September 20th, 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of Billie Jean King’s climactic victory against Bobby Riggs in an exhibition match nicknamed “Battle of the Sexes”. Throughout her career, Billie Jean King won six Wimbledon singles championships and four U.S. Open titles. She was ranked number one in the world for five years. She defeated many great players, wrote a book, became an advocate for women’s sports. Yet of all the wonderful things that King has done over the years, the one that is remembered most of all is her victory against Bobby Riggs in September of 1973 (Schwartz, 2014). Perhaps this isn’t a sad story. Although King will be most known for this one match, maybe it was a turning point in the fight for women’s equality in sports. Riggs had badgered King for many years saying that he could beat her, antagonizing her with many sexist comments including “the best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot” (Greenspan, 2013). When King finally accepted the match, it was under the guise that she believed that it would finally allow people to see that women should be accepted as equals in sports. Although this match had a happy ending, still over forty years later, women still fight to be accepted as equals in sports. Through Title IX and stories like Billie Jean King’s, women have begun to fight for their rightful place in the sporting world. Although women have made many breakthroughs into men’s sports, there is still so much to do, so many hurdles to overcome, and so many miles to travel before equity in men’s and women’s sports can be achieved. Although there are many things to still be achieved in this battle, I believe that one way to gain more acceptance as equals in the arena of sport is f... ... middle of paper ... ...ttp://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/02/jen-welter-becomes-first-woman-to-play-in-mens-pro-football-league-at-non-kicking-position Messner, Michael A. (2002). Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports. Minneapolis, Minnesota: The University of Minnesota Press. Schwartz, Larry (2014). Billie Jean Won for All Women. ESPN.com. Retrieved from: http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016060.html Squiers, Sam. (2013). Is Women Playing In Men’s Leagues a Step Forward. Sky News. Retrieved from: http://www.dailylife.com.au/health-and-fitness/is-women-playing-in-mens-leagues-a-step-forward-20130502-2iuyg.html Women’s Sports Foundation (2009). Women’s Sports & Fitness Facts & Statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/en/home/research/articles-and-reports/athletes/~/media/PDFs/WSF%20Research%20Reports/WSF%20FACTS%20March%202009.ashx.
Turn on ESPN, and there are many female sports reporters, and many reports on female athletes. Flip through Sports Illustrated, and female athletes are dotted throughout the magazine. Female athletes star in the commercials. Female athletes are on the cover of newspapers. Millions of books have been sold about hundreds of female athletes. However, this has not always been the case. The number of females playing sports nowadays compared to even twenty years ago is staggering, and the number just keeps rising. All the women athletes of today have people and events from past generations that inspired them, like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, Billie Jean King, and the 1999 United States Women’s World
Hult explains that in the era between 1890-1920, women physical educators were a tightly knit, dedicated group committed to a tradition of restricted competition, self-governance, and a feminine approach to individual and team sports. They believed that all girls and women should have the opportunity to participate and enjoy sport, not only the talented elite as in the competition-driven male philosophical structure (87). Play-days and sport-days with emphasis on team building games were a means of perpetuating an image of an ideal American female athlete: feminine, beautiful, strong, yet always 'aware of her delicate reproductive system' (89).
Billie Jean King is known as not only one of the best female tennis players of all time, but also as one of the leading activist in the LGBT community. Billie Jean King was born on November 22, 1943 in Long Beach, California. As a child King decided that she wanted to be the best women’s tennis player in the world, and she accomplished her goal in 1967. She went on to win multiple grand slams and went down as one of the best to ever play the game. King was married for 22 years from 1965 to 1987 even though she came out as lesbian in 1981 amid a lawsuit from her former female lover. King was one of the first openly gay athletes and she did not shy away from the public scrutiny that came along with it at the time. She lost all her sponsorships
The Akron Racers are social agents combating the gender based inequalities, and the players are pioneers for advocating a much needed cultural shift in the institutional structure of softball. A large portion of eliminating these stereotypes and preconceptions surrounding softball will be changing the way we transform the children’s foundation of sport (Rauscher and Cooky, 2015; Buning, 2015). Rauscher and Cooky argue the cultural shift will only occur if adolescents develop leadership through an empowering and protective setting (Rauscher and Cooky, 2015). For example, Messner highlights that the “gender regimes of children’s sports may be increasingly challenged”, when post Title-IX women and, “heroic female athletes become more a part of the cultural landscape for children, (Dworkin and Messner 1999)” (Messner, 2015). In addition, Heaphy’s solution to combating the inequalities has high correlation with Rauscher and Messner’s ideology regarding a cultural shift through social agents (i.e. the Akron Racers) that empower children. The documentary displays the Akron Racers are activists towards the cultural shift of softball because, during
Female educators in the early 1900’s strived to control the participation of women in sport, establishing certain constraints in order to maintain a male-dominated sports sphere. Athletic activity was healthy; yet too much athletic activity was rigorous and harmful to the female body. At the same time, though, these educators made a point to stress the presence of femininity in sport—which directly contributed to the introduction of sexuality into sport. If the educators of the early 1900’s did not have such an overbearing presence in female sport, maybe there would be no discussion about the swimming suit modeling of Amanda Beard, or the sexy, controversial, eccentric outfits Serena Williams shows off while playing at Wimbledon.
