Gender Bias In Sports

Upon starting college, I was done with sports as far as participating on a team. I knew I wanted to be involved wherever I could be. I enrolled in a class titled, “Girls & Women in Sport.” The class was built upon a sociological approach. In this class, I learned the importance of sex versus gender, the role of Title IX in sports, gender roles, as well as the psychological impacts of athletic participation on women.

From all corners of the globe, news headlines are becoming much more attentive to the issues surrounding women in sport. Female athletes are gaining more notoriety in the sports’ arena. However, the attention they are receiving, usually pertains to their appearance, rather than their skill. Further, they are continuously being over-sexualized and objectified and for these reasons, there is a need for sweeping change in the representation of female athletes in the media. This paper will discuss the portrayal of female athletes in the media, the coverage that women in sport receive, the current impacts that media has on women in sports, and what measures can be undertaken to curtail the current trend of the media.

Sexism has played its part in many different work environments for quite some time. It especially raises big conversation, and an ongoing problem in the sports industry. Not only does it affect the women who work in the industry, but also homosexuals, and minorities. For so long sexism has been a topic of discussion, but no real attempts at change have been made. If there was more protection for woman and players who work in sports, it could help to get women more involved in the field, establish rules that will protect people from sexism, and diminish some of the controversy between the two opposing sexes.

How is it fair that a men’s college basketball team is able to be transported on planes and dine on steak, while a women’s team from the same college, travels in a van and eats fast food? It’s not, but this occurs often nowadays even with laws passed preventing this type of discrimination. In 1972, Congress passed Title IX, which prohibits discrimination against girls and women in federally funded education, including athletic programs (Kiernan 3). Many schools and colleges have not been able to comply with the Title IX standards mostly because of money. Some of the problems in high schools and colleges consist of insufficient scholarships for girls, not enough coaching jobs, a lack of equipment, and a limited amount of supplies. Not only

Sport media is no different from any other profession. There is gender bias in this field. Due to sexism, it makes it hard for women to even enter into the career path they desire most. There are many factors when it comes to gender bias, especially in sport media. Women are at a disadvantage in the field of sport media. Before 1978, female reporters were not allowed to interview players in the locker room before and after games (Clapp). It was not until 1978, when a female reporter decided enough was enough. In 1978, Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke sued the New York Yankees for banning her from entering the locker room to interview players during the 1977 World Series (Clapp). This case went to federal court and the judge decided that banning female reporters violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution (Clapp). The Equal Protection Clause demands that the states “must treat an individual in the same manner as others in similar conditions and circumstances” (LII Staff). Since women reporters were not allowed in locker rooms and men were, then this was a direct violation because women and male reporters were in the locker rooms for the same reasons. In the business of sport and as a sport manager, women being treated unfairly in sport media is something that needs to be addressed by fining and suspending those coaches, players and anybody involved with a sport organization who make sexist remarks toward women

Gender representation and in particular misrepresentation is a key issue within sport and media today as female coverage of sport is overlooked in all forms of mainstream media. This issue is what we, as a group of 3, had to tackle and present to our academic peers in a student led seminar session. The issue derives from the main theme of sport and media and their relationship but could also be said to have direct links to other themes such as sport and (in) equality. Gender representation comes under both media and equality in terms of broader topics because it is the concern of the media to help broadcast more female sport and raise awareness of the inequality which exists to the wide audience it has to target, this doesn’t happen enough currently. Research by Cooky et al. (2013) suggests that female sports coverage on ESPN sport takes up around 3% of coverage time which is a shocking disparity compared to men’s coverage on the same channel. It also found that 0 news stories on WNBA were published out of season across multiple news channels while the NBA had 72 stories. Studying this topic is particularly important to understand historically and culturally why this problem exists as well as to look at the negative ideologies which exist within sports media around the subject of gender representation.

Throughout many years there has been a great change of gender roles of men and women in our society, and especially in the world of sports. Over the last couple years female athletes have really strived to gaining equal representation and media coverage as much as the male athletes do. Female athletes are also starting to participate in more male dominated sports such as, MMA, hockey and even golf. These few sports have been perceived as “manly sports” which usually makes women feel that they shouldn't participate because they're not masculine enough. Even though there are many female athletes who feel discouraged to playing “manly sports” there are also plenty of female athletes who are trying to show younger generations that it's okay to participate and compete in sports that aren't necessarily “feminine sports”. The way that gender roles have been affecting sports for a long time are through behaviors, stereotypes and the perception of male and female athletes.

