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Discrimination in sport
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In this statement "Where Girls Are Missing Out on High-School Sports", Alia Wong, writer and editor from Boston, suggests that women don't participate in as many sports because they are not given the opportunity and because of discrimination of race. She supports this claim by first providing evidence about women not getting the opportunity or is discriminated because of race. Then, she provides information about the number of women who play sports and gets scholarships for sports compared to men. Wong's purpose is to have people recognize that women are missing out on sports because of gender inequality in order to impact the lives of her readers and to make a difference with gender equality in sports. She establishes an inspiring tone for
Amanda Ripley argues in The Atlantic in her article “The Case Against High School Sports”, that the United States place too much attention on sports rather than academics. Ripley argues that sports programs at schools should be reduced, maybe even cut out completely. She states that there are a lot of countries that outperform America on international tests, and it is because they put more of their emphasis on academics, where the United States puts more of an emphasis on athletics. Ripley says that high school sports negatively affects academics. (1). I disagree with Ripley on this topic; I think that sports are important for young kids because it teaches them very valuable life lessons and it keeps them out of trouble.
Turn on ESPN, and there are many female sports reporters, and many reports on female athletes. Flip through Sports Illustrated, and female athletes are dotted throughout the magazine. Female athletes star in the commercials. Female athletes are on the cover of newspapers. Millions of books have been sold about hundreds of female athletes. However, this has not always been the case. The number of females playing sports nowadays compared to even twenty years ago is staggering, and the number just keeps rising. All the women athletes of today have people and events from past generations that inspired them, like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, Billie Jean King, and the 1999 United States Women’s World
In 1970 only 1 in 27 girls participated in high school sports, today that ratio is 1 in 3. Sports are a very important part of the American society. Within sports heroes are made, goals are set and dreams are lived. The media makes all these things possible by creating publicity for the rising stars of today. Within society today, the media has downplayed the role of the woman within sports. 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.
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.
Sports, in general, are a male dominated activity; every “real” male is suppose to be interested and/or involved in sports in the American society. However, it is not expected of a female to be interested in sports and there is less pressure on them to participate in physically enduring activities. These roles reflect the traditional gender roles imposed on our society that men are supposed to be stronger and dominant and females are expected to be submissive. As Michael Kimmel further analyzes these gender roles by relating that, “feminism also observes that men, as a group, are in power. Thus with the same symmetry, feminism has tended to assume that individually men must feel powerful” (106).
“The past three decades have witnessed a steady growth in women's sports programs in America along with a remarkable increase in the number of women athletes (Daniel Frankl 2)” From an early age women were thought to be “Lady Like”; they are told not to get all sweaty and dirty. Over 200 years since Maud Watson stepped on the tennis courts of Wimbledon (Sports Media Digest 3); women now compete in all types and levels of sports from softball to National racing. Soccer fans saw Mia Hamm become the face of women’s soccer around the world, Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most popular figures in tennis, and Indy car racing had their first woman racer, Danika Patrick. With all the fame generated by these women in their respective sports, they still don’t receive the same compensation as the men in their respective sports fields.
Coakley (2009) starts off the chapter by introducing how participation in organized sports came about and how gender roles played a major role early on. He describes how most programs were for young boys with the hope that being involved would groom them to become productive in the economy. Girls were usually disregarded and ended up sitting in the stands watching their sibling’s ga...
Can women's sports establish itself as a topic of on-going media and journalism curiosity? Currently TV stations do minimal coverage of women's sports, while newspapers and magazines do just a little bit better. In a recent interview with Gary Webb, a sports writer for The Spectrum, he says that "the people have demonstrated that there is an audience that loves hearing about women athletes. After all, they are somebody's kids, sisters, and moms". I learned that these sports writers love to cover women's games, especially girls highschool basketball games. Gary said that he would rather watch a Parowan-Beaver girls game over the boys anyday. Karen Winegar, staff writer for the The Star Tribune of Minnesota said., "Portrayal of female athletes is improving, but despite increasing interest and participation, their sports are getting no more coverage than they got five years ago" (1A+). Women's sports participation will surely continue to grow in the future, so the media and journalists better be prepared to increase their coverage accordingly.
It has taken many years for women to gain a semblance of equality in sports. Throughout history, women have been both excluded from playing sports and discriminated against in sports. Men’s sports have always dominated the college athletic field, but women were finally given a fighting chance after Title IX was passed. Title IX, among other things, requires scholarships to be equally proportioned between men and women’s sports. Although this was a huge gain for women, gender inequality still exists in sports today. An example of this persisting inequality can be seen when looking at men’s baseball and women’s softball. In college, baseball and softball are both major NCAA sports. It is widely accepted throughout today’s society that baseball is a man’s sport, and softball is a woman’s sport. Very few people question why the two sexes are separated into two different sports, or wonder why women play softball instead of baseball. Fewer people know that women have been essentially excluded from playing baseball for a long time. This paper will focus on why softball has not changed the way women’s basketball has, why women continue to play softball, the possibilities and dynamics of women playing baseball with and without men, and the most discriminating aspect of women being banned from playing professional baseball.
