Women and Sports in Antiquity to the Present
The Olympics and other competitive games in antiquity played a large role in the lives of all citizens in ancient Greece and Rome. One major exclusion that came with the presence of competitive games in the past was the lack of women in sports and athletics. Sporting life in antiquity started out rarely including females and produced a society or culture that promoted gender differences. Over time women were seen more frequently in sporting culture and were put on the same spectrum in contrast to males regarding athleticism.
To see how the participants in sporting events changed over time accurately, it is important to look at athletics and competitive events as a series or timeline. One of the
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Women began to participate in athletic events when a set of games created specifically for females were ran every four years, just as The Olympics were. However, the competition was still separate from men and there were special considerations made that created distinct differences between the two. Although women were included, the specific events were made more accessible for females, even if they were fully capable to compete in the male events. The track on which the popular track and field events took place was 1/6 shorter than the male track and women were required to wear different attire as the men were. These differences may seem slight, but they create a division of …show more content…
Holding a position in power, such as Lykourgos, can hold an opinion to change others thoughts and values. This is exactly how women’s role in athletics went from unnecessary, to minute, to valued. After years of inequality, women began to be seen as useful in society. Their involvement in athletics, and generally in community life increased greatly. Women may still not be seen as equal to me, but as time passed (closer to the renaissance period), they were seen as comparable to men:
As many were wounded and not a few killed, the women caught up the weapons of the fallen and fought beside their men, since the acuteness of the danger and the fierceness of the action forced them to be brave beyond their nature. Some of them, clad in armour, sheltered behind the same shields as their husbands, while others rushed in without armour, grasped the opposing shields, and hindered their use by the enemy. 6 Finally, fighting women and all, they were overborne by numbers and cut down, winning a glorious death in preference to basely saving their lives at any cost. Alexander removed the feeble and unarmed together with the surviving women to another place, and put the cavalry in charge of
From 1892 to 2002 women had proven to be very powerful whether it be something as little as gaining the rights to a divorce or something as big as the rights to vote and the same opportunities in vocation, women have shown that they are willing to do whatever it takes to gain equal rights and have prospered as a result (Doc #2, #8). An anonymous photographer (Doc #2) captures an image of one of the 2% of women athletes in the 1908 Olympic games held in Great Britain, Sybil Newall. The photographer shows that a factor that stopped the Olympics was the allowance of new rights for women and new opportunities for them to rise socially and participate in the modern Olympic games. The photographer shows this because during this time period in Western Europe women gained the ability to represent their country or nation at a new level, similar to what happened with woman’s suffrage. Hassiba Boulmerka (Doc #8) an Algerian competitor in the 1992 Olympics held in Spain believes that her victories give her confidence and she represents women aspiring to be athletes and to achieve it they need to b...
Most schools had physical education classes for girls only; they did not play any kind of sports like they do now. Some educators thought that running and jumping were not very ladylike. They opposed athletic competition for women. Women had to fight for the right to compete. The most likely sport of girls was to compete in sports such as golf, tennis, or swimming.
...c competition. Men maintained their power over women through wealth because, without men, women wouldn’t have the possibility of attaining an education or job outside of the household. As new Roman laws eased restrictions on women from upper classes, heroines like Kyniska of Sparta and competitors in the Heraia games with the means to do so, blazed a trail of female identity in sport. Without the actions of courageous ancient women willing to risk life and death in the name of tolerance, the comparable participation of women and men in sports we see today would not exist. The inclusion of women in sport is certainly a critical development in the progress of women away from a position of inferiority in terms of physical ability, social status, and biological destiny to become more self-confident and to share the same positions of influence as men.
During that whole time men were only written about riding and taming these creatures, not women. Ancient Greece was a civilization where men did all the rough tasks while women stayed home caring for kids and cleaning. In a world characterized by male dominance, one woman stood out. Kyniska of Sparta was the most important visionary for women’s’ rights because of her understanding of class structure through participating in the Olympic Games. She became the first woman ever to win the four-horse chariot race with her own bred and tamed horses.
When the American people think of women in sports, they think of ice skating, field hockey, and diving. People don’t recognize that women have the potential to play any sport that a man can play, with equal skill, if not better. Much has changed for women since the 1970’s. One of the most important events that have happened in the world of female athletics is the establishment of professional athletics for women. Educational Amendments of 1972.
Throughout history, women have had to struggle for equality in all elements of our society, but no where have they had a more difficult time than in the area of athletics. Sports is a right of passage that has always been grafted to boys and men. The time has come for our society to accept women athletes and give them the attention they deserve.
