A scoping review of research about women in sport: A perspective from the island of Ireland

Abstract

Women remain under-represented in many sport settings, including as research participants. Additionally, there is often a lack of collective thinking and action across universities and the sport sector in research about women in sport, including on the island of Ireland. To support the strategic development of research within this region, we conducted a scoping review to systematically identify, analyse, and synthesise existing literature about women in sport on the island of Ireland. Following searches of electronic databases (APA PsycINFO, MEDLINE, SportDiscus, SocINDEX with Full Text) and manual searches up to December 2024, we included 274 peer-reviewed outputs. Research about women in sport in Ireland has grown significantly over the last five years, with 57.7 % of included studies published in print or online in the five years prior to the search (2020–2024). Following analysis of each study, we organised primary topics investigated into five main areas: injury (k = 86), sport performance (k = 72), sport, health and wellbeing (k = 65), society and culture (k = 38), and coaching and professional practice (k = 13). We identified numerous trends, including the dominance of cross-sectional research designs and quantitative methods, tendency to conduct research through a monodisciplinary lens, and inconsistent reporting of sex/gender in published literature. While this review highlights research priorities specific to the island of Ireland, it offers a template for other regions to replicate and some relevant learning for researchers worldwide in their respective and collective efforts to improve the experiences of women in sport.