Women and Sport
Turn on your TV screen and there’s a high probability that a sports
game will be on at one channel. Unless it’s a special sports channel
such as ‘sky sports’ etc. you will easily realise it is men playing
the relevant sport. Ever wondered why? Why aren’t women’s sports as
amazingly popular as the large market of men’s sports? Millions are
spent on men’s sports and men sports’ propaganda but why aren’t
women’s sports as popular? They are physically and mentally able to
play the same type of sports and there are as many talented women as
there is men, but for reasons unknown to many, they are just not as
well recognised.
My parents brought me up to think that girls could play sports just as
well as boys and from a very young age I have represented the school
and other extra curricular clubs in all of the sports that were
available to us. In primary school we played in mixed teams and both
girls and boys had similar abilities and enjoyed working together as
team, regardless of our gender. As I got older, boys’ and girls’ teams
were split up as our abilities in sports differentiated quite
drastically. Boys were always stronger in sports such as football and
rugby, but we girls were still able to easily beat them in games of
basketball as we grew up much quicker, so we were taller than them.
When I was in year 5 through to year 7 we had an amazing girls’
basketball team that went undefeated for those three years. Sports
were very important and well recognised in my school and the whole
town came and watched our matches, which made the girls’ basketball
team undoubtedly much more popular than the boys’ and I am able ...
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...ps, salaries, airtime , operating and recruiting expenses
have left athletes encouraged, even thought they still do no compare
to those of the male athlete.
If sports are good for half the population, they must be good for the
other half. We are a different gender but not a different species. I
don’t want men to have less but I just don’t understand why so many
doors are closed to us. Women should be treated as equals to men when
it comes to sports. Will it ever happen? I do not know, but I hope so.
‘The stoy of women in sports is a personal story because nothing is
more personal than a woman’s bone, sweat, sinew and desire, and a
political story, because nothing is more powerful than a woman’s
struggle to run free’
Mariah Burton Nelson, introduction to ‘Nike is a Goddess: The History
of Women in Sports’ 1988
The following commissioned report was compiled for the Health Studies Faculty of Brisbane Girls Grammar. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the nature of women’s sport, not only in society, but also at the Brisbane Girls Grammar School.
For so long, the Athletic Training profession has been dominated by men. In the article “Women in Athletic Training”, the author Marcia K. Anderson does a study that describes what the pioneer women of athletic training had to go through during a time of male dominance. Women entered the athletic training realm as the underlings and weren’t respected as athletic trainers. “The purpose of the study was to describe, from their perspectives, the early experiences of women . . .,” (Anderson 42) rather than building an argument on how she feels about the situation, she’s going to be the middle man and explain their stories. It’s important for an author to establish credibility or ethos because one word or sentence could either be the death or birth of his/her reputation. Ethos lets the reader know whether or not the author is trustworthy. Although Anderson does not have personal experience with breaking into the field, interviewing the thirteen pioneer women gives her credibility in some areas while taking away in others. There are some key aspects she leaves out that lessen her credibility throughout the article, such as, not having any athletic training experience to fall back on, the demographics of the women she interviews, and how she interviews the women.
Since sports and athletics have been brought into our society it has always been gender specific. For example, it is seen that males should be playing the rough and tough sports or athletics such as rugby and football, whereas the women should be participating in less competitive sports and athletics such as swimming, or running. Can you imagine that the world population of women is around forty-nine percent and they still aren’t given the same opportunities or respect as men? Being a women in the twenty-first century playing one of those “non-traditional” sports is a tough task for these women. The women who choose to do so are usually questioned about their sexuality and
The ideal images of female athletes presented in the films for this class have had a strong connection to the images of ideal women in society in general. Like the ideal image of women, there are many variations of the ideal image of female athletes. While Dare to Compete tracked the evolution of the role of the real female athletes, the feature films we watched presented varying views of the ideal female athlete, which has been different in different times and places.
