I related very well to the situation with your daughters. My daughter could never understand my love of golf. She could not relate until she moved out, got married and would love to play golf now, but does not have access to a club. Now she has a daughter and as much as she would like her to get involved it becomes difficult. Without trying to sound sexist girls seem to be more social and need their friends to play, so it appears "COOL" When you stated that golf needs women, you were right on target, but the converse is also true. Women need golf. As women are continuing as a larger part of the work force, golf can only help their career. It is the greatest game one can play to build relationships.We're excerpting from this thoughtful letter from Sue Shapcott, a Massachusetts PGA Professional, who once played on the European and Asian Tours, was a member of the European Curtis Cup team, became a teaching pro and eventually Director of Instruction at Dallas' busiest public course, and then embarked on a Masters at Arizona State in Educational Psychology, with special emphasis on education and motivation. She responded to the question Jerry asked in his column: "How do we get women to play?" Her masters thesis took on that very question.Charlie Miller
Dear Jerry,
The findings of my master's thesis suggest that women explain their golf performances in maladaptive ways. They also perceive themselves as significantly less successful than male golfers. Both of these measures are predictors of motivation and, in addition, can be changed. My dissertation explores the role of golf instructors in the formation of female golfers' motivation -- including the implicit beliefs golf instructors hold about female golfers and how those beliefs affect the type of feedback they give to female students. The type of feedback we receive affects subsequent motivation and the phenomenon of stereotype threat. There are many factors in golf, from a motivational perspective, that are likely to reduce the motivation of women playing golf. Perhaps the most important one that hasn't been addressed is that the golf industry has less than 4% of women in "expert" roles. Successful female role models are necessary to increase motivation of other women. Female role models also breakdown the incongruence with women's female identity and golf, and increase the likelihood of women feeling golf is something for them. Golf Digest's "Women Undercover" article is a nice piece -- but as the article acknowledges, it is not a scientific experiment. I am a developing psychometrically sound scale to measure how golf professionals respond to female golfers. The golf industry should be measuring these things empirically and if we are serious about getting more women to play golf, I don't understand why we aren't. The golf industry commissions market survey questionnaires to try and assess why women don't like golf -- but the surveys may not capture underlying constructs that are at the heart of why women don't play golf and while research continues to be conducted unscientifically, we will continue to chase our tails. When I started my research at Arizona State University I applied to governing bodies of golf for funding. Each organization told me that funding was unavailable. I submitted my master's thesis results to the golf industry's organizations -- with suggestions on how the findings can inform how we teach female golfers to increase their motivation and persistence -- and received no feedback. This experience is why, after 20 years in the golf industry, I still hear people asking, "How do we get women to play?" I question whether, in fact, we really want to know the answers. Thank you for revisiting the question of why women don't persist in golf. If you have any interest, I would be happy to share my research with you in more detail.
Sue Shapcott, PGA, MA
Bob Carney
Rating
Comments
Post A Comment