., 2008; Atencio et al., 2009; Atencio, Beal, 

McClain, & Wright, 2016; Bäckström & Nairn, 2018). Girls are also likely to 

attract more attention than other skateboarders because they are such a rare 

presence in skate parks (Bäckström & Nairn, 2018). Bäckström and Nairn 

(2018) describe the tension experienced by female skateboarders who wanted 

to be free to use skate parks simply as participants, and not as the subject of 

unwelcome scrutiny and criticism. One study described the feedback 

skateboarding girls received from male observers: 

 

…the park proved to be a location of struggle that was dominated by 

skater boys, who put the girls under surveillance. The skater boys were 

always asking members of the Park Gang to show them what they could 

do and Zoey spoke of the constant questioning of the girls’ abilities. 

They often asked her, “Why don’t you skate more?” She admitted that 

“sometimes we don’t want to skate around them ‘cause, like, they do 

really good stuff and we’re just kind of learning. (Pomerantz et al., 2004, 

p. 551) 

 

A study by Bäckström & Nairn’s (2018) captured female skateboarders’ 

contradictory experiences of visibility and invisibility as female-focused 



 

 

31 

 

skateboarding media grew in Sweden and contributed to a growing awareness 

of their presence, contributing to more frequent feelings of surveillance that left 

female skateboarders feeling less free to concentrate on practising (Bäckström 

& Nairn, 2018). However, the study also acknowledged that increased visibility 

had brought with it material support that had previously been reserved only for 

male skateboarders, such as free equipment – and yet this was seen by female 

skateboarders as a mixed blessing, given that the recognition of being a 

‘sponsored’ skateboarder also meant that female skateboarders’ performances 

were further scrutinised (ibid). 

 

Some skateboarding girls respond to surveillance by choosing to schedule or 

locate their practice sessions to avoid male skateboarders, enabling them to 

feel less self-conscious and more able to concentrate on the activity (Bäckström 

& Nairn, 2018). One group of skateboarding girls chose to retreat from a skate 

park and improve their skills to avoid negative comments from the male 

skateboarders who watched them (Pomerantz et al., 2004). Some girls choose 

to wear loose clothing when exercising, to conceal their bodies and minimise 

the risk of objectification (Holman et al., 2013). Many girls embrace the baggy 

clothing synonymous with skateboarding in order to reduce the likelihood of 

body-based harassment. Skateboarding is in direct contrast with sports such 

as gymnastics, swimming, and beach volleyball, which require girls to wear 

skimpy or close-fitting clothing to participate (Slater & Tiggemann, 2010). This 

may partially explain why girls who seek to reject emphasised femininity could 

be attracted to skateboarding as a stage upon which to challenge gender 

stereotypes. 

 

3.3.6 Self-objectification 

 

If objectification is internalised it becomes self-objectification, described as “a 

form of self-consciousness characterised by vigilant monitoring of the body’s 

outward appearance” (Fredrickson & Harrison, 2005, p. 82). Self-objectification 

is a common feature in many women’s lives and affects them beyond the realms 

of being active, but it has particular impact with regard to sport and active 

recreation because it diminishes women’s capacity to prioritise how they feel 

and what they are capable of achieving when their primary concern is how they 



 

 

32 

 

may appear to observers (Fredrickson & Harrison, 2005). Self-objectification 

also contributes to heightened anxiety and reduces opportunities to enjoy 

activities (ibid). 

 

Greenleaf (2005) commented that self-objectification can provide motivation for 

some girls to be active. However, this may be based on a desire to achieve the 

type of female body idealised through emphasised femininity, which for many 

women does not tend to represent a healthy or realistic goal (Hohepa, 

Schofield, & Kolt, 2006; Guérin et al., 2012; Holman et al., 2013). Self-

objectification may limit skateboarding girls’ opportunities to enjoy the freedoms 

that the sport provides to its participants because it nurtures a state of self-

consciousness. Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of ‘flow’ explains how a person who 

is absorbed in achieving a self-directed task that they find intrinsically satisfying 

can derive great enjoyment from that task, and that self-consciousness is a 

barrier to achieving a flow state (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Stormoen, Urke, 

Tjomsland, Wold, & Diseth, 2016). Self-objectification can therefore prevent 

female skateboarders from fully enjoying the intrinsic benefits that skating 

typically offers its participants. 

