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Focused Discussion
Aimee Vlachos  

Using postmodern feminism as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore how women surfers experience inequality in southern California and North Pacific Costa Rica, where surfing is woven into their culture. The central questions guiding this study were: How have women’s surf experiences in regards to inequality changed throughout their surfing journey? What social and/or institutional practices, if any, still exist to perpetuate inequality in women’s surfing? The literature reviewed—including research on the gender roles in action sports and media representation of women in sports, specifically female surfers —indicate that women surfers have not been provided the same opportunities as male athletes in the field. This study expands upon previous masters and doctorate work conducted by author Vlachos, Girls Don’t Surf, and offers a new intercultural perspective on matters pertaining gender and sport inequality. The relevance of this research resides on evidence of segregation in sports, such as surfing, based on the perceptions of women who were involved in a male-dominated sport, both in United States and Latin American societies. The study aims to assess whether an alternative sport, such surfing, is gender inclusive and whether dominant groups in sports often receive privilege and actively seek to protect their members (Cahn, 1994). With surfing being an individual sport, postmodern feminism puts the responsibility for change in the hands of the woman surfer. Anita Harris (2001) has argued that the current wave of feminism that we are in is a new style of in-your-face, girl-powered, do-it-yourselfers.