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Impact of gender in sports
The role of women in sports
Participation of women in sports
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In today’s society women are not allowed to play baseball with men due to patriarchal myths and misconceptions that have been around since the emergence of baseball in America. All women should be able to play baseball with men and there is no legitimate reason why they shouldn't. Women are physically, mentally, and emotionally capable of playing baseball just as men are. With that being said their biological sex or gender should not and does not affect their ability to play baseball in the company of men. In addition their sex should not deem their athletic ability as inferior in comparison to men. Since the adoption of baseball as an American pastime, the sport of baseball has been cultivated and altered to amputate women exuding the masculinity of baseball. The emergence of baseball as popular and profitable sport has failed to acknowledge and highlight the athletic abilities women. Instead its conception has affirmed women to be fragile and it has also depicted women to not have the skills or talents to play and compete alongside men. There are numerous individuals who are opposed to fusion of women and men on the baseball field. These individuals use demeaning stereotypes and beliefs to support their claims. Often these claims are false and are not supported by factual or scientific data. For example these claims say that women are weaker than men, women are not physically capable of playing sports, or a woman's place is in the home rather than on the playing field. These claims have been in existence since the beginning of time and have filtered into the arena of baseball. These claims are used as agencies to enforce the superiority of men and the inferiority of women.
Those who are opposed to the idea of men and women...
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... of which are completely false. Since the evolution of baseball in America women have been seen as subordinate species regarding baseball and their abilities. In addition a lot of talented female baseball players have not acknowledged in history. Their accomplishments have been diminished by feminizing remarks, these women are not respected. It is widely accepted that women and baseball are not compatible especially regarding the integration with men. These stereotypes and beliefs have been lingering around for centuries; it is about time they are erased. Women should no longer be denied to play and be successful at baseball, we as a culture need to uplift and support women who want to play baseball alongside their male counterparts. Women are very capable of playing baseball with men, sciences proves it and the talented women who look to play baseball exhibit it.
The film “A League of Their Own,” depicts a fictionalized tale of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league was started during World War II when many of the Major Leagues Biggest stars were drafted to the war. MLB owners decided to start this league with hopes of making money while the men were overseas fighting. Traditional stereotypes of women in sports were already in force before the league even begins. One of the scouts letts Dottie, one of the films main characters she is the perfect combination of looks as well as talent. The scout even rejects one potential player because she is not as pretty as the league is looking for even though she is a great baseball player. The player, Marla’s father said if she was a boy she would be playing for the Yankee’s. Eventually Mara’s father is able to convince the scout to take Marla to try outs because he raised her on his own after her mother died. Her father says it is his fault his daughter is a tomboy. In this case the film reinforces the traditional stereotype that mothers are in charge of raising their daughters and teaching them to be a lady, where fathers are incapable of raising girls to be anything other than a tomboy. The focus on beauty also reinforces the traditional stereotype that men will only be interested in women’s sports when the females participating in
“You play like a girl!” used to be one of baseball’s classic insults. Not anymore. Softball diva Jennie Finch has made it cool to not only throw like a girl, but to run, field and hit like one, too. Not since Babe Ruth has a player dominated so completely from the pitching rubber and the batter’s box, and she even gives the Bambino a run for his money in the charisma department. Jennie has also accomplished something Ruth never could: She is showing the boys it’s okay to be one of the girls. This is her story…
For this Women of Diversity Group Project, my group chose to write about female pioneers in sport. Within that category I chose female pioneers of softball. During this paper I will discuss the history of the sport and female participation in the sport. I will also give some statistics and make comparisons between females and males involved in softball and baseball.
In terms of racial inequality in baseball there have been many eras of integration. Baseball originally is seen as America’s national game belonging to the white men of America. However, throughout history there have been steps taken in recognizing and integrating those groups deemed “less favorable” by the American community. These groups include German immigrants, Irish immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Asians. America used the game of baseball as a tool to indoctrinate the American ideals and values of teamwork, working hard, and collaborating for the greater good into the cultures of the “uncivilized world.” These groups used baseball as a medium to gain acceptance into the American community as racially equal counterparts.