 

3.3.7 Sexism 

 

Sexism in skate culture is both a manifestation of the male coding of 

skateboarding and the gender stereotypes that underpin it, and a contributor to 

the ongoing marginalisation that many female skateboarders face. Studies of 

skate culture reinforce a sense that male skateboarders regard most females 

in skate parks as passive spectators, and girls must demonstrate competence 

and a consistent presence if they wish to gain any status as participants 

(Pomerantz et al., 2004; Atencio et al., 2009; Sisjord, 2009; Petrone, 2010; 

Yochim, 2010). Pomerantz et al. (2004) suggested that female skateboarders 

experienced hostility and marginalisation from male skateboarders at a skate 

park because the boys struggled to see the girls as anything other than 

spectators or girlfriends. Sexualised attitudes expressed by male 

skateboarders are also a factor that may undermine female skateboarders’ 

participation (Atencio et al., 2009). Practices such as referring to female 

skateboarders as ‘groupies’ and questioning their motivations for participating 



 

 

33 

 

(such as suggesting that they skate to meet men) are not uncommon (Beal & 

Weidman, 2003). Researchers of street skateboarding noted: 

 

In describing the women skaters as sexually promiscuous, unskilled and 

afraid to take risks, the men positioned the women as being outsiders 

to street skateboarding. In this way, the men reified their own authentic 

status. (Atencio et al., 2009, p. 11) 

 

Many male skateboarders fail to differentiate between participant and non-

participant females in a skateboarding context – they are all described 

disparagingly as ‘Skate Betties’ and seen as affiliated with male skateboarders, 

not as skateboarders themselves (Beal, 1996). In snowboarding circles, the 

equivalent dismissive term ‘babes’ is used to describe females linked with the 

sport, either as participants or as spectators (Sisjord, 2009). 

 

Some researchers have suggested that action sports such as skateboarding 

are less affected by institutional sexism and imbedded gender stereotypes than 

traditional sports, because they have emerged more recently and have involved 

women from the outset, albeit in smaller numbers (Wheaton & Thorpe, 2018). 

However, sexist attitudes within skateboarding make this a difficult claim to 

defend. Male skateboarders in one study criticised female professional 

skateboarders as only being good according to (lesser) female standards, and 

would not take them seriously as participants because of their gender (Atencio 

et al., 2009). This suggests that the male skateboarders do not object to female 

participants because they lack skill or courage – they base their rejection on the 

participants’ gender. 

 

Some male skateboarders enact patronising and infantilising behaviour that 

reinforces the belief that female skateboarders do not really belong in the skate 

community (Beal, 1996; Beal & Weidman, 2003). One challenging way this 

behaviour can manifest itself is through benevolent sexism, where men offer 

excessive unsolicited support and guidance in the guise of helping women and 

girls to participate. For new participants it may seem positive to be helped by 

more experienced participants, but there can be a fine line between offering 

genuine help and marginalising through the medium of assistance. Ruiz (2019) 



 

 

34 

 

has traced how helping behaviour can be a way to express benevolent sexism. 

Benevolent sexism has three components: protective paternalism (the idea that 

females need protection from males); complementary gender differentiation 

(the belief that females possess certain positive traits that are typically absent 

in males); and heterosexual intimacy (the idea that men need a female partner) 

(Ruiz, 2019). Proponents of benevolent sexism are likely to provide 

dependency-based help, which does not empower the person being helped to 

navigate their own solutions in the future, but instead positions the helper as 

being of a higher status than the person being helped (ibid). 