Before I conducted this media analysis about women in sports and sport broadcasting, I hypothesized the obvious - that more male sports would be in the media, and that there would be more male sports broadcasters as well. Through my observations I did find that the sports arena and sports broadcasting sphere are male dominated. However, I also found that although there are not many stories about women, there has been a steady progression and magazines like Sports Illustrated are becoming bold enough to highlight women athletes in a magazine that is targeted towards a male audience. Although women still have a long way to go, they are making some headway into the male-dominated sports arena.
According to the Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review’s article on the female athlete triad, in the past forty years, American women have become increasingly involved in athletics as a result of laws allowing them to participate in sports. (Lebrun and Rumball) For instance, Cathy Rigby won eight Olympic gold medals in gymnastics during the ‘60’s and 70’s when these laws were just coming into effect. (Brunet) Nevertheless, there is an ugly hidden underbelly to the many benefits of women’s increased participation in sports. Many sports have very high standards for body image, which has led to the increasing prevalence of three “separate… but interrelated conditions” collectively known as the female athlete triad. (Lebrun and Rumball) Despite Cathy Rigby’s aforementioned success, an article by Dr. Michael Brunet reveals that she was severely affected by the most well-known of the female athlete triad: the eating disorder. This eventually caused her to suffer cardiac arrest twice. (Brunet) These effects are not limited to elite athletes, however; high school athletes are also affected by the triad, particularly those participating in sports “in which leanness is perceived to optimize performance” or which use “specific weight categories.” (Lebrun) The three components of the triad, osteoporosis, amenorrhea, and disordered eating, are increasingly becoming an unfortunate effect of distorted body image on sports.
“Hey are you going to the party tonight?” you hear them ask you. As you agree you also wonder what will people’s first impression of you be when they see u walk in the door at that frat house party everyone seems to be going to. Women have gone into a state of mind that in order to fit in, they have to look and dress a certain way to impress in these college parties. But these never ending expectations held against women is not an issue that has recently developed throughout time as it dates back to civilization. For the most part, women are considered prominent over men which causes women to act in a certain behavior in which will function to get them to events such as frat parties. In today’s society, women are constructed to to act well
Women have forever had this label on their back of being too small, too weak, too feminine, and too boring. The traditional gender roles of the female interfere with the extortionate nature of competing in sports. Men are usually the ones to go 100% and give whatever they got, and to show masculinity while doing it. The standard masculinity of being strong, smart, and taking charge over dues the feminine traits of being soft, gentle, and polite. That’s what society has taught us to learn and accept. But the traditional female gender role is diminished when participating in athletics and people may think it’s weird to see females compete at the same level as males do. Men have always had the upper hand in the professional, collegian, and high
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.
Gender roles and gender stereotypes greatly affect men and women sports. They affect men and women sports so much that men sports are far more popular than women sports. Gender roles are what or society expects of us, and gende2r stereotypes are fixed and oversimplified beliefs. The difference is that gender roles are what we observe in society, and gender stereotypes are what we assume about certain individuals (Rathus, 2010, p.447).
When it comes to women's sports and popularity in the 21 century it has been little progress made toward gender equality for woman sports, now in the 21 century more kids and adults know who some of these females athletes are but as far as media coverage goes for female athlete are in the shadows of the male athletes dominance and the tradition that males developed in sport due to what gender establish athletics first, because women sports were brought up years after men athletics had been established.
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.
For most of human history, athletic competition has been regarded as an exclusively masculine affair. Women weren't aloud to watch most sporting events let alone participate in them. Not till late 19th century did women really begin participating in sporting events. Although women were permitted to participate in many sports, relatively few showed interest, for a variety of social and psychological reasons that are still poorly understood. Title IX declares: "No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid." Therefore sex should not deem females athletic ability as inferior in comparison to men. Women are physically, mentally, and emotionally capable of playing any sport just as men are.
Over the last few decades there can be seen a major shift in female participation within sports and physical activity. Many have the mentality that due to making immense headway recently, means that females can cease to worry about their ability to participate, however I do not agree with this. Despite a noticeable shift in female participation over the last few decades, women continue to face adversity through trying to prove the legitimacy of female athletes and sports, a lack of shift in gender ideology, and being seen as equals to males within the world or sports and physical activity in general.