It has taken many years for women to gain a semblance of equality in sports. Throughout history, women have been both excluded from playing sports and discriminated against in sports. Men’s sports have always dominated the college athletic field, but women were finally given a fighting chance after Title IX was passed. Title IX, among other things, requires scholarships to be equally proportioned between men and women’s sports. Although this was a huge gain for women, gender inequality still exists in sports today. An example of this persisting inequality can be seen when looking at men’s baseball and women’s softball. In college, baseball and softball are both major NCAA sports. It is widely accepted throughout today’s society that baseball is a man’s sport, and softball is a woman’s sport. Very few people question why the two sexes are separated into two different sports, or wonder why women play softball instead of baseball. Fewer people know that women have been essentially excluded from playing baseball for a long time. This paper will focus on why softball has not changed the way women’s basketball has, why women continue to play softball, the possibilities and dynamics of women playing baseball with and without men, and the most discriminating aspect of women being banned from playing professional baseball.
...se at the end of the race” (Smith, 1998, p. 8). Eyewitnesses proclaimed that women were in no more distress than men when they finished the race. The majority of the International Olympic Committee believed that track and field was too hard for women, and proposed other events, that included activities such as singing and dancing.
There has been claims saying that women are not as strong as men, women do not have the physical capability to play sports, and that a woman's place is in the home rather than on the playing field. These claims have been in existence since the beginning of time. Until pretty much the 19th century these claims kept woman from participating in any physical activities. Before this time men were the only ones allowed to be apart of the Olympics, participate in sports, and even attend these events. Women were basically only allowed to work around the house, cooking and cleaning. People would try to keep women from playing sports because they believed women are fragile and it has also been said that women do not have the skills or talents to play and compete alongside men.
The Ancient Olympics were huge in introducing sports and events that we now play. The sports that were played in the Ancient Olympics consisted of boxing, chariot racing, riding, pentathlon, discus, javelin, jump, running, and wrestling. All those sport would have never been played without the Greeks introducing them. These sports have become very popular and a lot of people play them. For example wrestling can be played at very young ages and all the way through high school. Another example is running, jumping, javelin, and discus which are all played in high school and some even in elementary.
Gender in sports has been a controversial issue ever since sports were invented. In the early years, sports were played only by the men, and the women were to sit on the sidelines and watch. This was another area of life exemplifying the sexism of people in which women were not allowed to do something that men could. However, over the last century in particular, things have begun to change.
“A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less. Equality is a given. A woman is human,” Vera Nazarian. Unfortunately now in the United States, women are being treated less than their male counterparts, especially when it comes to professional athletics. In an article entitled, Taking a Closer Look at the Gender Pay Gap in Sports, written by John Walters on newsweek.com, he exclaims, “Each player on the USWNT earns $99,000 per year provided the team wins 20 “friendlies” (exhibition matches), the minimum number of matches they would play. By contrast, each men’s player would earn $263,320 for the same feat and would still earn $100,000 if the team lost all 20 games.” Not only does this topic relate to the difference in pay for women and men in soccer but it also relates to all of the other sports like, basketball, tennis and the many other were males participate too in separate organizations. The topic on whether female athletes should be paid the same as their male counterparts, is a massive debate with two opposing sides. On one side of the debate, people believe male driven associations produce more revenue than female driven associations, the competition in male sports is more intense, and more fans want to see thunderous dunks and the athletic ability of males over the lesser abilities of what females can do. On the contrary, female athletics aren 't given the same recognition or praise, females go through the same types of workouts males go through and they participate in the same types of events, and females don 't have the same abilities as males due to the way they ar...
female athlete was still considered to be passive and weak, some would say women’s sports is a waste of time because women aren’t supposed to be playing sports because of the original stereotypes that woman are too feminine and too easy going to actually be a dominate figure in their sport.
Gender inequality in the United States is a serious problem, and it is often overlooked. It is a big issue, especially within sports. We live in a society where our culture prefers men 's sports over women 's. Labeling activities as feminine and masculine is a social construction based on stereotyped expectations regarding gender and perceived gender differences (McCullick, 2012). In 1972 Title IX was passed stating that, no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. This opened up athletics to women and girls (Education Amendment Act of 1972, 1972). Although
Ancient Olympics The ancient Olympics had some differences from the modern Games. There were fewer events, and only free men who spoke Greek could compete, instead of athletes from any country. Women where not allowed to even watch the games on penalty of death let alone play in them.. Also, the games were always held at Olympia in Greece instead of being moved around to different sites every time. But also they had some similarities to our modern Olympics, winning athletes were heroes who put their home towns on the map, and became financially sound for life. The conflict between the Olympic's ideals of sportsmanship and unity and the commercialism and political acts which accompany the Games where also present in ancient times. "Sotades at the ninety-ninth Festival was victorious in the long race and proclaimed a Cretan, as in fact he was. But at the next Festival he made himself an Ephesian, being bribed to do so by the Ephesian people. For this act he was banished by the Cretans."