 

Being the recipient of unsolicited help or excessive concern is marginalisation 

that “can differentiate women just as much as more exclusionary, sexist 

behaviours”, and its friendly tone makes it difficult for women to combat or 

challenge the help they’re receiving, because of “the apparent need women feel 

to be careful not to respond too harshly to such behaviour, but instead to 

appreciate men’s efforts” (Olive, McCuaig, & Phillips, 2015, p. 268). Female 

skateboarders reported similar experiences with over-enthusiastic male 

skateboarding friends who, through their tendency to worry about female 

participants and celebrate their smallest achievements, succeed in reinforcing 

a sense that girls need special attention to take part in the otherwise male world 

of skateboarding (Beal & Weidman, 2003). The challenge of navigating 

unsolicited help is something also uncovered in broader studies about the 

impact on women of helping behaviour, with Ruiz (2019) explaining how 

accepting help makes women appear as friendly but incompetent to observers, 

but rejecting help makes them appear competent, but cold. 

 

3.3.8 Skate media 

 

Skate media was identified in research as a factor that contributes to and 

perpetuates sexist attitudes within the skate community (Beal & Weidman, 

2003; Wheaton, 2003; Rinehart, 2005; Atencio et al., 2009). Online and printed 

skate media has historically been entirely skewed to a male readership, 

frequently denigrating and trivialising female skateboarders (Atencio et al., 

2009). Skateboarding media celebrates masculinity in a mainstream context 

regarding gender relations, with female models used to attract male 



 

 

35 

 

skateboarders in the same way as virtually all other advertising media aimed at 

male consumers, portraying antifeminist messages (Beal & Weidman, 2003; 

Wheaton, 2003; Rinehart, 2005). The misogynist tone and content of 

skateboarding print and online media was also noted for the role it plays in 

reinforcing negative stereotypes and helping to legitimise and thus privilege 

male skateboarders (Atencio et al., 2009). 

 

Skate print media and its advertising content emphasises the inherently 

masculine nature of the sport, celebrating male-coded risk-taking and including 

overtly heterosexist content and little representation of female participation 

beyond being a recipient of the male gaze (Beal & Weidman, 2003). The 

heteronormative and sexist elements of skateboarding media underpin female 

objectification and sexualisation of female participants by presenting women as 

attractive accessories who exist for male skateboarders’ sexual gratification 

(Beal & Weidman, 2003; Rinehart, 2005). Male skateboarders reported 

frequently consuming skate media and using it to inform their skateboarding 

attitudes and practice, so sexist media messaging has likely helped to shape 

male skate sensibilities, with male participants reporting that they consume it 

frequently and use it to inform their skateboarding attitudes and practice 

(Atencio et al., 2009). 

 

Given the young age at which many boys become skateboarders, it seems 

reasonable to theorise that skate media may shape their views of female 

skateboarders, and of women in general, contributing to their view of women 

and girls at skate parks only as groupies or potential girlfriends. Sexualised 

content also contributes to female self-objectification as girls internalise 

messages about how they are supposed to represent themselves, which feeds 

the sense of marginalisation reported by many female skateboarders 

(Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). 

 

3.3.9 Homophobia 

 

Beyond marginalising women, sexism in skate media and within the wider skate 

community demonstrates a strong level of heteronormativity that has potential 

to make skate parks threatening environments for the LGBTQI+ community. 



 

 

36 

 

Homophobia appears to be prevalent, and one study identified that a barrier to 

female skateboarders’ participation was the risk of their sexual orientation being 

questioned because of their decision to take part in a masculine-coded sport 

(Young, 2004). This attitude is predicated on heteronormative beliefs that 

portray alternative sexualities as inherently negative, and the social penalties 

for failing to conform to dominant sexual orientations may be severe enough to 

limit participation from puberty onwards. Male skateboarding participants make 

frequent use of homophobic slurs to dismiss others (Petrone, 2010). Petrone 

(2010) defended the use of the terms ‘gay’ and ‘faggot’ as insults within skate 

masculinity, claiming that viewing this language as homophobic “would not do 

justice to the complexity of gender construction within this community of 

practice” (Petrone, 2010, p. 123). 

