Inequality In Sports

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

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.

Within sport, as throughout society, gender differences exist. The socially constructed phenomenon of gender dictates a dichotomous system whereby females are feminine and males are masculine. Focusing on females specifically, society determines the feminine traits and roles ascribed to this gender. Being domesticated, slender, passive and heterosexual are a part of the desirable appearance that society has formed surrounding femininity (Wolf, 1991). On the other side of the dichotomy is the masculine realm that sport plays into. Sport is fuelled by muscle, power and aggressiveness, which are behaviours and images associated to masculinity. Sport therefore, defies all existing female gender ideals. It would be assumed that females have no place within this institution due to the gender clash. However, female athletes do exist, and many are very successful. For this to work, sport has established and reinforced the social constructions of gender that exist in society. Female athletes are viewed as inferior and are pushed into gender appropriate sports. Furthermore, they are often labeled as masculine until they can prove otherwise, and so great attempts are made to reassert femininity. The stigma associated to being masculine or homosexual for female athletes is so great that many have become irrationally fearful of this label. The sexualisation of the female body and overt displays of heterosexuality are used in

The abuse of power to exploit and dominate women within sporting bodies is not a new concept to society and may seem complex however, to gain insight on this topic one may observe the role of masculinity in sports. Sport has been a masculine domain where men are able to assert their dominance, strength, and bravery. Directly addressed by the three I’s: inferiority, injury, and immorality in Authors Eileen McDonagh’s and Laura Pappano’s article Playing With the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal In Sports women have been marked as physically inferior to men (McDonagh and Pappano, 2008, pp.181-187). Additionally, society feared that if women were allowed to compete in masculine sports it would promote damage to their vital organs, homosexual affiliations,

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.

In today’s world, men’s sports seem to always be in the spotlight while women’s sports do not draw much attention, as if women who play sports are not taken seriously. This happens on all levels of sports, and I have personally experienced it myself through basketball in high school. While the gym would be full for any of the boys’ games, our games had very little support with almost empty bleachers. When it comes to the professional level, when women’s sports do get covered by the media, most people judge female athletes more on their looks rather than their athletic skill, which is negative and unfair.

For many years, women have been underappreciated. They are seen as individuals who should only cook, clean, and take care of the kids around the house. As the years move on, women are starting to break those stereotypes and becoming strong and independent. One of the ways that they are doing this is through the sports world. Many professional women athletes have been helping to tear down those stereotypes and let the people of the world know that women are capable of what men can do too. Even though men’s sports are more popular than women’s, the media should acknowledge women’s sports just as much as men’s because the physical activities that women do in the sports world encourage girls to play them, breaks through the gender barrier and increasing the recognition of women’s sports increases funding for them.

When it comes to women in the media they do not get represented very well and they tend to be poorly portrayed as well. Men are the largest consumers, players, and of sports. So media focus more on male sports and athletes. This may be the reason women are advised not to be engaged in sports and how their gender is presented in the media. Some people think that if more women participate in sports, the media would be fairer. In today’s society, the media focuses more on women’s looks

It appears that each year the U.S. Women's national team gets better and better. Since the 2012 olympics the national team has been considered by many to be the greatest women’s team today. But just like any other job in the world today there is a large pay wage gap between the Mens and womens teams. Even with the accolades of Olympic gold, and even 2015 world Cup champions, the Women's national team is paid considerably less than their male counterparts. Despite these Accolades, along with Revenue, Ticket sales, and a “Larger” fan base, the women are paid criminally less that the vastly inferior men.

Although stereotypes and unequal pay in sports still exists today, the creation of government laws and associations have helped women make great gains in sports over time. Section one in the amendment for equal rights declares, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex” (Mount 2). Females are capable of doing similar activities as men because everyone has equal rights. Even though this law made it possible for females to play sports, it did not help improve the discrimination. All female athletes kept receiving derogatory remarks whenever they played sports until the creation of Title IX (Francis

Through the movies viewed in this course this semester, we saw women who were able to play against men and still keep their femininity. Nothing is lost when playing sports not traditionally meant for a particular race or gender. Society must become more understanding when it comes to the sports different types of people play and hinder from stereotyping anyone when they participate and perform well in that sport.

Title IX changed the philosophy of sports establishing that a person’s sex cannot deny their participation in sports. This allowed women one step closer to equality throughout the workplace, at school, and even at home. Back in the day, women were only destined to be a housewife or a secretary. Not a lawyer, or involved in math and sciences, or even become a business owner. Girls in classrooms would raise their hand less because they didn’t have a reason to retain knowledge and they knew acknowledging the question would be useless in the field they choose to study. With Title IX, young girls are given the chance to play sports. Sports allow athletes to know how to retain information, make new friends, discipline, and how to work

In today's society the male figure dominate in most aspects, especially in sports. They receive a great amount of media attention, far greater than female athletes. Young kids grow up watching male sports being dominant which causes stereotypes around female and sports. While boys have something to look up to, young girls do not receive the same image.Feminist movements made enormous improvement on the status of female athletes since the early twentyth century. Before the feminists movements, female athletes had to manouver in poorer circumstances, different rules, and with stricter dress codes. Society has regularly segregated and disregarded female competitors, expressing that they were manly and gay person. Likewise, hindering ladies from taking an interest in games. After this issues were highlighted, society has attempted to invert these separations and improved open doors for female competitors to champion.

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