Women of Asian descent and their self identification and involvement in sport and physical activity

Much of the literature regarding women of Asian descent in the United States goes back to the 1800s; this is around the same time documentation of Asian immigrants began to be recorded. Since this time, it has been historically noted that women of Asian descent and Asian American women have been marginalized and overlooked with regard to issues of mainstream American culture and research, especially in areas such as politics, economics, race, class, gender, health, sports, and, of course, the media. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to reveal how a selection of women of Asian descent self-identify racially and ethnically, and, to explore the perspectives of women of Asian descent regarding experiences in sport and/or physical activity. There were seven co-participants involved in this study, and five themes with corresponding subthemes which emerged from these interviews. The first four themes, Imposed Identity, Embraced Identity, Fractured Identity, and Experience of Extended Identity through Sport all pertain to how the co-participants experience identity. The fifth theme, Experiences regarding Sport and/or Physical Activity, reflects the emergent commonalities of experiences shared by the co-participants.