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 …show more content…
The All-American Professional Girls Baseball League was the first, and only, female baseball league in history. This league was developed during World War II when “ in the interests of patriotism, women were encouraged to do all the things normally reserved for men” (Johnson XIX). At the time the book, When Women Played Hardball, was written in 1994, no other professional sports team had lasted as long as this baseball league. The league lasted a solid nine years. These women did not just play baseball, they broke records. “ Kurys, the "Flint Flash", stole 201 bases [in a season]. Her career tally of 1114 stolen bases is a professional baseball record...She [Joanne Weaver] is tied for the fourth best batting average in the history of professional baseball, and she's the last player in the history of the game to bat over .400” (XXII/XXIII Johnson). Today, these women still hold records in major league baseball. At the peak of the league in 1948, the league “ consisted of 10 teams that entertained nearly 1,000,000 fans in middle sized Midwestern cities” (XXI Johnson). Every team attracted loyal and enthusiastic fans. At first, crowds came to the game to see the unusual sight of women playing baseball, but soon kept coming back because of the level of play and because they enjoyed watching the game. Every woman in that league just …show more content…
In 1991 there was so little media interest in the event, almost no one even knew the United States had a team, and even less people knew that the United States won. Eight years later, “tickets sales reached 388,000,” more than triple the amount of sales in the 1995 Women’s World Cup (Longman). FIFA was depending on this World Cup to gain popularity, they needed more interest to spark people to play. If the United States had not won, it was predicted that not many in the suburban would not have much interest in soccer. Millions of young girls across the United States came to this event. After the World Cup it “will celebrate the explosive growth of soccer for women in the United States, where 7.5 million female players are registered, according to a recent survey by the Soccer Industry Council of America, a trade group. In suburbia, where the game flourishes, girls' soccer has become as popular as sport utility vehicles” (Longman). This World Cup team changed the perspective that soccer was only for males. “‘ We're fighting the myths and prejudices that women's soccer felt in the U.S. in the 70's,'' said Andrea Rodebaugh… 'That there are sports for boys and sports for girls and that soccer is not for girls, not feminine’” (Longman). This team changed the lives for many girls. The team gave little girls hope and faith they could make it in soccer. This team made them believe they could follow their passions.
"Over the decades, African American teams played 445-recorded games against white teams, winning sixty-one percent of them." (Conrads, pg.8) The Negro Leagues were an alternative baseball group for African American baseball player that were denied the right to play with the white baseball payers in the Major League Baseball Association. In 1920, the first African American League was formed, and that paved the way for numerous African American innovation and movements. Fences, and Jackie Robinson: The Biography, raises consciousness about the baseball players that have been overlooked, and the struggle they had to endure simply because of their color.
When softball was first thought of, this was not a problem as the game was played inside. It was originally used by baseball players to keep their muscles warm while having a little fun during the off season. When deciding what player to pick for this assignment, I had no problem at all. Jennie Finch is by far the most well-known softball player. Jennie was a three-time All-American pitcher and first baseman at the University of Arizona.
The WWII time period was a hard time for American families. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League helped to change the rights of women in the industrial world. Men took care of their responsibilities and served their time in war, but in the meantime, the world-winning women of the AAGPBL stormed the country by surprise. This league was a major success in our history and will leave its legacy among baseball fans for years to come.
In the early 20th century, baseball became the first professional sport to earn nationwide attention in America. Because it was our first national professional team sport, because of its immense popularity, and because of its reputation as being synonymous with America, baseball has been written about more than any other sport, in both fiction and non-fiction alike. As baseball grew popular so did some of the sportswriters who wrote about the game in the daily newspaper. Collectively, the sportswriters of the early 20th century launched a written history of baseball that transformed the game into a “national symbol” of American culture, a “guardian” of America’s traditional values, and as a “gateway” to an idealized past. (Skolnik 3) No American sport has a history as long—or as romanticized—as that of the game referred to as our “national pastime.”
“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.
Lopiano and Sommers agree that the amount of media coverage female athletes receive compared to male athletes indicates that female athletes are less valid. Lopiano and Sommers both point out that the media tends to highlight female athletes in action only during major events. Fortunately, for the male athletes, the tendency is different because no matter what time of the year it is, male events are always airing on the television. The media only decides to highlight events such as the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s basketball Final Four, Olympics, and World Cup soccer. Since the Olympic games and World Cup occurs every four years, the Final Four also known as the semi-final round are the rare eve...
In 1970 only 1 in 27 girls participated in high school sports, today that ratio is 1 in 3. Sports are a very important part of the American society. Within sports heroes are made, goals are set and dreams are lived. The media makes all these things possible by creating publicity for the rising stars of today. Within society today, the media has downplayed the role of the woman within sports. 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.
...ennis, basketball, soccer, and martial arts—have come from the days of cheerleading and synchronized swimming when she was growing up in the ’70s.” Disparities in media coverage and over-sexualized female athletes on magazine covers is something that needs to come to an end because of its effects on both male and female viewers, young and old, athletes and non-athletes. Both female and male athletics influence young people and shape their personality and morals as they mature. Retired WNBA player, Lisa Leslie credits her participation in basketball with shaping her character, as well as her career. “Sports can also help teenagers during an awkward time in their development.” (“Women’s Athletics: A Battle For Respect”). The solution is to come together as a society and identify how to balance the respect for female and male athletes in the media.
For this Women of Diversity Group Project, my group chose to write about female pioneers in sport. Within that category I chose female pioneers of softball. During this paper I will discuss the history of the sport and female participation in the sport. I will also give some statistics and make comparisons between females and males involved in softball and baseball.
The discrepancies in media coverage in coverage of female and children athletics have large gaps, but are gaining momentum in sharing equality. Major athletic leagues such as the NBA and FIFA World Cup have wide gaps in marketing and ratings for their male and female athletes. Children are future athletes and superstars, but as funding and coverage in athletics caters to the males, women are breaking the barriers to being in the spotlight of sport. Both genders contribute equally to athletics, and challenge the each other to accept new ideas and change. The sports world that has a single gender dominating the media is unjust.
Lesko, J. (2005). League History. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association. Retrieved for this paper Mar 20, 2014 from, http://www.aagpbl.org/index.cfm/pages/league/12/league-history
Over the past several decades, soccer has seen an incredible growth in the United States. More teams, players, and fans are sprouting up in a new era of the world’s most popular sport. The Men’s and Women’s U.S. National Team have both performed well in recent World Cups, showing their skill on the big stage. MLS (Major League Soccer) has explosively expanded as well, reaching many big cities and entertaining thousands of fans. Soccer is also becoming a popular sport among the nation’s youth, attracting hordes of young players. American soccer is finally finding its rightful place in the world.
Gender equality is a vast issue even in sports today, especially women’s soccer. Women’s soccer has been overlooked and pushed aside by many people around the globe. Each year, fewer and fewer people enjoy the sport of soccer and it is having an impact on both genders, but more so on females. The decrease in people appreciating women’s soccer has led to many problems for the female players. Women soccer players should receive the same field conditions as men, play in better stadiums, and receive a better pay.
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.
Throughout history, it is easy to recognize how African Americans have triumphed in sports. It is also enlightening and empowering to see and recognize the challenges that women faced in the past with achieving recognition in sports as compared to that of men.