Gender stereotyping in sports media is something we see everyday in magazines and on TV. Since sports were invented, males have dominated one of Canada’s largest pastimes. Reasons for this being physicality and strength, but as time progressed women began to become more involved in the culture of sport. Today there is almost an equal amount of women participating in sports as man, yet women are still not being represented with the same approach as men. About a month ago I found a video online that followed a sports reporter who was trying to make a point about gender stereotyping within sports media. He would interview professional male athletes but rather than ask them the typical interview questions we see in male sports, such as “has your workout routine changed since…” but rather asked them questions that are typically related to female athlete interviews such as one that was asked to swimmer Michael Phelps “Shaving your body hair gives you an edge in the pool, but how about your love life”, or “any comments about reports about your girlish figure”. At the end of the video they show real women athletes being asked these types of questions in real interviews. The men’s reactions of embarrassment to disgust vs. the women’s reactions of showing no surprise to being asked these derogatory questions, says it all. It is no surprise that the sexualization of female athletes is something all too common in sports media. We’ll be looking into the idea of sexualisation in

Turn on a sports channel, odds are it is a male sport or the talking of men in sports playing. The odds that this is true is because according to the Washington Post, “in 2014, ‘SportsCenter’ dedicated just two percent of its highlight program to women’s sports” (Talbi). That would mean that they could go nearly an entire show and only mention women once. Women compared to men in their image of their respective sports is incredibly less. Women are shown as more of an attractive side while men are shown as more heroic or athletic. Studies have been taken showing how unfair women are shown in sports compared to men. How does the attractiveness and athleticism of women’s sports play a role in their sponsorships and media portrayal? Women’s attractiveness

I have always been fascinated by sports especially basketball and football, so I am one of those people that almost know so much that it is weird. Now, the NBA is a league dominated by men in every aspect. I started to watch the NBA around the age of 12, and through all my years of watching the game I became accustomed to only seeing men in the NBA. It has been like this until, Becky Hammon was brought upon the Spurs’ coaching staff on Aug 5, 2014; Becky will be the first female to be full-time paid assistant on a coaching staff. Becky will be the second female to be brought on coaching staff, first was Lisa Boyer (volunteer assistant) with the Cavilers from 2001-02.As I read through the articles to gain more information about Becky I realized; there was hype around Becky for becoming a trailblazer for women in male sports.

Discrimination is nothing new to our society or is it something that should be taken lightly and for many decades our Nation has endured many conflicts that have tested the will of Americans over the decades and it is evident that as we have become more diverse so too has our workforce. Although, we are in the twenty first century the goal is to understand why prejudice and discrimination is still so prevalent and how we can do better while trying to bring together our different backgrounds, skills, and experiences still has proven to be an issue that minorities are constantly fighting as they struggle to find there place in society. Through an array of well-educated researchers showing how diversity is nothing new to our society, but if we are to continue to grow and move forward we must be able to understand that with diversification we can foster a strong and inclusive economy that is built to last and nurture a nation that will continue to lead the world as standard setter.

I completely agree with your post. I believe that women are underrepresented in leadership positions in sports, especially in football. Many leaders who are men believe that because women have never played the sport that they should not be a manager. However, there are many women who understand the rules and love football who could be excellent managers. In addition, your post brought to my attention that with social justice initiative such as the Rooney rule only focuses on the hiring of head coach of racial minorities. However, to increase the hiring of racial minorities, there is a need for more racial diversity in coordinator positions, which then will increase diversity for head coaches.

Sexism limits our country. In a world where sexism still exists, women face challenges every day as they choose to embark in athletic activities. Even with the efforts of Title IX, which was established in 1972, there is not equality in sports for men and women. Sexism is real with stereotypes and discrimination on the basis of sex. Even with the high level of success reached by numerous female athletes of many different sports, male athletes always seem to have the upper hand. Whether it is pay, media, support, gear, or playing grounds, one sex always has the better of the two. Male athletes dominate a field that truly is shared by both sexes. What if we treated male athletes the way we treat female athletes? That is a world hard to imagine, and honestly, it shouldn't be. Through female athletes sharing their stories of unfair treatment and pay, sexism and generations of inequality in sports can be overcome.

In today’s society, it is nearly impossible to imagine our lives without the media. Television, radio, social media, and other types of media are a big influence on our lives and we all use them on a daily basis. They give us our news, provide us with entertainment, and we base a lot of our views and beliefs off of what we see and hear in the media. The media have plenty of positive aspects; however, with the major influence they have on individuals, the media can have many downsides. One of these downsides would be the media’s ability to create negative perceptions for the viewers. An example of this problem with the media is the coverage of men’s and women’s sports. Both professional and college

Women. Men. They are both a unique and special being that is on earth. In a perfect society, men and women would have the same physical strength and they would be completely equal. The idea of women and men being able to play against each other is wonderful but realistically it might not work out as great. Of course, women can do anything men can do, but in a competitive situation like this, the results of this change could bring forth more negative impacts than positive ones. In professional sports, women and men should be kept separate due to being biologically different and because of the possibility of the quality of the performances in the sports decreasing.