“The past three decades have witnessed a steady growth in women's sports programs in America along with a remarkable increase in the number of women athletes (Daniel Frankl 2)” From an early age women were thought to be “Lady Like”; they are told not to get all sweaty and dirty. Over 200 years since Maud Watson stepped on the tennis courts of Wimbledon (Sports Media Digest 3); women now compete in all types and levels of sports from softball to National racing. Soccer fans saw Mia Hamm become the face of women’s soccer around the world, Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most popular figures in tennis, and Indy car racing had their first woman racer, Danika Patrick. With all the fame generated by these women in their respective sports, they still don’t receive the same compensation as the men in their respective sports fields.
In the essay, “Move over Boys, Make Room in the Crease,” the author, Sarah Maratta, explains the bias against women’s involvement in sports. Maratta states the claim that women should be treated as equal in their aspirations to be involved in sports. Maratta grew up her entire life loving sports; in particular, she was quite fond of hockey. In this essay, we find out that not only does she have a passion for the icy and mostly Canadian sport, but that she has a desire to see women treated fairly in all aspects of the sporting world. While discussing the flaws and ill-treatments of women in the sports industry and society, she conveys a sense of urgency in making sports completely unbiased toward gender and about the true love of the games.
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.
Unintentionally, a lot of us have been boxed into institutions that promote gender inequality. Even though this was more prominent decades ago, we still see how prevalent it is in today’s world. According to the authors of the book, Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions, Lisa Wade and Myra Marx Ferree define gendered institutions as “the one in which gender is used as an organizing principle” (Wade and Ferree, 167). A great example of such a gendered institution is the sports industry. Specifically in this industry, we see how men and women are separated and often differently valued into social spaces or activities and in return often unequal consequences. This paper will discuss the stigma of sports, how gender is used to separate athletes, and also what we can learn from sports at Iowa State.
Krane, V. (2001). We can be athletic and feminine, but do we want to? Challenging hegemonic femininity in women's sport. Quest, 53,115-133.
Women’s participation in sport is at an all-time high and has almost become equal to men’s, however. Sports media does not fail to show this equality and skews the way we look at these athletes. Through the disciplines of sociology and gender studies, it can be seen that despite the many gains of women in sports since the enactment of Title IX, “traditional” notions of masculinity and femininity still dominate media coverage of males and females in sports, which is observed in Olympic programming and sports news broadcasts. Sociology is a growing discipline and is an important factor in the understanding of different parts of society. Sociology is “a social science that studies human societies, their interactions, and the processes that preserve and change them” (Faris and Form P1).
The first perspective is that women are disadvantaged at any sport. Some people reiterate the difference of men and women in sports. This is influenced by strength and the natural power men hold, comparable to women. Rodriguez questions “Is this because female athletes don’t have what it takes to make it in the world of sports or could it be more of a social issue?” This perspective seems to be a social issue based on the notable skills women acquire vs. the apparent judgments of gender issues. The second perspective is the idea that women deserve and inherently earn their right of equal attention and equal pay. “Sometimes, the secret to equality is not positive discrimination, it 's equal terms. It 's the shrug of the shoulders that says "what 's the difference?" The moment worth aspiring for is not seeing people celebrate the world-class female cricketer who competes at comparatively low-level male professional cricket, but the day when people are aware that she does, and don 't find it notable at all” (Lawson). Lawson makes it a point to confirm the biased notions against women in sports and relay an alternative worth working toward and fighting for. Both outlooks can be biased but only one has factual evidence to back it up. The second perspective reviews an ongoing gender issue. This problem is welcome for change depending on society’s
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...
Whether its baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, or tennis, sports is seen all over the world as a representation of one’s pride for their city, country, and even continent. Sports is something that is valued world-wide which has the ability to bring communities together and create different meanings, beliefs and practices between individuals. Although many people may perceive sports to have a significant meaning within our lives, it can also have the ability to separate people through gender inequalities which can also be represented negatively throughout the media. This essay will attempt to prove how gender is constructed in the sports culture while focusing on female athletes and their acceptance in today’s society.