The demography of Nike, Helena, and Melpomene: A feminist socio-legal analysis of athletic gender equity via sports law

The purpose of this research is to examine women's increased participation in elite sport and determine what theoretical approach best explains the dramatic increase. Socio-legal, legal geographic, and feminist sports theory explanations are discussed using information gathered in a patchwork case study on four nations: Canada, the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Australia. Findings indicate that despite national legal and bureaucratic variance, women's participation in elite sport in these nations has increased. The study concludes that while the three theoretical approaches offer informative reasoning for the multi-national increase in women's elite sport participation, a synthesis of the three theoretical frameworks---a feminist legal demography---provides the best explanation for women's increased participation in elite sport. Such an approach provides a new, more comprehensive understanding as to the ways in which legal and bureaucratic actions function to impact women's participation in elite sport.