Female Athletes And Sports Teams Essay

Women’s equality is an issue that has been around for awhile. While women have been given many rights to increase equality, including the right to vote and go to college, the problem hasn’t completely vanished. One area that still sees this is in sports. Women’s sports do not draw nearly as many fans and are not covered in the media as much as men’s sports, pay differences between male and female athletes are large, and female athletes have to wait longer to start their professional career than men, which risks their professional career before it even starts.

Continuing to brain wash the young men today with the “sports is a mans world” mentality only helps to repeat the cycle of nearly oppressing women in the industry. It keeps men feeling secure when it comes to their masculinity, yet making a woman’s fight for respect a never ending struggle.

Current society is built upon stereotypes and constructions that are predetermined by previous generations’ views. One of the most recognised historical constructions is the patriarchal theory, that the female is subservient to the male. However, this construction of gender power is slowly equalising, with the rise of feminist groups in the latter part of the 20th century giving reason for this occurring. Nevertheless, gender battles are still occurring, particularly in the sporting industry, which remains male dominated. Female sport has been given much notoriety over their uproar in the past decade, but is finding in a male controlled industry it is difficult for women to receive help from governing bodies. Female sport is

The documentary discusses how media coverage of women's sport works to reinforce the traditional stereotypes of both masculinity and femininity. There has been both widespread acceptance and movement of women in sports but at the same time there has been an increase in backlash about women's success and their presence. The documentary states that sports and sports media are traditionally masculine domains and the media coverage keeps them that way by marginalizing the increased power and presence of women in the media world of

Recreation and sport is historically known as a manly practice all around the world. Sport is typically associated with males that have led to the stereotype of sport equaling masculinity (Obenour, 2002, p. 2). A lot has changed when it comes to gender roles but it seems still to this day that women have less power than men, this is noticeable in recreation and sport in the 21st century. There has been a decrease in athletic leadership positions at the youth and college levels occupied by women ever since Title IX was passed in 1972. Research shows that female coaches has decreased by 48% and is still decreasing at a rapid rate (Blom, 2011, p. 54).

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

It is also believed that female athletes become objectified in the media as an “attempt to limit female power, thereby reinforcing hegemonic masculinity” (Pederson,2002). Mass media and sports are one of the most commanding hegemonic social institutions and there is a strong link between athleticism and masculinity. It is due to this hegemonic masculinity that women, in many ways are considered inferior to men and treated as if they have no place of their own in sports, where only male power dominates.

While scrolling on EPSN, which stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, website going through over fifty articles and videos on the main page, I could not help but notice that there were only two videos pertaining to females in sports, which were Mixed Martial Artist Ronda Rousey, who is recovering from a fight and the Connecticut Huskies basketball team, who are currently ranked one in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Ranking. There is a lack of spotlight on women athletes in the media pertaining to their skills or just acknowledging that women have an existence in sports, whether it’s televised or on social media. Diana Nyad, Michael A. Messner, and Cheryl Cooky research led them to finding that when it comes to broadcasting women do not receive as much coverage as men (2010:69). As of 2015, “women receive less than one percent of coverage on ESPN’s SportsCenter and Fox Sports 1’s Fox Sports Live” (Billings and Young 2015:4). However,

The media portrayal of sports has changed immensely over the years. Before, women’s sports were nonexistent and the only reports revolved solely on male athletes and their sports. Then women started to develop their own place in the sports industry. Yet still, with the emergence of professional female athletes in the media, coverage was still slim to none. “Since the media are seen as reflecting what is important and has prestige, especially in western society, this severe underrepresentation is seen as creating the impression that women athletes are non-existent in the sporting world or of little value when they do exist” (Bernstein, 2002, p. 417).

The world of sports highlights the problems that still exist for women as well as problems with modern sex stereotyping and generalizing. The expectations we hold for men and women are less clear in the realm of sport and the issue has been recently where to draw the line. Is there a line that can be drawn? By

The book “Black tights” written by a sports journalist combines in depth research, and professional experience to tackle questions about women in sports. It mainly explains how gender impacts women in both a personal and a professional level. There has always been a debate to whether female sports are a lucrative way to publicize sexuality, or it is just genuinely about women playing the sports while training very hard, to be the best they can be. Also, this book takes a hard look of how media exploitation of female athletes is growing in sports this day and age. Ironically, this tells us that in order to further the interest of women’s sports, female athletes would have to be sexually exploited by media just to gain recognition. This raises more questions to how we can overcome the obstacle of

This study reveals much about the attitudes that persist in society today regarding sport and gender. Early on, sport was created to serve men, evolving as a celebration of maleness, valuing strength, power, and competition. It idealized, promoted, and rewarded successful, elite athletes, established “the dream” as a professional career in sports, and viewed mass participation in sport as a tool to weed out the weak (Hill, 1993). In contrast, women’s sports originated to “address the expressed need for healthful exercise” (Huckaby, 1994). Unlike the competitive warrior mode

Race, gender, history and sexual orientation play major roles in women's participation in sport. Through out the history of women in sport, opportunity has increased. Many athletes and coaches are presented with the issue of sexual orientation throughout their sporting career. Regardless of sexual orientation, all female athletes are affected by heterosexism. One's racial or ethnicity background greatly shapes the experience they may have in sport. This essay explores the many issues women in sport face today.

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.