 

Borden (2001) argued that homophobic behaviour in skateboarding may be 

used to reaffirm heteronormative attitudes in a homosocial environment that 

involves young men reading about, spending time with, and displaying 

themselves to other young men. In their research of the construction of 

identities of 17-18-year-old British male secondary school students, Edley and 

Wetherwell (1997) made the point that concepts of masculinity, like all other 

concepts, are relational and are constructed in relation to others. With regard 

to masculinity this means constructing a sense of self in opposition to the most 

obvious binary – femininity – but also provides scope for more finely honed 

versions of masculinity that are formed in opposition to other forms of 

masculinity (Edley & Wetherwell, 1997). In the context of skateboarding this 

oppositional construct takes several forms: soft, non-competitive skate 

masculinity vs hard, competitive hegemonic masculinity; male skateboarders 

who embrace and express stereotypical beliefs regarding appetite for risk and 

tolerance for pain vs female skateboarders who lack physical courage and ‘grit’; 

and male skateboarders as heterosexual males vs everybody who isn’t 

heterosexual. Homophobia is used by male skateboarders to demonstrate their 

masculinity and denigrate others. This further emphasises that, although skate 

masculinity claims to be a departure from hegemonic masculinity in sport, it still 

represents a very narrow construction of masculinity. If homophobic slurs are 

the most insulting terms male skateboarders can use to criticise each other it 



 

 

37 

 

suggests a world view that is grounded in hegemonic masculinity and 

heteronormative values. 

 

3.3.10 Participant legitimacy 

 

The battle for skate legitimacy is a recurring barrier faced by female 

skateboarders, who claim that male skateboarders fail to respect them or take 

them seriously as participants (Beal & Weidman, 2003; Young, 2004; Kelly et 

al., 2008; Atencio et al., 2009). Competence in skateboarding and other action 

sports is assessed against male standards, which automatically positions male 

participants as legitimate skateboarders and marginalises those who cannot 

achieve those standards (Thorpe & Olive, 2016). A common theme emerging 

from skate research is the efforts undertaken by female skateboarders to ‘prove 

themselves’ to male skateboarders, often by performing physical feats and 

taking physical risks (Pomerantz et al., 2004; Young, 2004; Young & Dallaire, 

2008; Atencio et al., 2009). Girls use various strategies to identify as legitimate 

skateboarders including clothing choices, the use of skater slang, overt 

avoidance of behaviour that is synonymous with emphasised femininity, and 

the embracing of peripheral elements to skater culture, such as punk rock music 

(Beal & Weidman, 2003; Kelly et al., 2005). 

 

Male skate legitimacy can be expressed from the outset when male 

skateboarders act as gatekeepers to female participation, either by introducing 

female skateboarders to skating or by restricting their access to skate parks 

and other skate sites (Pomerantz et al., 2004; Young, 2004; Kelly et al., 2005; 

Atencio et al., 2009). Although many male skateboarders regard skate parks as 

their domain, in Atencio’s (2009) study others dismissed skate parks as safe, 

sanitised spaces and were equally dismissive of skateboarders who chose to 

use them. In this street skateboarding study, female participants reported being 

restricted from using their favoured street sites, leaving them with nowhere but 

skate parks as sites for practice (ibid). The male skateboarders were therefore 

able to both control female skateboarders’ access to space and cast doubts on 

their legitimacy as skateboarders for using what they regarded as ‘lesser’ sites. 

Female skateboarders were rarely seen in a street skating context because 

male skateboarders constructed social conditions that made female 



 

 

38 

 

skateboarders feel more comfortable in specific locations, preferably skating 

with other women (Atencio et al., 2009). Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of 

symbolic capital, the researchers concluded that differing male and female 

habituses influenced the social capital created and acquired within 

skateboarding, with female skateboarders regarded by males as lacking 

sufficient social and cultural capital to embrace the risk-taking and competence-

building behaviour required to become ‘real’ skateboarders (ibid). 

