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Gender equality in sports
Roles of women in sports
Women in athletics essay
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The 2014 US Track and Field Championships was in for something. And so was the world of athletics, an area in which women have come a long way. Indeed, women have made their mark and gone for glory ever since they've set foot in athletics. But the truth remained, women are childbearers and athletes must plan their lives with that in mind. Gestation cycles would render athletes unfit for competition.
June 2014 came and athletes headed for the track. 28 year old Alysia Montan?o, Olympian and 4-time national champion, headed for tracks too. But Alysia was pregnant. 8 months pregnant.
It was incredulous! A woman all of 8 months pregnant competing in a race? And the Championships allowed it? No-one saw such a thing coming.
Alysia ran the 800
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The glory of winning, or of representing your nation or yourself. Someone will win and someone will cross the finish line last, but there still can be glory for all. Alysia got the glory of confirming that pregnancy doesn't have to stop a woman if she truly wishes to participate.
The early days of athletics saw only men competing. Those times women were confined to household duties. Having babies and so on. Eventually women began to enter profession and maternity leave applied. Men do not get pregnant and their consideration for women naturally made it easy for men to dominate athletics. The change of times brought women into athletics. And maternity leave applied. Could new changes see pregnant women beginning to compete?
It would naturally be thought unsafe for a woman to carry out vigorous activity while pregnant. To run a race would be thought unthinkable. But experts agreed competing would be safe for Alysia since she was used to running. Of course, exercise is valuable for pregnancy, so long as the mother avoids routines that she cannot manage. Racing was a natural routine for Alysia, nothing she couldn't manage. 34 weeks pregnant, doctors advised her she could compete, and the Championships allowed her. Now the statement has been
First and foremost, if she remains silent and continues to play through the season, she faces the consequences of potentially damaging her unborn baby to the extent of birth defects, injuring herself and/or miscarrying. On a tertiary level, Fantasia is also faced with the consequences that disclosing her pregnancy could bring, such as, losing her scholarship, losing her eligibility, losing her position on the team and/or being pressured to abort the baby. Stakeholders in which Fantasia must take into consideration before making an informed decision include Fantasia. As the mother of the baby, she is the primary stakeholder in this situation. The decision she makes could potentially have profound effects on the outcome of her future.
When the American people think of women in sports, they think of ice skating, field hockey, and diving. People don’t recognize that women have the potential to play any sport that a man can play, with equal skill, if not better. Much has changed for women since the 1970’s. One of the most important events that have happened in the world of female athletics is the establishment of professional athletics for women. Educational Amendments of 1972.
Intro - Prue Gilbert who is a human rights lawyer from Melbourne once stated in an article; “Last year I was driving my then five year old son to a birthday party, and we inevitably started talking about his own upcoming birthday party. A football party, Dad can be umpire, Ned can be captain and we can all eat hotdogs” Then is next comment stopped me. “and all the girls can be the crowd”
Unintentionally, a lot of us have been boxed into institutions that promote gender inequality. Even though this was more prominent decades ago, we still see how prevalent it is in today’s world. According to the authors of the book, Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions, Lisa Wade and Myra Marx Ferree define gendered institutions as “the one in which gender is used as an organizing principle” (Wade and Ferree, 167). A great example of such a gendered institution is the sports industry. Specifically in this industry, we see how men and women are separated and often differently valued into social spaces or activities and in return often unequal consequences. This paper will discuss the stigma of sports, how gender is used to separate athletes, and also what we can learn from sports at Iowa State.
She was nervous,waiting to see her score for her floor routine. Then, bam! She was shaking with joy and her heart was pounding. She won! Simone Biles, only 19, had won the 2016 Rio Olympics!
She stated, “The best part of the pregnancy was my hair, it was strong, silky, shiny, and it grew really fast.” Additionally, she believed the worst part of the pregnancy was not being able to bend over. She was used to being very active and not being able to move much got to her. According to these women these were the best and worst parts of their pregnancy.
Women have forever had this label on their back of being too small, too weak, too feminine, and too boring. The traditional gender roles of the female interfere with the extortionate nature of competing in sports. Men are usually the ones to go 100% and give whatever they got, and to show masculinity while doing it. The standard masculinity of being strong, smart, and taking charge over dues the feminine traits of being soft, gentle, and polite. That’s what society has taught us to learn and accept. But the traditional female gender role is diminished when participating in athletics and people may think it’s weird to see females compete at the same level as males do. Men have always had the upper hand in the professional, collegian, and high
Watson, P. & McDonald, B. (2007) Activity levels in pregnant New Zealand women: relationship with socioeconomic factors, well-being, anthropometric measures, and birth outcome. Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism 32 (4), 733-742.
Media plays a large role in affecting peoples thinking, opinions, ideas, etc. In essence media can shape our thinking into negative views and perspectives that are typically not true. Sometimes the media plays as a puppet master to society. Specifically, the inequity of the gender roles within sports causes for a stir in commotion that calls for some attention. In doing so the inadequate misuse of media towards women in sports causes low exposure, amongst many other things. On the other hand their male counterparts are on the other end of the success spectrum. Because of this noticeable difference, it is vital that action is taken place to level out equality within sports. Due to the power of media, it is believed that a change in media coverage
Prenatal development is often overlooked, but it is an important topic that everyone is influenced by. Mothers’ actions during pregnancy greatly affect the child (for good or for bad). There are many factors to a baby’s development of the brain, intelligence, and emotions. What a mother puts into her body affects the baby’s development. How stressed the mother is also contributes to development. A mother’s job during pregnancy cannot be overstated, because she is the main protector and nurturer of the child in the womb. How she handles her own emotional and physical health will determine the development of the baby inside and outside of the womb. The decisions a pregnant woman makes affects not only her health, but the health of her child.
The only contraindication is in the intensity of the exercise if any pre-existing illness or pregnancy that is in high risk pregnancies. Thus, it is considered that physical activity is essential for pregnant women, but should always be made with the help of a professional.
Everybody is born and made differently, but one thing is similar, our gender. We are born either male or female, and in society everybody judges us for our gender. This is called gender roles; societies expecting you to act like a male or female (Rathus, 2010). Some people say, “act like a lady,” or “be a man,” these are examples of how gender roles work in our everyday lives. In society when we think stereotypes, what do we think? Many think of jocks, nerds, or popular kids; gender stereotyping is very similar. Gender stereotypes are thoughts of what the gender is supposed to behave like (Rathus, 2010). One example of a gender stereotype for a man would be a worker for the family, and a women stereotype would be a stay at home mom. Though in todays age we don’t see this as much, but it is still around us. In different situations both gender roles and stereotypes are said and done on a daily basis and we can’t avoid them because everyone is different.
Women have fought through torture, blood, sweat, and tears to help women stand strong in our
This journal was useful for me because it gave me the background details on why women are opting for delayed motherhood by the age of 30 or 40. Accordingly, I was able to build up my points on how it will affect the health conditions of both baby and mother and also the risk of taking that challenge.
Although women have been accepted within the participation in sports and physical activity, there is still constant controversy surrounding the topic of whether or not female sports can be “considered a ‘real’ sport” (Hall, M. Ann, 2007, pg. 56) or if the female participants can be “viewed as ‘real’ women” (Hall, M. Ann, 2007, pg. 56). This is due to the fact that sports and physical activity has invariably been viewed as strictly for males, to aid in validating their masculinity. It is constantly vocalized that sports considered to be ‘feminine’ ones such as