Gender inequality in sports endorsement; Identifying the obstacles to the presence of Iranian female athletes in sports advertisements

Abstract
A special type of advertising and customer communication is called endorsement, which is done by using famous people. In this advertising method, famous people often introduce the company's products and services to customers by appearing in the company's advertisements and allowing them to use their name and image (Fink et al., 2004). In recent years, the use of famous athletes in advertisements has become more common; Because, due to the popularity of athletes and the media's attention to them, their influence on consumer behavior is very high (Gupta et al., 2022). Famous athletes are able to give special meaning and concept to products and services and associate them with their success and sports performance. Therefore, the use of athletes in advertisements is an effective marketing strategy for companies that are trying to increase the reputation and popularity of their brand and strengthen their sales (Farahani et al., 2020). But the presence of men in advertising and endorsements has been more prominent and the opportunities for the presence of female athletes in such issues have been less (Fink, 2008). Fink et al (2004) noted that female athletes likely earn less through endorsements because they are less likely to be selected as endorsers than their male counterparts. In fact, sport is known as a male domain that reinforces traditional gender norms (Larkin et al., 2021). Although in Iran some male athletes, especially in the field of football, are used to a certain extent for approval, but prominent female athletes are not used publicly and apparently there is no clear mechanism for the presence of women in this area; This is while in developed countries, companies use female sports stars like men for endorsement according to the type of their product. Therefore, the main problem of this research is, what are the most important obstacles to the presence of Iranian women athletes in sports advertisements as endorsers? The current research is a description of the survey type and the mixed research method is a combination of qualitative and quantitative parts. In the qualitative section, semi-structured qualitative interviews were used. The implementation steps of this research can be described in the form of 2 general studies. In the first study, based on the fuzzy Delphi method, the most important obstacles to the presence of Iranian female athletes in sports advertisements as validators were identified from the experts' point of view. In the second study, the factors obtained from the first study were distributed among the members of the statistical sample in the form of a questionnaire suitable for the fuzzy hierarchical analysis process, in order to rank the obtained factors using appropriate statistical methods. . The statistical population of this research included female athletes with the following conditions: 1- history of being a member of the national team for at least 5 years; 2- History of winning medals in international competitions; 3- At least a bachelor's degree in the field of sports science or fields related to the subject of research (management, social sciences, law and media). With the follow-up and contact with the athletes who had the conditions to enter the research, 24 people formed the members of the society's Delphi panel. 17 of them cooperated with the researcher as a research sample. according to Delphi panel, Inequality in the media coverage of women's sports, inadequacy with some products, traditional attitudes towards women, the male-dominated cultural structure of the country's sports, the lack of awareness of one's own abilities in female athletes, religious prejudices, the limitation of women's coverage in advertisements and the greater popularity of male athletes. Obstacles to the presence of Iranian female athletes in sports advertisements were identified for validation. In order to rank the obtained factors, the fuzzy AHP method was used; According to this method, religious prejudices are the most important obstacle to the presence of Iranian sportswomen in sports advertisements as endorsers, and after that, according to the male-dominated cultural structure of the country's sports, the traditional attitude towards women and inequality in the media coverage of women's sports are ranked second to fourth. Hallmann et al (2022) stated that, based on social gender stereotypes, sport is considered masculine; This perception makes women less visible, less welcome, and less supported in male-dominated sports advertising. According to this finding, it is suggested to the authorities of the country's radio and television to improve the television coverage of women's sports and broadcast more matches live so that female athletes are recognized in the society as well as men. This is despite the fact that the physical and gender difference and ignoring women compared to men in the field of sports is more of a social and cultural issue than it is related to their nature. This issue is more acute in developing countries such as Iran, as Farahani et al (2020) stated, in Iran, women's sports in some disciplines or their presence in sports fields are opposed, which is a form of gender discrimination in Iran. The importance of female athletes is also very evident. In recent years, Iranian female athletes have shown potential in some sports fields, and if space is provided for their presence, they can become champions in the world arena. Therefore, based on the results of this research, the view of women should be changed and some of the religious prejudices and negative attitudes towards them should be changed. If society wants young girls to develop well and fulfill their potential, good role models are essential, and as role models, female athletes have many positive qualities. As Statz et al (2022) reported regarding the use of female celebrities as endorsers in magazines for teenage girls, the use of female athletes has a great impact on young girls' sports tendencies, which confirms the results of the present research. But at the same time, in Iran, women are used much less in advertisements and there is more of a gender perspective on this issue. Regarding religious prejudices, Hussain & Cunningham (2021) reported that although participation in sports seems to be an individual choice, culture and religion are also reasons for inequality between men and women in sports; At the same time, many Muslim countries have provided the way for the progress and advancement of women to become champions and winners. According to this finding, families are advised to reconsider the type of bias towards girls in raising their children, so that girls can freely participate in the society and reduce the bias towards them.