Reclaiming leisure: the resourcefulness of women-only running groups in Qatar

This study examines how women-only running groups in Qatar navigate resource dependencies that shape their capacity to facilitate women’s sport participation. Drawing on interviews with 20 participants across four groups, the analysis identifies three interrelated dimensions structuring participation: moral authorization, through which running is framed as health-oriented and culturally legitimate; spatial and symbolic enablers, including access to private environments, women-only race events, and curated public visibility; and relational resource strategies, encompassing community-building, stakeholder negotiation, culturally aligned leadership, and accessible financial models. Rather than positioning gender-exclusive spaces as transitional accommodations, the findings demonstrate how such environments function as participation-enabling infrastructures by aligning ambition, visibility, and legitimacy with locally resonant norms. Integrating resource dependency theory with feminist leisure scholarship, the study reconceptualizes women-only sport groups as organizational actors that strategically manage asymmetrical power conditions and reshape their resource environments through cultural alignment rather than direct confrontation with prevailing cultural and institutional norms. The analysis contributes to debates on gender, legitimacy, and participation by illustrating how culturally embedded constraints can be transformed into enabling conditions. Practical implications include expanding access to private sport spaces, supporting culturally aligned leadership development, and recognizing relational and symbolic resources as central to sustainable participation pathways.