 

Despite the efforts of female skateboarders to be accepted, male skateboarders 

– and participants in other action sports – are skilled at finding ways to 

undermine the value of female experiences as an expression of their gendered 

socialisation and social environment. Even when girls are confident about their 

physical abilities in their chosen sport or physical activity, they risk not being 

accepted by male participants unless they are very fit and highly skilled, and 

being an exceptional female athlete does not prevent men from dismissing 

females’ abilities (Boyle, Marshall, & Robeson, 2003; Cooky & McDonald, 2005; 

Swain, 2005; Fink et al., 2016). Female skateboarders reported that errors or 

mistakes made by skateboarding boys are disregarded or brushed off by their 

peers, but girls’ mistakes are harshly judged and good female skateboarders 

are frequently dismissed as only ‘good for a girl’ (Kelly et al., 2005; Kelly et al., 

2008; Olive et al., 2015). 

 

One group of skateboarding girls chose to withdraw from a skate park – a site 

of tension with the skateboarding boys who did not take them seriously – to 

concentrate on developing their skills so they could claim the label ‘skater’ 

(Pomerantz et al., 2004). They demonstrated a sense of agency and formed 

their own identities as skateboarders at their own pace, which “took authorizing 

power away from the boys and legitimated themselves” (Pomerantz et al., 2004, 

p. 552). When they returned to the skate park the skateboarding boys were 

reportedly impressed with their progress, which suggests that their actions 

broadened the male skateboarders’ understanding of who a legitimate 

skateboarder could be (Pomerantz et al., 2004; Kelly et al., 2008). 

 

When discussing gendered power dynamics in other action sports, Sisjord 

(2009) used Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, and masculine domination, 



 

 

39 

 

explaining that male participants are the dominant agents in the field of 

snowboarding, committed to excluding those they perceive as outsiders. This 

produced what Bourdieu described as doxa: the establishment of traditions and 

customs that are defined as the ‘natural world’ – the authentic way of doing 

things (Donnelly, 2008; Sisjord, 2009). The same dynamics seem to apply in 

skateboarding. Across all action sports dominant male participation is the doxa 

– as Sisjord (2009) noted, “the ‘core’ – male participants – enjoy a great deal of 

respect, not only because of their high volume of subcultural capital, but also 

from their role in defining and creating it” (Sisjord, 2009, p. 1305). Donnelly 

(2008) claimed that the behaviour of many male skateboarders is “elitist and 

exclusionary” and contradicts their self-perception as inclusive because they 

react negatively towards any skateboarders who do not comply with the culture 

they have constructed (Donnelly, 2008, p. 202). 

 

Donnelly (2008) theorised that in both skateboarding and snowboarding women 

and girls benefit from enhanced credibility within their sports if they can achieve 

male approval to participate, and Sisjord (2009) agreed. Although many female 

skateboarders expressed frustration at the effort they felt they had to exert to 

gain credibility in the eyes of male skateboarders, some female skateboarders 

seemed to internalise the construct of male legitimacy, leading them to also 

regard female participants as inferior and judge female skateboarders against 

male skate standards (Donnelly, 2008). 

 

Some skateboarding girls cast themselves as the arbiters of skate legitimacy 

by challenging the legitimacy of girls on the periphery of skate culture, 

particularly if they spent time at skate parks without participating (Kelly et al., 

2005). The skateboarding girls deliberately excluded the ‘poser girls’ by using 

their own slang terms, classified non-skating girls according to 

uncomplimentary stereotypes, and made assumptions about the values and 

priorities of those girls, suggesting that the girls only came to skate parks to be 

popular or attract boys (ibid). It may be that, as a transgressive minority within 

girlhood, the skater girls decided that attack was the best form of defense. It 

may also be that, given the fragility of their own status as skateboarders, 

distancing themselves from passive non-participating girls was intended to 

enhance their own credibility. This suggests that ‘us against them’ identity work 



 

 

40 

 

may be a tactic used by male and female skateboarders if they feel that it is 

important to emphasise their own skate legitimacy. 

