Functionalist Issues in Sport

The modern Olympic movement was shaped through the soaring advocation of women’s rights (2, 8). An anonymous photographer (#2), in the 1908 Olympic games held in Great Britain where only 2 percent of women participated in the games, presents a photograph of Sybil Newall, a female British competitor at the games, and advocates women participating in the games. This photographer might have this view because he or she is a feminist that took place in the women suffrage movement and is baffled that solely two percent of athletes were women, and is urging the Olympics to make a great change. Hassiva Boulmerka (#8), an Algerian competitor that engaged in the 1992 games held in Spain where 29 percent of the athletes were women, believes that every woman has the ability of becoming an athlete, and must strengthen their mind and conscious, not just their body, to overcome these social challenges. Boulmerka, as a woman participant, may have this belief because she has underwent these obstacles as well, and wishes to motivate women in Spain to have the will and determination to overcome them and become a female athlete like herself. A good additional document that would better our understanding of how this social

Throughout this journey, many factors had an impact on the Olympics. Some of the factors that changed the modern day Olympics are women competitors, women’s suffrage, nationalism, wars, and economic conditions. An increase of women's rights was given, pride for the nations was shown, wars still occurred, and economies have flourished. The longer the Olympic Games have aged, the closer the world’s state is to Pierre’s

Australia is widely regarded as both characterised and united by sport. Sport has an elevated place in Australia's official and popular national culture, and the country’s reputation for being a 'paradise of sport' has become a largely unquestioned aspect of the Australian way of life. Gender is a social construct that outlines the roles, behaviours, characteristics and actions that a specific society deems appropriate for men and women (WHO, 2014). The established relationship between gender equality and sport is a widely regarded issue in not only Australia, but all around the world. Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including sport and physical recreation

American athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias earned more medals, broke more records, and swept more tournaments in more sports than any other athlete, male or female, in the twentieth century. Within recent years, women have made huge strides in the world of sports and athletics but are still not getting proper recognition for the time, effort, and talent these women have put into their sport. Gender equality is a major problem in athletics, Title XI, sports media, and the sexualisation of females involved in athletics shows the clear divide in gender equality amongst men’s and women’s sports.

According to Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in [the] Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” Because of the establishment of this international document, much progression toward the equality of rights for all with inherited and acquired traits has been achieved over time. In particular, gender equality has made a great deal of headway since the Olympic Games in ancient Greece. Even though this may be the case, there is no doubt that female athletes are far from considered equal as compared to male athletes in modern sports. In today’s sports society, women athletes are still discriminated against based on lower salaries, less media coverage, and lack of opportunity.

Whilst female participation in sport may be at an all time high worldwide, it is still clear to see that there is not a level playing field between the two genders. In some countries, primarily the less developed ones, their culture and heritage dictates the roles women have to have in society and there is little room for sport to be played by them here. However

Starting with how women are portrayed in media, Trolan (2013) states that in today’s society, individuals are shown magazines, newspapers, and television programs with articles and photographs, “of what it means to be a woman or man” (Trolan, 215). This is remarkably obvious when discussing the world of sport. Although women have achieved a somewhat higher level of respect in the everyday world, within the sporting world, “they are still viewed as women first and athletes second” (Trolan, 215). Krane, Choi, Baird, Aimar, and Kauer (2004) also articulate that women participating in sport live in two extremely separate cultures: the sporting culture and the culture in which they face the continual battle between being an athlete and being a woman. Being viewed as

In recent years both the government and UK Sport have been working hard to promote higher participation levels in sport for women. The UK wants to be at the forefront of world equality in sport, and has been campaigning hard to educate the country. They have been explaining why sport has traditionally been considered an exclusively male activity, why this is now ‘old fashioned’ and why we must change these traditions in the 21st century, to progress sport and to promote the benefits to health and communities further. In this essay I’m going to discuss the barriers preventing female participation today, and what it was like for women in the past asking the question “have we progressed?” If so, where have we progressed? And is there enough progress? Secondly, what are the other barriers preventing gender equality in the wider society, not just for the elite and amateur athletes but for normal working men and women; is there anything we can do to help them? Lastly what are the National Governing Bodies of each sport doing to overcome gender equality, and are we seeing progress there?

Sport plays a huge role in today’s society. It contributes to one’s health and fitness, social interaction, social and motor skills, patriotism, fun and entertainment. It also stimulates the economy and tourism leading to interaction between different cultures, for example the Olympics, and sport role models. Sports clearly are an important part of cultures and societies around the world as such events as the Olympics

Women are empowered, encouraged and even pressured into being involved in a sport or some type of fitness activities today; however, it hasn’t always been that way (Cahn 278). In the 1920s, also known as the “golden age” of sports, women and young girls faced obstacles such as rejection, gender discrimination, and stereotypes when showing interest in sports or fitness activities. One famous author named Susan Cahn, wrote a book called Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports, and focuses on the decades between the 1920s and the 1960s. For most of the 19th century, females were accused of causing a great deal of danger to the moral and physical areas of masculinity. Through the research of multiple different aspects, such as media, appearance, and gender roles, Cahn puts together an idea and theme that athleticism is seen as a masculine trait because it was once constructed by society itself; which fortunately for the women, that idea can be changed. In the later centuries, Cahn writes about the progress of woman 's appearance in sports, however then describes the difference in respect, attention throughout media, opportunities and wages between men and women. Through both primary sources such as newspapers, interviews, and journals, as well as secondary sources like relevant literature, Cahn writes her book in a historical non-fiction genre. After reading Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports by Susan

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

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

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 period of 1865 to 1950 was critical to the formation of “Modern” sport that is recognized today. In an article by Allen Guttmann titled From Ritual to Record: the nature of modern sport, Guttmann outlines seven characteristics that played a central role in the development of sports. These concepts were created as a sociological history of sports and took into place both American and European competitions. Guttmann’s notions of secularism, rationalization, bureaucracy and quantification, among others, all advanced the culture of sports; yet the most important of the stated characteristics is equality.

The focus of this theory is based on the idea that society consists of patterns of interdependencies among individuals and group sports are exciting activities that alleviate boredom and that manages aggression. Research focuses on developing knowledge that presents valid pictures of reality. “Culture, Civilization and the Sociology of Sport”, centers around discussions of work that the author (Dunning, 1992) and a number of colleagues at the University of Leicester conducted on sports in relation to what their late Norbert Elias (1939) called the theory of the 'Civilizing process". It begins by outlining some of the basic assumptions of the figurational approach from (Mennell, 1989) which this work is