Improving the Perception of Female Athletes

Sports have been a part of this world since the beginning of mankind; the Olympics, for example, began during the times of Ancient Greece and those same games are as popular as ever and still continue today. However, back in the very beginning of sports history, men were the only gender granted the right to participate in athletic events; sometimes women were not even allowed be in the same general vicinity to watch. Sure, the days have changed, yet women still cease to receive the same amount of recognition in sports as men do. Why should the world care? Imagine working so hard, spending countless hours, on something that you have a passion for. However, now imagine receiving no credit or recognition for said passion predominantly because of your gender. Because of how the media perceives women in sports, female athletes receive a lot less attention than male competitors. The most appropriate steps to improve this issue would have to be to have a day dedicated to the appreciation of female athletes, increasing the pay of the female professional athletes, and constricting Title IX.

To begin, women’s sports do not receive nearly as much credit or air time as men’s sports do. When it comes to commentators on sports channels—with 97% being men—a different tone of voice, as well as adjectives, are used to describe the two genders. Margaret Carlisle Duncan was a woman who studied sports coverage in Los Angeles. She noted that when reporters spoke of male athletes, they used descriptions such as “big”, “strong”, “aggressive”, and “brilliant”. Meanwhile when commenting on a woman’s performance, words such as “weary”, “fatigued”, “frustrated”, and “vulnerable” were used (James 6). Moreover, on professional sports teams, women do not get ...

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...f the sports, females have been underrated, an underpaid, and underrepresented. Although times have changed ever since the times of Ancient Greece, women continue to face hardships and are not as equal as they should be to their fellow male competitors. Females are not mentioned quite as frequently and when they are, the adjectives use by the commentators are typically not words that one would use toward males. National Women in Sports Day could potentially solve that problem. While male athletes can live primarily off of their salary from playing professional sports, most female professional athletes do not make enough to live the luxurious life that male athletes do. However, constricting the requirements that go along with Title IX has the potential to drastically change the face of women sports. After all, the term “you play like a girl” is not always an insult.