It is hard to believe women still have to struggle in today’s day and age. Women today in a world prominently dominated by males in the sports world face a double standard in the pro sports world. Women have been fighting for centuries in order to achieve the same success and respect that men do in this world. Women in sports are often seen as a different; their consider being in-women like. They have to work twice as hard in order for them to achieve what there seeking, which is mainly equality. Despite all the progress double standard does exist for women, they are constantly judged for their actions on and off the field. Aggression can often be used as an advantage while playing any type of sports. In soccer match played by the University of New Mexico and Brigham Young. The game receives a lot of attention because there was an incident involving two opposing sides. They suspended Elizabeth Lambart one of the players from the University of New Mexico. I recently watched the video of the matched played on the internet. The incident was nothing more than two players were Flores 2 getting caught up in the heat of the battle and exchanging a few swings and punches. NCAA made a decision and suspended Elizabeth Lambart indefinitely. In an interview done by Jere Longman of Anson Dorrance the coach of North Carolina women’s soccer team she says: “Women play with just as much intensity, work ethics and sometimes aggression as guys. But although men can be celebrated for extreme aggression, like knocking out a quarterback in the NFL, women are held to a different standard,” Dorrance said. (Longman) I have to agree with Anson Dorrance men are constantly showing this kind of behavior in sports all the time, but the media mai... ... middle of paper ... ... the respect they so dearly deserve? There has been progressed made, but more needs to be done in order for the scale to be balanced. It would take a lot of effort in both sides of the party, but it’s something that could be done. The women will need to find a way to prove to the men that they should be paid equally and acquire the same respect. Works Citied 1. Buzinski, Jim “Why Mike Piazza Got All the Attention While Sue Wicks Was Ignored” Outsports Columns. July 10, 2002 2. Longman, Jere “For All the Wrong Reasons, Women’s Soccer is Noticed” New York Times. Published November 11, 2009 Page B15. 3. Navratilova, Martina “Men and Women in sports: the playing field is far from level” USA Today November 1996. 4. Salter F., David “Crashing the Old Boys Network: the tragedies and triumphs of Girls and Women in Sports” Praeger Publishers .September 30, 1996
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
“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 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.
As we can see there are both positive and negative experiences for women entering a sport, whether it is non-traditional or traditional. The great thing about being human is that we have the opportunity and freedom to choose how we are going to let other people affect us. We, as women especially, have the greatest opportunity of them all; we have the chance to teach societies and help them grow. Not many people have the power to change society but women athletes are taking that power and using it well. No matter how hard it gets to be and no matter how much you want to give up a sport because of someone else's negative vibes remember that the cultural costs do not outweigh the benefits. The greatest achievement is to raise above all the negativity and be a role model for younger athletes; the best possible reward is to hear another athlete want to be just like you.
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.
Gender discrimination is prominent in every industry, but it is as though the sport industry is one of the worst. Women in the work force currently receive only 80 cents to every man’s dollar (Holmes, 2016). However, female athletes both in America and internationally receive a far lesser compensation for their attributes. The only difference of the sports being played is who plays them. There should be no reason why a male athlete receives better pay simply because he had a 50% chance of being born a man. At birth, no one controls the gender, but as they grow and mature, they control their personality and development. Payment should be on personal skills and not gender. As a female STHM student focusing on sport management and a former athlete,
... to men and sports, people say boys grow up with appreciation of what girls can do. “ Gender equity, at heart, is about an ideal of sport, the ideal of fairness.” (Currie, Stephen) When it comes to women and sports, it has never been the same amount as when men watch it. Tickets to get into women sports are way cheaper compared to men. Fans even say that women basketball is way more interesting to watch. Even the men that appreciate women sports, they attend the games, they see it as excitement. A national magazine says, “women just lack the strive, or the manic sports - spectator gene.”
Within todays sporting community, certain aspects of sport and its practices promote and construct ideas that sport in general is a male dominated. Sports media often provides an unequal representation of genders. Women athletes are regularly perceived as mediocre in comparison to their male equivalents (Lenskyj, 1998). Achievement in sport is generally established through displays of strength, speed and endurance, men usually set the standards in these areas, consequently woman rarely reach the level set by top male athletes. Due to this, the media significantly shows bias towards male sports while we are ill-informed about the achievements in the female sporting community. On the occasion that a female athlete does make some form of an appearance in the media, images and videos used will usually portray the female in sexually objectified ways (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). This depiction of female athletes can cause males to take focus solely on the sexual assets of the athlete in preference to to their sporting abilities (Daniels & Wartena, 2011). Sexualisation of sportswoman in the media is a prevalent issue in today’s society, it can cause physical, social and mental problems among women of all ages (Lenskyj, 1998).
The report will refer to the sociological perspective of women’s sport in Australia which leads to the changes within women’s sport, Athletics at Brisbane Girls Grammar, women’s sport in the media and then an evaluation and recommendation on the topic ‘Women in Sport’.
...ing on strong: Gender and sexuality in twentieth-century women's sport. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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
In some ways, women today face more pressure to be perfect than ever before in history. The feminine ideal of the past has been replaced by a new face — stronger and more independent, but under no less pressure to conform to society's expectations than her predecessors. Today's woman must be all that she was in the past, and more. In addition to being beautiful, feminine, and demure, she must also be physically fit and academically and socially successful. It is no longer appropriate for a woman to depend on anyone, for that would imply subordinance and inferiority. Instead, woman must fill all of these roles on her own. Although achieving independence is an important step for women, it brings added pressure. This is especially visible in films about women in sport. These women experience these pressures at an intense level. They are expected to be phenomenal athletes, and are not held to a lower standard than men. However, they must also be beautiful — if they are not, they face the possibility of discrimination. Added to this is the pressure that they are representative of the entire gender. Films about women in sports show the intense pressure on female athletes to fulfill all aspects of the ideal woman.
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.