Gender difference has always been an issue in many shapes and forms and throughout many circumstances in the past, present and still will be in the future. This paper focuses on the issue of discrimination against women in sports. Either being an athlete or a coach, women have always been looked upon as not as talented sports wise as men, even though in reality, they are. This issue is articulated in many ways. The news paper Green Leaf Weekly reports from the past that sports editors and journalists think that women’s sport is not “newsworthy” (Brown, 1993). Just that quote says a whole lot about the lack of respect people have for women who play sports who work just as hard as men to contend in their sport. Research by Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappana demonstrates that sex segregation in sports does not simply reflect biology, but it actively constructs and reinforces social ideas of female inferiority (McDonagh & Pappana, 2010). For example, it has been a known fact that women have better physiological endurance compared to men, but yet in the Olympics some of the racing events are actually shorter compared to the men because the women are perceived as not being able to handle the same distance men run. In May of 2004 the sports world was flipped upside down when Title IX was put in place. This title should have been put in place a long time ago, but with all the discriminatory gender issues, it took this long to come to be. Title IX prohibits discrimination against girls and women in federally funded education and athletic programs. The law states that schools who do not follow Title IX, will lose their federal funding. This was a huge step in the beginning of discriminatory actions towards females in sport to be diminished. There are many resources available for exploring this subject area. Finding data and charts is hard to find, but there are many news paper articles on discrimination against women in sports. Also a few websites as well to help you get informed on how and why there is discrimination towards women in sports in the first place. There is a website called Women’s Sports Foundation that has a lot of information about women in sports. The good thing about this website is that though it focuses on the negative aspects like discrimination, it also focuses on the positive aspects and what women have achieved in sport and what future goals for women’s sports are. A fact the website states that by 2010, 53 athletic opportunities were offered to every 100 high school boys, and 41 athletic opportunities were offered to every hundred high school girls. Though the number is lower than that of the males, it still is much better than 20 years before this time when it was seldom that 7 athletic opportunities were offered to every 100 high school girl. This statistical research shows that discrimination in sports towards women is improving, slowly, but surely. Women are the most affected by this issue because they are being discriminated against in sports. More so than just women, younger women have an even harder time as when you are a young girl there are no girl’s leagues, just mixed leagues with boys. When females play with males, a lot of people say discriminatory things about girls and how they are incapable of playing with males. Likely problems that could come out of this for Canadian society would be that the discrimination problem against women will never be fixed, or it could also get worse. Women need to realize their worth and do something about the issues that are being brought towards them in sports. They have the right to play sports and enjoy them just as much as males do, and they are just as talented as males are. There are many solutions to this problem. A few solutions have already been created in order to better the sports world for women. The Title IX was definitely an important time in history when the document was put in place that discrimination against women is strictly prohibited in federally funded sports (Steven, 2004). Women’s sports being in the Olympics also play a very important part in helping this problem. Over the years as more women’s sports were added into the Olympics, it got more media coverage and more attention. With this attention, more young females joined the sports world and the female sports world vastly grew. I feel more women’s sports need to be added into the Olympics, and maybe even create a professional women’s sports league, like the NHL or NBA. Creating a professional women’s sports league would definitely capture enough attention to possibly make the discrimination simmer down. Another option is to possibly create women’s sports centers all over the world for women to come together who play sports and possibly make a change and realize there are a lot of other females all around the world who feel just as they feel. Making people aware of the problems of discrimination in sports could open the eyes of a lot of people to see that it actually is a huge problem. In conclusion, sports are meant to be an activity to demonstrate teamwork, hard work, pain, courage and most of all belief. Belief is hard to achieve when you are being discriminated against, and a lot of people turn to sports to gain confidence. Gender in sports shouldn’t matter, sports teach to you the lessons no matter what gender you are. Many people use sports as a getaway from the crazy world now days and they should feel comfortable. Females need to realize their worth to the sports world, and if more people become aware of the problem and try and solve it, many younger females will be inspired in the future society to take sports to a whole new level, without discrimination against females. The problem will never be completely solved, but with determination anything is possible.
References
Brown, C., (1993). Green Leaf Weekly. Article, 121. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.library.smu.ca:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=11&sid=66b0d127- bc37-4ca5-a903- ef2cab3580af%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=fyh&AN=MRB -WRI0271980
McDonagh, E., Pappana, K., (2010). In Brief. Women’s Studies, 39(1), 67. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.library.smu.ca:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=11&sid=66b0d127- bc37-4ca5-a903- ef2cab3580af%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=fyh&AN=4683 7840
Steven, L. Y., (2004). The Sport Of Numbers: Manipulating Title IX To Rationalize Discrimination Against Women. Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, 1, 155. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.library.smu.ca:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=11&sid=66b0d127- bc37-4ca5-a903- ef2cab3580af%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=fyh&AN=1386 1272
References: Brown, C., (1993). Green Leaf Weekly. Article, 121. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.library.smu.ca:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=11&sid=66b0d127- bc37-4ca5-a903- ef2cab3580af%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=fyh&AN=MRB -WRI0271980 McDonagh, E., Pappana, K., (2010). In Brief. Women’s Studies, 39(1), 67. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.library.smu.ca:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=11&sid=66b0d127- bc37-4ca5-a903- ef2cab3580af%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=fyh&AN=4683 7840 Steven, L. Y., (2004). The Sport Of Numbers: Manipulating Title IX To Rationalize Discrimination Against Women. Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, 1, 155. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.library.smu.ca:2048/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=11&sid=66b0d127- bc37-4ca5-a903- ef2cab3580af%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=fyh&AN=1386 1272
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