Men And Women 's Basketball Essay

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.

The Women’s National Basketball Association, more commonly known as the WNBA, is a professional basketball league consisting of 12 teams spanning across the United States. The league was founded in 1996 but didn’t officially kick off until 1997. While it’s not the first major women’s professional basketball league in the United States, the WNBA is the only league that has received full backing from the National Basketball Association, more commonly, the NBA. Now in its 20th season under the direction of league president Lisa Borders, the regular season is played from June to September with the playoffs spanning through the remainder of September into the middle of October. Although they have the full backing from the NBA, there are still a few discrepancies between the two leagues. Even though WNBA games are not as exciting as NBA games, the players of the WNBA deserve equal pay because the team mindset makes the game more challenging, players continue to show their hard work in the offseason by playing overseas, and they inspire young girls by providing for charities as a result of their work.

The ladies are just as entertaining and competitive as the men in the NBA, but why aren’t they being seen and not getting paid as much. In 1973, the famous Title IX act was passed. This prohibited discrimination in school programs receiving federal funds. That meant girls had to be considered for those slots in law schools, medical schools, and engineering classes that led to the better paying jobs. It also meant girls’ sports should get a fair share of funding. It was no longer legal for schools to field six

     What you have just read above is the “Prohibition of Sex Discrimination”, also known as Title IX. Title IX has been effective in the realm of education for nearly three decades, but has been a source a controversy in collegiate sports. Since the beginning of time, women were believed to be inferior to men in every way. Women were socialized to bear children and take care of the household when, and only when, the men were out hunting.

After researching and viewing different information about women in sports, I have learned a lot of great information that I didn’t know about women that are involved in sports. I really don’t watch too many women sports that much, but I didn’t know how there is more man who is coaches and owners in the WNBA than women are. I was very surprise once I learned that there are men in the WNBA have control over a lot of the teams, which I thought since it was a woman’s sport, the entire organization would be dominate with women just like men are with the NBA. I always known that there are very few women that have global recognition, but after working on my debate presentation, it really made me realize that men still dominate the sport. I think that

"Gender Oppression Involving Men's and Women's Sports." : Analysis of a Scholarly Source: Equal Pay? Not on the Basketball Court" by David Woods. N.p., 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. .

Basketball is one of the biggest sports in America. It is also popular around the worlds. Men’s basketball, in particular, is given much more preference in American society. Many would argue that the comparison of the two simply boils down to sexism in sports, where people downgrade the strength and athletic ability of women in our society according to typical gender roles. However, there may be more confounding factors that are generally overlooked.

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

Have you ever signed up for a sport and noticed there are only girls on your team? This situation happens in our everyday lives in many sports like baseball and basketball. The rules for some of these sports won’t allow girls to be on that same team as boys which sounds silly but is true. Rules for some sports should not restrict girls from playing on boy sports team, Gender should not matter. One reason girls should be allowed on boys’ sport teams is girls can be just as tough as boys, Such as the Princeton women's basketball, that team did something no other Ivy League men's team had done before, racking up 30 wins and 0 losses during the regular season and beating the Ivy League season record of 28-0 held by the 1970-71 Penn men's team.

It is the year 2016, the United States has had its first African American president, gay marriage is legalized, and women and men are supposedly seen as equals in the workplace and educational institutions. It is important to note that while steps to equality have been made through the Equal Pay Act and Title IX, gender discrimination is still prevalent in society. The NCAA reported since 1988, in the 2007-2008 academic year, institutions yielded a net gain of 2, 342 women’s teams added to varsity rosters (Pickett, Dawkins, Braddock, 2012). There are now more than 174,000 female collegiate athletes thanks to Title IX (Koller, 2010). Though there has been a substantial increase in female athletic participation, this number is still nowhere near the participation of male athletes. Many women still do not participate in sports due to discrimination and the concept of equality in Title IX could potentially affect women’s interest in athletic participation.

In conclusion, through the sport of basketball I have been able witness how women are viewed upon based on their gender rather than there set of skills in that particular sport. There potential are limited by stereotypes that hold no validity to them. Our society creates boundaries when it comes to women sports because they base themselves on stereotypes. Men have the advantage since they don’t have to challenge their sexuality or deal with gender barriers all they have to do is play the sport and try to perform to the best of their abilities. If I get the opportunity I would encourage my son or daughter to play the sport they want all that would matter to me is that they are having fun and getting something positive out of the experience.

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.

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,

During this century women have been able to break out of the traditional female mold. Women have broken the chains that bond them to the home and have emerged into all sorts of male dominated arenas, including sports. Women have become athletes in their own right. In the last ten years there has been validation for the female athlete. The WNBA was created giving women a professional league in a mainstream traditionally male sport for the first time since the All American Girls Professional Baseball League went out of existence in the 1950s. And recently a woman made the cut and participated on the professional golf circuit with the men. Today, we see women athletes in the media regularly. Women's college basketball is given airtime on weekends just as men's is.

Within Hollywood’s movies depiction of drug addiction, many have failed to represent all true aspects that come along with such lifestyles. The movie, The Basketball Diaries, is based off a novel Jim Carroll wrote from his own diary entries. As a teenager growing up in the sixties, Carroll reveals his progression of drug abuse which eventually leads him addicted to heroin.Heroin is a white powder derived from morphine found in opium. It is commonly prescribed as a painkiller, but is also a popular street drug.The director casted Leonardo DiCaprio as Jimmy, and concentrates on creating the character as a stereotypical drug abuser. DiCaprio’s most captivating scene is when he is going through heroin