Role conflict and burnout among elite Israeli female athletes engaged in" feminine" and" non-feminine" sports

The once-held presumed contradiction between female athleticism and femininity rested on a predominant Western societal view, which defined the roles of "athlete" and "female" as incompatible, because idealized images of the sporting life (e.g., strength, toughness, aggressiveness, and achievement) were said to conflict with Victorian-type ideals of femininity (e.g., grace, beauty, submissiveness, and passivity). Burnout-"a syndrome of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion coupled with feelings of low self-esteem or low self-efficacy, resulting from prolonged exposure to intense stress, and the strain reactions following from them" (Greenberg & Baron, 2003, p. 129)- is, in essence, a multidimensionally defined, processually developing state of overwhelming exhaustion (physical, emotional, and mental), cynicism and inefficacy, caused by a person's long-term interaction with demanding situations in a chronically stressful environment