 

3.3.11 Participant marginalisation 

 

In order to assert their own skate legitimacy male skateboarders do not 

necessarily seek to deliberately ostracise female skateboarders, criticise their 

skills, or deny them space to practise (although some do), but these strategies 

are ways that male skate legitimacy is reinforced. Beal (1996) reported that 

male skateboarders seldom reflect on the significant gender disparity in 

skateboarding, making it difficult for them to identify clear reasons why women 

and girls don’t participate, and leading them to attribute the male domination of 

skateboarding to biological or social preferences and personal choice. This was 

interpreted as evidence that male skateboarders’ marginalisation of females is 

unintentional and merely demonstrates their fundamental beliefs that 

skateboarding is a masculine sport that does not attract girls (Beal, 1996). 

Regardless of whether actions that result in marginalisation are deliberate or 

unintended, the outcome is the same: female skateboarders feel that they are 

not accepted in the skate community and not taken seriously as participants 

(Beal & Weidman, 2003; Young, 2004; Kelly et al., 2008; Atencio et al., 2009). 

As with many forms of discrimination, the marginalisation process can also be 

insidious, subtle, and even well-meaning, making it difficult for female 

skateboarders to object and for male skateboarders to recognise that a problem 

exists. 

 

The instances of benevolent sexism discussed earlier in this chapter illustrated 

how innocuous behaviour can contribute to marginalisation. Another example 

of marginalisation is the use of gender markers in action sports: they are not 

‘snowboarders’ or ‘skateboarders’, they are ‘female snowboarders’ or ‘skater 

girls’ (Thorpe, 2005). MacKay (2016) and others noted the role played by sports 

media in perpetuating these constant reminders of female participants’ gender. 

A further example of marginalisation is in the exclusion of many female 

skateboarders from the bonding processes between male skateboarders, 

which are often predicated on spending long periods of time together at skate 

parks (Beal, 1996). 



 

 

41 

 

 

In the context of being outnumbered at skate parks, some mores of skate 

culture might be interpreted as gendered marginalisation practices by female 

skateboarders. Practices such as snaking and heckling are employed by 

experienced skateboarders to teach novice participants the ‘rules’ of the skate 

park, demonstrating overt expressions of power and the regulation of space 

from those in the park who feel that they have sufficient legitimacy to enforce 

other participants’ behaviour (Petrone, 2010). Male skateboarders may intend 

heckling and snaking to be customary behaviour to school new participants, but 

female skateboarders may interpret such behaviour as marginalising, and 

designed to force them away from the skate park. Given the documented 

sexism and disregard for female participants that is evident in many male 

skateboarders’ attitudes, this kind of interaction could extend beyond tutoring a 

novice skateboarder about skate etiquette and also include a demonstration of 

gendered power relations if the novice skateboarder is female and the 

experienced skateboarder is male, and particularly if the female skateboarder 

is the only female at the park. 

 

3.4 Supporting girls to be active 

 

Researchers have endeavoured to identify strategies to encourage girls to be 

active and thus experience the tangible and intangible advantages of an active 

life. Some strategies are drawn from practice, while others have been 

developed to address barriers and enhance enablers identified, particularly in 

qualitative studies. 

 

3.4.1 Girls-only spaces, groups, and events 

 

Female skateboarders identified the presence of other women at skate parks 

as a critical enabling element to their participation (Atencio et al., 2009). 

Participating in physical activities with same-sex peers enhances girls’ 

enjoyment of physical activities because negative comments and criticism from 

boys reduces girls’ opportunity to enjoy sport and active recreation (Bailey et 

al., 2005; Brown et al., 2008; Whitehead & Biddle, 2008; Slater & Tiggemann, 

2010; Burrows & McCormack, 2011; Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, 



 

 

42 

 

2012; Bocarro et al., 2015; Lauderdale et al., 2015). Access to physical activity 

spaces that are not dominated by boys and that provide for a range of sporting 

and recreational activities would therefore be likely to support girls to be more 

active (Beighle et al., 2006