Equalizing or Reinforcing? The Impact of Organized Sports Club Membership on Gender Role Attitudes

ABSTRACT

Despite the egalitarian potential of voluntary sports organizations, existing evidence remains inconclusive as to whether membership in organized sports clubs reinforces or challenges traditional gender role attitudes. Drawing on data from 65,378 respondents across 50 countries in Wave 7 of the World Values Survey, this study examines the relationship between organized sports club membership and individuals' gender role attitudes. The main finding shows that organized sports club membership is associated with more traditional gender role attitudes—particularly among men—and that this association remains statistically significant across different levels of national development, gender inequality, and democratization. Cross‐level interaction analyses further indicate that the relationship is contextually contingent: higher levels of national democratization attenuate the association between sports club membership and traditional gender role attitudes. These results remain robust after using propensity score matching to correct for potential self‐selection bias arising from non‐random selection into sports club membership.