A Sociological Perspective of Women in Sport in Australia Essay

Though there have been some minor improvements of the inequalities of women in sports, there are still many more changes that need to be made. The controversy of the topic allows a wide range of research. From the issues of Title IX to the issues of society and its gender roles, there are still inequalities of women in sports.

“In the earliest generation of sports it was clear that men’s were much more developed and produced than women’s. Now to this day, the overwhelming difference of the two gender’s sports is significantly exposed. If the media were to equalize women’s sports to men’s then it would decrease the ratings, but the house should force the media to display, promote, and report women’s sports equally to men’s sports because increased media would essentially expand the fund for women’s sports and it would create role models for young women to get engaged in a sport.

It is expected that women were not very involved in athletics due to their domestic responsibilities, but as time progressed, more women stepped out of their separate spheres to pursue opportunities that were thought to be “masculine.” The Olympic Games was crucial to the emergence of women participation in societal events since it broke the social barriers that prevented them from gaining equality. Although the first modern Olympic Games only allowed male

Industries and companies supported sports teams for women. They did this to promote personal health and worker efficiency. These teams brought advertising opportunities for the companies who supported them. This offered competitive opportunities for women and occasional income for the athletes

Through the movies viewed in this course this semester, we saw women who were able to play against men and still keep their femininity. Nothing is lost when playing sports not traditionally meant for a particular race or gender. Society must become more understanding when it comes to the sports different types of people play and hinder from stereotyping anyone when they participate and perform well in that sport.

The sports world has been a new area where women are recognized. In previous times women’s sports were almost non-existent. In schools many girl teams did not receive adequate funds for uniforms and equipment. Boys sports were much more popular, such as football or basketball. If a girl wanted to play a guy sport she would be labeled as a

Pedersen 1996:183 back in the 1970s, scholarly works about women’s participation is limited and under developed. The situation slightly improved in the in the 1980s by CAAWS which produced a lot of information through articles on the history and sociology of sport. This trend continued through the 1990s where there was an improved amount of information on the history of Canadian women in sport mostly published in international anthropologie and also in the sports history journal. Pedersen 1996:183.

Good morning/afternoon and welcome to the project, I’m Carrie Bickmore and tonight we are talking about the controversial way that women are represented in sport. In particular, we want to explore the unnecessary media exploitation of female tennis players. Throughout the history of tennis women have endured a completely different experience, relative to their male counterparts. This is particularly obvious when you consider the changes in female sports clothing. Tennis was first introduced into the Olympics in the 1896 but women were not allowed to participate until 1900.

Women’s participation in sports has changed over the centuries. In ancient times, men dominated societies. Women were viewed as the caretaker, a provider for life. Women who did participate were criticized and were thought of as threatening. In 18th century America, women were considered inferior to men because of the belief that women are the weaker sex. A woman’s purpose in life was to take care of the house, children, and husband. When they did want to participate in recreational sport, they need to be able to negotiate with men and with other women because societies did not make it easy for women to participate. For example, there was a

Sport has been one of the most important socio-cultural learning experiences for males and females. Sports provide an amazing release for people of all ages. People are requested and welcomed to play sports at any age. Sometimes there are many limitations due to personal reason that restrain people from participating in sport such as money, peer pressure, location, etc. For the last century males are expected to be strong, independent, and athletic. Male athletes masculinity symbolize an image of physical health, and sexual virility throughout their bodies as well. Nowadays, women’s participation in sports is becoming popular but it is still overshadowed by men’s. According to the Women’s Sport Foundation before the title IX “given equal athletic opportunities, women will rush to fill them; the remaining discrepancies in sports participation rates are the result of continuing discrimination in access to those opportunities” (“ Title IX Myths and Fact”). Under the title IX, female has the playing field been. Women now can participate in many sports, which were only played by men before. However, the main reason that female usually do not participate is due to gender inequity. Some of people believe that the inequity in sports has not changed over the period years especially opportunities and benefits. Although sports provides opportunities for both males and females, female participating in sports generally have less opportunities to advance or

But most importantly, as Australia is a multicultural community, that prides itself on accepting multiculturalism as well as equality and freedom, should accept woman’s sports throughout its media, fans, and funding to help shape the image of mate ship and a fair go throughout Australia and eventually into society as a

Play is a source of significant theoretical insight in anthropology and other disciplines (Huizinga 1970; Turner 1982). Feminist research is explicitly directed towards comprehending evolving social factors affecting women. (Harrison and Fahy 2005:702) and also provides a framework for understanding the contribution of women in sports to development (Birrell 2005:61). The research in this proposal is rooted in this idea, and holds that women’s “participation in sports is a feminist issue deserving of research and theory development’’ (Harrison and Fahy 2005:702). Many scholars in the study of sociology of sports use feminist theory to understand power and gender relations (Birrell 2005:61; Coakley 2009:39). According to Smith [2010:98], issues of gender are core to social life and this fact makes the concerns of masculinity and femininity essential. Critical feminist theorists have stressed the importance of critiquing and changing the culture and Pfister and Kristin 2013:208) the body and physicality of sports so that they represent the perspectives and experiences of women as well as men (Maguire 2002:207; Coakley 2001:39). The aim of feminist theory is to expose gender inequalities (Jarvis and Watts 2012:67) and imbalance in terms of ‘’funding, programs, facilities, media coverage of women 's sports’’ (Messner 1988:207) and pay inequalities [Women’s Sports Foundation 2011]. In a related

The adverse topic of women in sports stems from society's disregard to viewing women as persons. Women were, and in other parts of the world continue to be viewed as property of men and have no significant role in society. Being allowed into the Olympics was a step in the right direction for women across the world, but it was meager attempt equality. Women were still restricted by what events they were allowed to compete in, how they were trained and coached and even limited as to what they could wear. A woman’s femininity played a large role in the way they were perceived by society; weak. Women were seen as incommensurate to men and it was something that has taken us centuries to reverse. Today, women are given the rights we should have

In the last one hundred years women have made tremendous inroads in many facets of life. Of that there can be little doubt. Women may now hold jobs, own property and participate in professional sports. Today women can compete in sports, once a vestige of male domination; there is now room for women in that arena. But even today women in sports are not portrayed in the same light as their male counterparts. To a large degree this is because of today's cultural ideal of women.

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the factors that influence women’s participation in sports. The study is to enable me classify these factors into the facilitators and obstacles to women’s participation in sports. To achieve this, I participated in various sports activities which granted me the opportunity of: “learning from people” rather than “studying the people” as posited by (Spradley 1979:3). This chapter explicitly presents the specific research techniques that was used for the study. The techniques include: the study design and method, sampling, sampling units, data collection, my personal experience, data recording, ethics and expectation.