Gender Inequalities 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.

In order to thoroughly understand sports media, it is critical to understand the way in which sports media impacts its consumers. Millington and Wilson (2010) explores the impact of sports media by focusing on its impact on a group of boys in a Vancouver High School. Millington and Wilson (2010) analyze the way in which sports media impacts ones’ activity in physical education and the way in which one interprets sports media. Through their research, Millington and Wilson (2010) found that young boys are equally susceptible to the impacts of both physical education and sports media. While the impacts may vary, both sports media and physical education promotes the importance of masculinity in sports and general society (Millington & Wilson, 2010).

While participation of women in sports has increased, the media representation of women in sports remains problematic. Even the most talented elite female athletes like Michelle Kwan and Monica Seles are portrayed in a sexual fashion, as a way of deemphasizing their athleticism and neutralizing any possible threat they might seem to pose to male viewers. Very few male athletes are portrayed in such an objectified manner; they are portrayed as competitors first and foremost, not as personalities. Also, the media coverage of athletes is disproportionately focused on male athletes. The coverage of female athletes tends to stress individualized female sports where women can be sexualized like tennis and figure skating, versus competitive team sports like basketball and soccer.

This article talked about the daunting unequal media coverage in sports of male sports teams in comparison to females.They researched the true differentiations of coverage between men and women sports. The actual percentage difference of coverage of male vs female sports discovered in their research truly is unfathomable. Men’s sports receive 96.3% of the airtime, women’s sports 1.6% and gender neutral topics were 2.1%. When you think back about twenty years ago and the coverage of media people tend to think that America is generally trending positively forward, however that is not the case for the coverage of women's athletics. It has actually gone down since then. Although on the scarce occasion that they are feature in the news, more often than not they are conveyed in the stereotypical way: as wives, girlfriends, or mothers. When media is highlighting these aspects instead of their talent, hard work or success it takes away from their image as an athlete and it demonstrating that it is acceptable to do so in society. However if male athlete achieved equal success and he was a father, that

Sociology professor Michael Messner of the University of Southern California explains that the media “actively constructs audiences that are likely to see the men's Final Four as a dramatic, historic event that they simply "must" watch, while fans are likely to see the women's Final Four as a nonevent or, at best, as just another game of the Men’s Final Four” (Messner). Messner emphasizes the differences in language, attention, and emotion in media coverage as the sources of different representations and viewership. Professor Messner is not the only expert to contend that purposeful sexism and subtle contrast in media representation are the causes of the inequality in coverage. Others assert that we need “more women on television, in the news, and in front of our young girls,” arguing purposeful disinterest in gender equality is the reason for lack of viewership in women’s basketball

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

Women have come a long way, and are actually beginning to find a more significant place in sports media. Men are starting to take women more seriously?both on the field and in the news station. I was ecstatic to read a SI letter to the editor, written by a man that read, ??Maybe we should show a little respect for the women?s accomplishment? (SI, November 2004)?it gave me hope. Through this analysis, I gained a stronger appreciation for sports media, and became more optimistic about women

Looking at women’s portrayal in the sport industry through another perspective, women journalists who cover sports and discuss sports topics are thought of as “not knowing what they are talking about” when it comes to sports topics. The power of social media has brought attention to this issue in the way women sports journalists and media members are diminished for their opinion for the simple fact that they are women.

The purpose of this article is to share the findings of a study done on gender boundaries in sports media, relating specifically to two broadcasters. The article has a pretty good premise, however; the study was only done on 2 people from one network and there really wasn’t any statistical data to reference. The researcher basically identified the differences between the male and female researchers and how they present themselves on social media. The woman discussed more personal matters like fashion and non-sports related celebrities, while the male focused mainly on sports-related commentary and analysis. Their observation hinted that her presence in Sports media may have been tainted due to backlash from the audiences. This conclusion was

