Gender In Sports

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.

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.

Woman’s sustained involvement in ‘male’ team sports has only occurred relatively recently. Woman’s participation in sport has been blunted by

This analysis shows a changing in the guard of how women’s sports are being covered. The increasing feminism movement in sports with icons such as former MMA UFC fighter Ronda Rousey leading the way in combination with an increasing in feminine issues being covered by the media has meant a change in the way women’s sports are featured. Though gender still has a major influence over the coverage of women’s hockey and a traditional heteronormative gender role is communicated at several points of these pieces, the conversation has moved away from being an exposition on the strangeness of women’s engaging in a men’s sports to becoming a celebration of women in sports. What this encouragement does communicate however is the ability of these women to leave behind stereotypically heteronormative feminine traits and take on the masculine

This section will outline how, throughout history, the role of Women in Society that has been reflected in the role of Women in Sport.

Before I conducted this media analysis about women in sports and sport broadcasting, I hypothesized the obvious - that more male sports would be in the media, and that there would be more male sports broadcasters as well. Through my observations I did find that the sports arena and sports broadcasting sphere are male dominated. However, I also found that although there are not many stories about women, there has been a steady progression and magazines like Sports Illustrated are becoming bold enough to highlight women athletes in a magazine that is targeted towards a male audience. Although women still have a long way to go, they are making some headway into the male-dominated sports arena.

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 are one of the great American pastimes, but the reality is that sports have encouraged a very distinct separation between males and females in the American society. The attitudes acquired through sports are learned on the field and breached into the real world to create conflict between the sexes. The issue of gender inequality goes far beyond the sports world, yet male dominated organizations form and support the sexes. With this separation of sexes we see the social and cultural strain on athletes participating in opposite gender sports, because society frowns on women participating in male dominated sports.

Sport has been one of the most important socio-cultural learning experiences for males and females. Sports provide an amazing release for people of all ages. People are requested and welcomed to play sports at any age. Sometimes there are many limitations due to personal reasons that restrain people from participating in sport such as money, peer pressure, location, etc. For the last century males are expected to be strong, independent, and athletic. Male athletes masculinity symbolizes an image of physical health, and sexual virility throughout their bodies as well. Nowadays, women’s participation in sports is becoming popular but it is still overshadowed by men’s. According to the Women’s Sport Foundation before the title IX “given equal athletic opportunities, women will rush to fill them; the remaining discrepancies in sports participation rates are the result of continuing discrimination in access to those opportunities” (“ Title IX Myths and Fact”). Under the title IX, female has the playing field been. Women now can participate in many sports, which were only played by men before. However, the main reason that female usually do not participate is due to gender inequity. Some of people believe that the inequity in sports has not changed over the years, especially opportunities and benefits. Although sports provide opportunities for both males and females, female participating in sports generally have less opportunities to

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.

Whilst female participation in sport may be at an all time high worldwide, it is still clear to see that there is not a level playing field between the two genders. In some countries, primarily the less developed ones, their culture and heritage dictates the roles women have to have in society and there is little room for sport to be played by them here. However

With the rise of feminism, gender inequality has been quite the topic in todays time. With the wanting of equal rights and treatment it has been pointed out as per which all places males have the hegemonic overview and women are the oppressed; one of the areas where its unequal in gender is in sport. This paper will examine and break down the issues regarding sex and gender biases within sports in modern day media and how it can be resolved.

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

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 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.