Sports In The Gilded Age Essay

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Sports During the Gilded Age

Specifically during the Gilded Age, African Americans, women and the lower-class were all discriminated against in sporting arenas just as they have been in every aspect of American society. Unfortunately early on in the Gilded Age, sports clearly showed the "significant under-representation among key equality and diversity groups in society"(http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=9). However, as sports became more popular, Americans came to the realization that there were barriers that needed to be broken between minorities, women and different social-classes. Changing the face of America, the history of sports started off from being games played primarily for entertainment and leisure, to creating equality amongst everyone. The history of sports has been marked by division and discrimination but also has affected modern popular culture and changing social attitudes and standards towards gender equality, social-class and race.
Social-class played an important role in sports. It dictated who could participate in what sports and to what level of participation. The terminal factor associated with social class was money. Money was the means to obtain the equipment necessary to partake in the sports. Without money, one couldn't perform organized sports. Furthermore, this issue was only limiting the already restricted minorities. Barriers between social-classes resulted in sports also being separated by social-class. The middle-class and upper-class took on sports such as football and boxing. They could afford the equipment for the organized sports. However, the lower-class didn't have much money, so they made do with what they had. One "sport" that was exclusively a lower-clas...

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...t and leisure, to creating equality amongst everyone. The history of sports has been marked by division and discrimination but also has affected modern popular culture and changing social attitudes and standards towards gender equality, social-class and race. During the Gilded Age and after, sports finally broke the barrier between gender, social-class, and equality. It allowed blacks to be able to play sports with whites, women to play sports with men, and it allowed the poor to play sports with the middle-class and wealthy. Not only did sports in the Gilded Age allow barriers to be broken, but it also allowed sports to be shared amongst different races, women, and social-classes. Different sports such as prizefighting, boxing, and swimming were introduced by the minorities in society, and have now become some of the most popular sports today.

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