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Seed Grant Awardee: Mako Ward

Mako Ward | School of Social Transformation

This study proposes to examine the experiences of Black professional womxn working within the sports industry. This includes collegiate and professional sports organizations, traditional and digital sports media platforms, personal life coaching, advertising and branding, and other related fields. “Black Womxn Thriving” is a larger national study to examine how professional Black womxn across the gender spectrum find joy, success, and stability at work, along with the role of organizations to cultivate environments of care that promote the values of inclusion, equity, and diversity in the workplace. Key research questions include: What are the personal and organizational barriers for Black womxn advancing in sports-related organizations? How do the work climates in sports-related organizations contribute to Black womxn’s personal and professional success? What are the personal and network strategies that Black womxn employ to find joy, success, and stability in the sports industry?

This research draws from the transdisciplinary, intersectional literature on race, gender, and labor within the fields of women and gender studies, sociology, and African American studies. The national project is led by Ericka Hines, Principal of Every Level Leadership, inclusion and equity firm that provides strategies to help corporate, nonprofit, philanthropic, and governmental organizations implement thoughtful leadership pathways and organizational cultures based on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) models. This project is a university-corporate sponsorship led by Black womxn researchers and DEI strategists. As a collaborative project, the study will use a participatory action research methodology to develop data-driven solutions for Black womxn workers and organizations committed to promoting this stakeholder group. Data collection methods will include a survey, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews with key informants. Seed funding from the Global Sport Institute will be used to seek foundation and corporate funding to support the dissemination of the research findings and strategies. Dissemination efforts will include a research report, development of a website, virtual conference, and webinar series, a podcast, journal publications, and op-eds.

This research will contribute to understanding the experiences of Black womxn across the sports industry. Their narratives and the data will inform new pathways to leadership and drive increased participation of diverse voices in the workplace. This study enhances the existing work of the Global Sport Institute and this year’s theme of “Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Sport” by engaging an intersectional approach to collecting data from cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming Black womxn in the sports fields. This project expands the research on sports and society through its robust engagement with gender and labor studies during a time where professional athletes and organizations are standing with the Black Lives Matter movement. This public spectacle of social transformation creates the conditions to examine questions of accountability to underrepresented Black workers across the sports industry, especially Black womxn.

Last updated April 2021.