INTRODUCTION The gender verification has become a major controversy for women’s sports. The International of Olympic Committee (IOC) has made gender verification essential to female sports fearing that male would be a fraudulent to participate in a female sport. However, the purpose of the verification method is to create a fair competitive sports game for female athletes. Gender verifications can be considered a good method to sustain the integrity of sport, but the procedure of examining the athletes have to be done differently. The IOC requirements are to determine and verify the aspects of genetic and characteristic of the female athletes. Gender verification has not only become problematic but it has harmed the reputation of those who are not male origin that are accused of being male. HISTORY The history of gender verification has cause a dramatic scene for accusing female athletes that have won countless of medals. In the 1890s when the modern Olympic Games was revised by Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France, he advocated to go against females competing in sports believing that they were not stronger than their male counterparts. However generalizing cultural views that females should not be compete in sports did not held on for too long. In the year 1900 Olympic Games held in capital city of Paris, France, it had about 19 women athletes who participated in the games. As the Olympics Games are held every four years consequently the number of women athletes have
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.
Women have struggled for more than two centuries to be taken serious as professionals. There should not be a double standard in sports especially if it is loved and played by both genders. Over the years, females have competed against the stereotype of being too fragile both mentally and physically to play strenuous sports. The passion and work ethic of the female professional athletes is just as strong as the males and everyone should be treated equal and be able to have a chance at making a better living for themselves as well as their family. One area that still faces a continual struggle in sports is gender equality. Female
According to sportswriter Paul Gallico noun, “It is a lady’s business to look beautiful and there are hardly any sports in which she seems able to do it”. An abundance of people today believe that women are not worthy of receiving the same treatment in sports as men for this reason. First of all, there has been a law signed which is against gender inequality in athletics, but a bountiful amount of schools, including high schools and colleges, are not in compliance with it, and have not lost federal funding from not satisfying with it. Secondly, it is rare to see women's sports be recognized in the news and media. Lastly, women do not earn nearly as much money as men do in sports. I pronoun strongly believe that women deserve to be treated equally to men in athletics.
Transgendered people in America have made many great strides since the 1990s. They have encountered violence, lack of health care, and the loss of homes, jobs, family and friends. There have been many phases of the struggle of being transgendered in America over the years. The current phase we must be in now is equal rights. There are many variations of discrimination against the transgendered community. In our society we simply do not like what we do not understand. It is easier to discriminate than to try and understand. We are all created different and we should appreciate our differences. The change must come by addressing the views of the public. There is much justification in the unequal rights of transgendered peoples. The Human
However, women’s sport has always been criticized for not being considered an actual sport, but rather a softer version of a man’s sport. As a result, women who were very successful were questioned in regards of their true sex. Santhi Soundarajan was a female competitor in the 2006 Asian Games for the 800-meter race. Soundarajan was successful as she received a silver medal for her efforts, however, she was highly disturbed by the “sex testing” which she was required to go through prior to participating in the Olympic Games (Schultz, 2014). Eventually, it was determined that Soundarajan did not fit into the category of female as her testosterone levels were too high and the Olympic Association had taken away her medal. The idea that femininity is a direct link to being female is an imagined paradigm created by society to dominate women and the notion that women are allowed to compete as long as they appear feminine and act feminine is comical. The reason that this idea of femininity exists is because masculinity exists and if an individual is not feminine then they must be masculine. Therefore, sport is considered a masculine space and to be good at sport one must attain masculinity which can be demonstrated through speed, strength, bulging muscles, bravery, and is coupled with having high levels of testosterone. All of these characteristics are the opposite of the feminine embodiment which includes being poise, pretty, having a slender waist with wide hips, and low amounts of testosterone. Currently, the IAAF states that the amount of testosterone allowed within the blood to be able to compete as a female must be no more than 5 nanomoles per liter (Chiu, 2018). This is almost about half of what the pre-existing limit was before this announcement was made, the monumental discriminatory remarks directly affect women
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.
Research produced from studies into biological effects of gender has been used in real life application. Until 1991 it was ruled that people with XX chromosomes had to compete in female events within the Olympics, and people with XY chromosomes had to compete in male events, but research into gender development changed the rules and now it genetic sex no longer determines entry into the Olympic; proving that research into this field has been most valuable for real life
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.
While the topic of gender has become a hot debate today in society, many people have doubts on whether or not transgender people should be allowed to play professional sports. More specifically, in the Olympics where recent changes in ruling have created various opinions on the topic. While there is great evidence for both sides of the argument, there is a physical advantage for transgender people in sports. There are both genetic structure advantages and hormone benefits that transgender athletes have over born athletes of their gender. The current rules in place were incorrectly made and has changed the Olympics future for the worse.
When a person of a specific gender enters a non-traditional sport for their gender/sex, many social and moral issues will arise challenging that person involved in that particular sport. The intentions of the individual will be questioned as well as their personal interest in the sport. Before any of these questions are asked, there must be a redefinition of gender roles, femininity, and masculinity. In order for a person to enter a non-traditional sport for their gender/sex without being criticize about gender morality, society must set flexible definitions for femininity and masculinity.
Sports become stereotyped as gender-neutral, feminine, or masculine based on conceptions regarding gender, gender differences, and beliefs about the appropriateness of participation due to gender (Colley et al., 1987; Csizma, Wittig, & Schurr, 1988; Koivula, 1995; Matteo, 1986). Sports labeled as feminine seem to be those that allow women participants to act in accordance with the stereotyped expectations of femininity (such as being graceful and nonagressive) and that provide for beauty and aesthetic pleasure (based on largely male standards). A sport is labeled as masculine if it involves the following: 1) attempts to physically overpower the opponent(s) by bodily contact; 2) a direct use of bodily force to a heavy object; 3) a
This article states “that all athletes will have to undergo strict sex determination tests before they will be permitted to compete” in the Winter Games and the Summer Games. Schultz’s chapter states that it was experimented with in the 1968 Winter Games, but was adopted for all female athletes, and no male athletes at the Summer Games. This means that the International Olympic Committee had changed their mind about how the sex testing was going to be used at the Olympic Games from the time the article was written to the time of the Olympic Games. This article exposes Russian athletes as the main culprits of gender fraud as many leading athletes did not show at the European Games when sex testing was introduced. Schultz believes that this could have been due to stereotypes created during the Cold War era where Soviet female athletes were deemed to be masculine by American and British media (Schultz, 2014). Schultz however argues that these athletes do not conform to the Western perceptions of how women ‘should’ look and that this was the reason why some questions were raised over their
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.