Gender And Sports: Gender Inequity In Sports

Gender Inequity in Sports: What? Laila Ali? You mean Muhammed Ali

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

From when a baby is born they are either identified or told to be “feminine” or “masculine”. For many decades, females have been associated with raising children, wearing frilly dresses, responsible for all the house work, to keep passive, pure and to maintain themselves physically. Due the traits put on to not only girls but also boys it leads to their definition of what femininity should be or, in other words the “weaker sex”. These expectation put on by society onto the boys and girls of femininity often results in women being discouraged from doing activities such as sweating, being aggressive and, competing in sports and physical activities. It also results in boys thinking that it is okay to suppress women and make comments such as “She throws like a girl” or “This isn’t the kitchen”. The main reason for this is because society puts the expectation on women to be “ladylike,” and not to demonstrate any characteristics defined as being masculine. Even though these social norms are still evident today, there are legislations that I could say “try” to promote gender equity in sports, such as the Title IX which is “a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex ”. Even though the U.S have implemented the Title IX, it still does not create equal opportunities or protections under it for women. For example the Office of Civil Rights had a report saying that “it received more than 1,250 complaints over a four-year period from 2009 to 2012. The number of sexual violence complaints increased from 786 during the three-year period ending in 2011 to 854 in 2013-2014 ”. How can there be equity in sports when the laws implemented aren’t doing enough?

Well, another reason why there is no equality between women and men in sports is also because of the salary of women playing sports versus the men playing.