Many women have taken up the positions of engineers, factory workers and many more jobs normally occupied by men. Many women that wanted to help with the war effort had worked, bought war bonds, donated clothing and foods and anything else needed to help and support our troops. Some women now had the opportuinty to play baseball and still help promote help for the war. However the idea of women playing baseball and acting like men was completely absurd during that day and age. That year of attendance of The AAGPBL approached one million, with the players completely defined the image of a respectable lady, the girls played ball with a new baseball of fast pitching, stolen bases and injuries, epically skin abrasions from sliding to bases in short skirts. Though the female ball players were skilled and athletic, their required uniform were one piece dresses and had to wear makeup at all times so that it was a reminder to the spectators that these were indeed women playing in the field( ). No player was allowed to drink, smoke, date, cut their hair short or be seen in public with slacks or shorts. Every player were required to join and had to endure “charm schools” where they were obligated to learn ladylike behavior. Though there were many limitations and requirements for the female players this new form of
Before we told our daughters that they could be anyone, or anything they wanted to be, we told them that they could only be what was acceptable for women to be, and that they could only do things that were considered "ladylike." It was at this time, when the nation was frenzied with the business of war, that the women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League decided that they could do and be whatever it was that they chose. These women broke free of the limitations that their family and society had set for them, and publicly broke into what had been an exclusively male sport up until that time.
Women don’t receive the spotlight in sports very often. Usually, the men in baseball, football, basketball, and soccer have higher salaries and are paid attention to more. This wasn’t the case with a special league of female baseball players. These ladies sparked a thought in peoples’ heads in the mid 20th-century. Could women really play a professional sport instead of staying home to do the housework? From 1943-1954, women in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League helped to change the rights women were believed to have in society and in the workplace as they began playing a professional sport as a form of entertainment. Men, who would usually fulfill this role, were drafted into the military with the responsibility to serve during the war. The AAGPBL quickly became a world-winning group of women athletes and kept baseball and peoples' hopes alive during a time of weakness in American history.
...e, and the coaches have pushed you, and the teammates who have believed in you, and the fans who cheer for you is, a little girl who first picked up the ball, who fell in love with the game, and never looked back. Play for her” (Do). Title IX gave that little girl the chance to play the sport she loved. Softball became that sport. Making it a players’ right, male or female to play, compete, and learn without any discrimination because of their gender. Although softball was first played by boys, girls quickly made the game theirs. From its creation in 1887 and every game since then, the rules of softball have changed. For many of those athletes who lace up their cleats, pull on a glove, and slide though dirt each year, softball has become more than a sport but a way of life, each one of them knowing that “When you step on the field, nothing else matters.”
Gender in sports has been a controversial issue ever since sports were invented. In the early years, sports were played only by the men, and the women were to sit on the sidelines and watch. This was another area of life exemplifying the sexism of people in which women were not allowed to do something that men could. However, over the last century in particular, things have begun to change.
Shattuck, Debra (2011). “Women’s baseball in the 1860s: Reestablishing a historical memory.” Nine,19(2), 1-26. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nine/vo19 /19.2.shattuck.html
Giving women an equal opportunity to play against men will change the norm of women in sports and this can be seen as better because both genders will truly be viewed as equals. Women will also have more opportunities to play various sports that are exclusive to men, such as football and baseball. Brake also included numerous reasons why sports should be gender segregated.
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
I went to countless baseball games and I saw men that were phenomenal athletes and I felt as though I needed to play like him or have money like him in order to be a man, or good at baseball for that matter. It is also important to mention that men are stereotypically seen as strong and tough within sports which led to a lot of the pressure I felt, primarily because from the time I was very young, I felt that because I was a boy/man I should be good at all things physical (this included baseball). Through my experiences through baseball I have learned so much so, while it seems that baseball has only contributed negatively to my life, I would argue that it has greatly contributed to my self-confidence, work ethic, healthy competitiveness, etc. So, this is significant because it shaped the man I became in high school; your stereotypical jock who only cared about himself and his sport. I allowed societies notion of what it meant to be a man to shape how I perceived the would and overall dictate the lens I viewed the world from. I began to become very selfish and disregard the subjectivity of anyone who wasn’t in my group of
For many years, baseball has been a male dominated sport and still is today by the limited amount of female baseball players and the nonexistence of women’s league in the MLB. Women are categorized into a similar game to baseball known as softball, thus arguing that women do not have the same physical ability as men. During the rare times you would notice a female baseball player or any female athlete, society is very quick on labeling these females as lesbians, dutch or dyke. This exemplifies the inequality of gender roles within the sport culture as society struggles with the acceptance of female athletes because they are portrayed to be weak and pristine. It is also argued that baseball has been stereotypically represented to be more of a “father and son” game since at most events, it is more likely to see a male individual bring other male friends for a guy’s night out watching the game of baseball and drinking beer. Rarely would you ever see a father bringing their daughter to these games mainly because of the stereotype of sports being a manly thing in which creates the stereotype of women to be interested in less aggressive activities such as dance. Thus, it is proven that Sports revolve around men causing them to be interpreted as masculine activities in which women should not participate in due to their feminine qualities that are perceived as