It’s been more than 40 years since Title IX opened doors for women in sports and, consequently, sports journalism. Still, although Hardin’s and Shain’s article was written in 2005, the merits of their argument hold true today because women haven’t increased their presence much in newsrooms throughout the past decade. According to a 2014 study by Poynter, women in newsrooms have decreased by one percent, keeping the gender disparity roughly same despite the fact that newsrooms as a whole are shrinking. Women make up about 36 percent of newsroom employees, but women account for less than 15 percent of workers on sports staffs in print newspapers around the country. That statistic for women in sport media earned an “F” on the 2012 Associated Press Sports Editors Racial and Gender Report

This study examines how the gender and race of athletes influence the writing of sports reporters and their evaluations of those athletes. This academic research explains how the genders and races of the reporters also play a role in the ways they talk about athletes. Reporting varies depending on if the athletes are of similar or different races and genders as the reporters. This study is useful to my own because it examines the importance of the background of the reporter and not just the athlete.

From the three network affiliates they studied, they found that 96.3 percent of the coverage was for men’s sports and women only received 1.6 percent (Messner and Cooky 4). When analyzing the coverage of Sports Center, which is arguably the most popular sports show on television, they found that women still only received just 1.4 percent of their coverage (4). This study also found that 100 percent of the Sports Center programs had a lead story that was about men’s sports (4). Even the most renowned and credible sports show, which only shows sports all year long, does not even provide women’s sports with equal attention. Even more shocking than this was that the study also revealed that reporters devoted more coverage to men’s sports that were out of season than they did women’s sports that were actually in season (4). This can be extremely disrespectful to female athletes when their sport is pushed aside and ignored so that a men’s sport that is not even being played can be covered by the media. These women put all their effort into performing their sport at the highest level, but their media attention gets replaced by men who are in their off-season.

In February, the third annual Status of Women in the U.S. Media report came out which showed women being vast underrepresented in media making up around 40.3% (only 36.3% for 2013 in newsrooms) of the workforce being women. When they tallied up how many women were staffed at both television and print journalism organizations who were hired as sports journalist, the number falls drastically to a mere 14.6% (Women’s Media Center).

Similarly women are receiving less attention and media coverage than men. When someone puts on the television and turns on a sports game, it is most likely going to be a men’s sport. Even when females get their coverage, the commentators are usually talking about their body rather than their skill. In an article, “Examination of Gender Equality and Female Participation in Sport” by Joshua A. Senne, he talks about how women are referred by their appearance rather than their skill. During a study about the media, the commentators mostly talked about the women’s hair, make-up, and body figure, rather than their ability. This also occurred after the 1996 summer Olympics, where there was a lack of promotion for female athletes and the marketing of women’s sports. These athletes were also only recognized by their physical appearance instead of their ability. The tone of these broadcasters was proved in a study that men 's events were the standard in the society rather than the women’s. They would list the event as “other” rather than saying it is a women’s sport. In the study that was conducted, it states that the gender marketing showed that the woman sports were marked as “other” on an average of 27.5 times, but it 's never happened in the men’s sporting events (Senne). There is still coverage of women 's sports, but it rarely covered. The title IX project made a pie chart about the comparison of men’s and women’s sports media coverage on the show SportsCenter on

Mass media is a powerful medium that shapes and reflects the beliefs, attitudes, and values of society. Through mass media, we are able to expand our knowledge and understanding of social concepts embodied in sports. Duncan(1992) conducted a study of female presentation in sports which examined male and female athletes presentation. She saw that there was a notable difference in the way commentators referred to men an women athletes. Women were referred to as “girls” or “women” and were also at times identified by their first name. Men on the other hand were never called “boys” but were referred to as “men”, “young-men”, or “young fellas” (Duncan, 1992). The descriptions of of male and female athletes also differed. Commentators often described men using words that communicated strength using words such as “big”, “strong” and “aggressive while using terms that indicated weakness to describe women such as “fatigued”, “panicked” and “vulnerable” (Duncan, 1992). When describing plays by men, commentators used language that indicated power to create imagery. For instance “explode” vs. “go to” and “misfire” vs. “miss”. Women were far more likely to be characterized as failures in comparison to men (Duncan, 1992).