Interscholastic Sports Research Paper

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.

From a young age, children are conditioned to always think about what they want to be when they grow up. Many of them dream to be a ballerina, firefighter, or an astronaut. With age comes maturity, and those aspirations pass, but simultaneously new, more realistic ones arise. To reach these new goals, these children work toward their dream through dedication, which can be seen in the studying or training they do. In today’s society females have more opportunity to do what they dream. There are young women who are assiduously working to get a college degree and a steady job. Then, there are also women who are training to become a professional athlete, with the aspiration of becoming a member of the United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT). In today’s society, women can pursue their goals, however, if compared to men’s sports, there can be differences seen that keep women from reaching full potential, equality, and their dreams.

Money is usually a problem with many things in life, one of them also happens to be gender equality. Colleges and universities spend an average of $1.6 million on the men’s athletics program. Yet, the women’s athletic teams receive nearly half that amount (Almond 2). Women should not be receiving half the amount that a men’s team gets just because their sports are less ‘popular’ than men’s. A school’s main objective may be to promote the men’s team first, to get out of a deficit. Then they may be able to finance the women’s team with the money they make from the men’s sporting events. That is not an equal or fair solution. It would take years to pay off a deficit and then sufficiently finance the female athletic programs. Numerical equality would take a vast quantity of public tax money in addition to the financial assistance that now pays for most of women’s sports. Universities increased its support of women’s athletics over the years but according to Ellen Voelz,

Therefore, the country’s legislators felt that America was better than that and decided to form a law that would reflect the gender diversity of the American people. This led to the Title IX which aimed at abolishing discrimination based on sex in the system of education in America. Formation of the Act saw some girls participating in athletes grow from 16,000 in 1970 to 200,000 in 2012 (Brake 2). The participation in health, socioeconomic activities were some of the gains realized with the enactment of the statute. These benefits derived from the acts are well documented to serve as an example to the many regarding the few whose stories are told. It is hard to watch women Olympics without hearing commentators mentioning the successes of Title IX and the positive impact it has brought to American women and the entire world. Even though this law was formed to give women more power in participatory athletics, women coaches are yet to get a grip on athletics.

Within these recent years, women sports have taking a huge turn around even if the stats and numbers say otherwise. The fast uprising, influence and value of women sports fans has been one of the most distinctive changes in the sports marketing landscape in the last 40 years thanks to the Education Amendments and Title IX. We can see the impact of the second generation of young women growing up with much interest in sports, and female sporting celebrities who are closing the gap with their male counterparts. Many give the credit to this thanks to the US national soccer team. When they won the World Cup in 1991 the nation had no idea it had happened. In 1999 the team got to the final again and that game got millions of fans supporting there

It is a known fact that sports are a significant factor into the way of life for Americans. Families will sacrifice much of their lives to see one of the children become a professional athlete. One of those sacrifices is money. Money for some families, seems almost unlimited while for the majority of families, money is something difficult to come by. Depending on which family a child belongs to, their chances of playing college or professional ball is drastically different. The world of high school sports is becoming more financially demanding than ever because camp prices are rising at an overwhelming rate, families are acquiring debt in hope that their kid is successful, and student athletes of lower class families are not getting the head starts of upper class family athletes.

College sports have impacted American culture in the economy and entertainment in America. The influence of a winning sports team reaches beyond the athletes of the university to anyone and everyone associated with the school. Recruiting athletes plays a major role in the popularity of the sporting events, which is why recruits are not just athletes, but also stellar scholars. Technological advances greatly impacted college sports by making talented athletes famous, and making sports entertainment a popular and important source of school revenue (Sack 31). College sports have affected American entertainment and the economy, influencing culture in both positive and negative

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.

“ Sport is like a war without the killing.” (Ted Turner.) This quote illustrates that in sports everyone competes against each other. Teens are exposed to sports at an early age by their peers and the society. As teens progress into high school, they often participate in high school sports without knowing the negative impacts in the future.

Every year over 7,807,000 high school students, including me, play a sport through their school (they are counted twice if they play two sports and so on) (NFHS). I have found that playing basketball is a great way to be involved in the school and meet new people. However, in the past 7 years sport participation in middle and high school has gone down by more than 4.9% (Facts: Sports Activity). Playing a sport is important, studies show that playing sports in high school not only builds character, but can also increase student health and fitness, and contribute to an athlete’s future success.

The sports world has been a new area where women are recognized. In previous times women’s sports were almost non-existent. In schools many girl teams did not receive adequate funds for uniforms and equipment. Boys sports were much more popular, such as football or basketball. If a girl wanted to play a guy sport she would be labeled as a

Sports give students the abilities and opportunities to be successful inside and outside of the classroom and for life. All students should be encouraged to begin sports as early as possible. They have been shown to improve classroom skills, and also life skills. Sports have been shown to improve concentration and teach kids the truth of hard work. Life long skills, such as determination and leadership are also taught through sports. All around sports are nothing but good for a student to grow inside and outside the classroom.

Sports are a big part of many middle and high school students lives. Sports helps kids in the future academically, socially, and medically. Due to budget cuts to schools, schools are now taking away school sponsored sports in effort to work with the new budget. Sports are vital to students and athlete’s lives. They are too important to be taken away.

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.

The factors influencing women’s participation in sports are numerous (Byers et al 2012:148). These include a lack of facilities, time, interest, underfunding, and social hierarchy (Alexandris and Carroll 1997; Kidd 1996).