The power dynamics of ultrarunning
Bethan Taylor-Swaine is the Feminist Sports Sociologist and wants to use ultra trail races as the starting point for conversations about a woman’s place in the world
It’s all right there in her handle of Feminist Sports Sociologist, but Bethan Taylor-Swaine talks about positioning herself as an activist academic. She wants to use the skills and knowledge she’s learnt from a PhD in Sports Psychology to effectively communicate the big issues facing us in ultrarunning, and offer some easy-to-digest solutions.
Ultrarunning then:
1650% increase in participation since 1996
350% increase in participation since 2010
Women are regularly half of the top 10 finishers
41% now run multiple ultras per year (up from 14%)
75% of participants are male
95% of participants are white - we’ll broach this bit more fully soon
To be clear: ~75% of ultrarunners are white males. The sport has the same level of diversity of the boardrooms at the American executive level. Whether you think that’s a good or a bad thing will determine how well you accept the information in the rest of this article.
It’s widely accepted that the more diverse a company is, the more profitable it is, so why isn’t there more diversity in the boardroom? It makes financial sense, after all. It’s literally the bottom line!
Power dynamics. Simple. Established leaders resist change.
I promise you that this is still about running. Running is, after all, a microcosm of wider society, and Western society is stuck in the 1800s as it continues to hover around the post-industrial ideals of Muscular Christianity, a religious movement characterized by “a belief in patriotic duty, discipline, self-sacrifice, masculinity, and the moral and physical beauty of athleticism.” It’s the idea of men being strong. It’s the idea of grit and determination being the key to sporting success. Sound familiar?