The first perspective is that women are disadvantaged at any sport. Some people reiterate the difference of men and women in sports. This is influenced by strength and the natural power men hold, comparable to women. Rodriguez questions “Is this because female athletes don’t have what it takes to make it in the world of sports or could it be more of a social issue?” This perspective seems to be a social issue based on the notable skills women acquire vs. the apparent judgments of gender issues. The second perspective is the idea that women deserve and inherently earn their right of equal attention and equal pay. “Sometimes, the secret to equality is not positive discrimination, it 's equal terms. It 's the shrug of the shoulders that says "what 's the difference?" The moment worth aspiring for is not seeing people celebrate the world-class female cricketer who competes at comparatively low-level male professional cricket, but the day when people are aware that she does, and don 't find it notable at all” (Lawson). Lawson makes it a point to confirm the biased notions against women in sports and relay an alternative worth working toward and fighting for. Both outlooks can be biased but only one has factual evidence to back it up. The second perspective reviews an ongoing gender issue. This problem is welcome for change depending on society’s
For the same reason, it existence is necessary and requires a greater effort to enforce gender equality for continued progress. Increased female participation in sports and Title IX has changed the political position of girls and young women. Both have challenged and continued to destroy myths that women are inferior to men. they fight stereotypes that women do not have interest in traditionally male-dominated activities. By breaking down these barriers, female opportunities can only to continue to
It is hard to believe women still have to struggle in today’s day and age. Women today in a world prominently dominated by males in the sports world face a double standard in the pro sports world. Women have been fighting for centuries in order to achieve the same success and respect that men do in this world. Women in sports are often seen as a different; their consider being in-women like. They have to work twice as hard in order for them to achieve what there seeking, which is mainly equality. Despite all the progress double standard does exist for women, they are constantly judged for their actions on and off the field.
From a very young age, boys are encouraged to compete, play, and engage in many sports while girls are encouraged to pursue and limit themselves to other, more “civil” or “friendly” activities like hopscotch or jump rope. Girls are often stereotyped by other boys as “less athletic” and “weaker”. Boys make fun of other boys for “throwing like a girl” or “acting like a sissy”. Even in online and electronic sports, women are stereotyped and underrepresented. This stereotyping at the most basic and early levels carries over and exists throughout sports today. Sports are categorized and labelled from the very beginning as either masculine or feminine. Boys are encouraged to play high contact physical sports like football and wrestling, while girls are encouraged to perform in less physical sports such as cheerleading or volleyball. Yet sport participation has shown to be beneficial and crucial activity, as Sandra Hanson points out in her publication, “Young Women, Sports, and Science”. Hanson writes that “from a Critical perspective, sports may be a particularly valuable resource for young women (perhaps even more so than young men) because the worlds of competition (whether in sports or in other areas) and male networks have often excluded women”, and that, “women who do participate in sports most likely benefit from the same socialization, integration, status, and recognition that benefit male athletes” (pg.
At some point students has had trouble either at home or at school and need to release stress or tension. Some of these times the teens choose to do activities that are wrong. Youth want to feel comfort and accepted, therefore they sometimes will do events that are not well for their body just to fit in with a group. There is evidence that proves sports can reduce the likeliness of teens committing crimes, or getting into trouble. Tees look at the negative substances such as drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, and think that they can do whatever they want. Many teens look at these activities and think they are “exciting” or “cool” and want to try them, but if they are busy with sports they most likely will not be as easily influenced. Participation in sports helps keep teens out of trouble by taking up their free time which could be used for mischief, gives them an opportunity to meet new friends for positive role models, provides teens an outlet to develop a higher self-esteem, and also enables student to set goals for on and off the field.
It is easier for males to obtain athletic scholarships than it is for females. As of 2012, according to Cynthia G. Brown, Senior Fellow at American Progress, “There are 3.1 million girls who play high school sports, but there are less than 200,000 collegiate athletic opportunities for women,” (Brown 1). Why is it that there is a significant amount of females playing sports in high school, yet they don’t have as many possibilities as males? Brown also states that there are about, “160 more opportunities for males to participate in athletics” (Brown 1). Despite Title IX requiring female athletes to receive scholarship money that is proportionate to their sports participation, it still isn’t enforced. At division I schools, women make up 51% of students but they only receive 42% of scholarship dollars, with 31% being spent to recruit new athletes. The Office for Civil Rights needs to conduct evaluations to ensure that female and male athletes are receiving the same opportunities. If they did, the gap in scholarship possibilities can be reduced. With more females receiving money, this could possibly increase the amount of professional female athletes, and decrease the amount of discrimination professional female athletes