Gender Discrimination And The Sport Industry

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.

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).

At times, it was commonly believed women were not physically long distance we as a society lose if we tolerate violence against women or similarly marginalized populations for any reason. This article talks about the issues of how women can’t play sports and how sports are for men but I feel that sports are for women and men because everybody deserves a chance to play a sport. Women all ages should feel comfortable playing sports and participating in school sports to. (By: Sage, Learn)

Women in professional sports fits into the Sex and Power: Global Gender Inequality class because many female athletes have experienced the inequalities in a professional sports setting. Female athletes are being put down by gender inequalities, causing less females participating in athletic programs. Women athletes are being paid less than their male counterparts. Along with being paid less, female and males are receiving unequal benefits in the form of scholarship, media coverage, transportation, and stadium conditions. The professional sport’s world is filled with the obsession of body image and sexuality. Through this obsession, female athletes have been abused from the people they trust the most. There is an increasing inequality in women’s professional sports in the form of pay, sexuality, and abuse.

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.

In the Journal “Sport and Society: Annual Review of Sociology” written by Robert E. Washington and David Karen they talk about gender and sports in one section of their Journal. In this section the author addresses masculinity in sports and the attempts of Title IX to try and make sports equal in the sense that if women make up 40% of the athlete population they should receive 40% of the resources. However, this is not the case “The most recent data (Suggs 2000) reveal that in 1998–1999 women made up 42% of Division I athletes, received 42% of scholarship monies, 31% of recruiting budgets, 34% of coaching-salary budgets, and 33% of total operating expenses. According to Andrew Zimbalist (2000:B9), women “still play in inferior facilities, stay in lower-caliber hotels on the road, eat in cheaper restaurants, benefit from smaller promotional budgets, and have fewer assistant coaches.” (Washington and Karen, 2001) This long quote showcases that although women are starting to get what they deserve when it comes to a the percentage of Athletics that they comprise it is still not up to par. Although it is not technically salary, the gap in scholarship money and money spent of faculty for female athletes showcases how money it’s sports always goes to the male athletes no matter at what level. In a more recent example that further pushes the points that were made in Washington and Karen’s journal would be the U.S. Women’s Soccer team compared to the U.S. Men’s Soccer team. Both

Walker, N. A., & Bopp, T. (2011). The underrepresentation of women in the male-dominated sport workplace: Perspectives of female coaches. Journal of Workplace Rights, 15(1),

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.

I once had a soccer coach who told me to “man up” when I came off the soccer field with a swollen, black eye. He asked me if I was going to “cry like a girl” or get back in my position on the field. Being a fourteen year old girl, I cried. But I returned to the field and continued playing. From recreation league to intercollegiate athletics, the one thing my coaches had in common was that they were male. I play on various teams: soccer, volleyball, rugby, cycling, and basketball, but never once did I have a female coach. Studies show that female athletes who did not have a female coach are less likely to go into the coaching profession (cite). Despite this statistic, I started coaching youth soccer, basketball, and swim teams when I was in college. I did not seek out a coaching positon and had little confidence in my abilities to guide a team, but a parent volunteer approached me and asked if I would volunteer as an assistant and be an athletic role model.

The Issues in Sports Discussion was about diversity within sport leadership. The overall message of the discussion was primarily that women and minorities should be able to obtain leadership positions in the sport industry. By taking a positive approach towards diversity, a sports organization can improve its effectiveness and associating with people from a variety of cultures can positively influence the company. Diversity provides an advantage to the organization by contributing a unique perspective that groups of the same race or gender might not discover. The panelists criticized the “Rooney Rule” because there shouldn’t need to be a rule in place that allows minorities and women to be considered for executive positions. When a position

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.

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

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.

In Gertrud Pfister’s article, Gender Issues in Danish Sports Organizations — Experiences, Attitudes and Evaluations, there is a discussion as to whether women are indeed treated differently in higher positions of power in Denmark. Pfister uses statistics and studies to prove her argument that women are indeed treated differently and presented differently in the organizations. She even begins to touch on the fact that men and women are portrayed wrongly in the studies she talks about. Throughout the article women are presented in a mann that suggests they could not possibly be an “ideal leader” in the ways that men can nor can they deal with responsibilities of such a job.

As time progresses seeing women as leaders is becoming more popular. Entrepreneurial women are becoming direct and indirect leaders (Bullough,, Sully De Luque, Abdelzaher, & Heim 2015). With women being in more leadership position it is creating healthier home lives because women are earning their