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.
Basketball was created as a sport in 1891 by James Naismith, and it quickly became popular among both men and women. It initially started with the same rules for each gender, but according to Patricia Cain in her article, “Women, Race, and Sports: Life Before Title IX,” the rules quickly changed for women. Cain (2001) states that, “Almost immediately, however, some educators began changing the rules of basket...
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...New York: A. S. Barnes and Company.
Ring, Jennifer (2012). American women play hardball in venezuela: Team USA battles invisibility at home, is celebrated abroad, and faces gunfire at the Women’s World Cup. Spring 2012 Baseball Research Journal, 41(1).
Retrieved from http://sabr.org/research/american-women-play-hardball-venezuela
Ring, Jennifer (2009). Stolen bases: Why american girls don’t play baseball. Chicago Il: University of Illinois Press.
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
Women’s Sports Foundation (2011). Baseball and softball: Should girls and women
have to choose? Retrieved from http://www.womenandsportsfoundation.org/en/home/advocate/foundation-positions/equity-issues/baseball_and_softball
The All-American Professional Girls Baseball League was the first, and only, female baseball league in history. This league was developed during World War II when “ in the interests of patriotism, women were encouraged to do all the things normally reserved for men” (Johnson XIX). At the time the book, When Women Played Hardball, was written in 1994, no other professional sports team had lasted as long as this baseball league. The league lasted a solid nine years. These women did not just play baseball, they broke records. “ Kurys, the "Flint Flash", stole 201 bases [in a season]. Her career tally of 1114 stolen bases is a professional baseball record...She [Joanne Weaver] is tied for the fourth best batting average in the history of professional baseball, and she's the last player in the history of the game to bat over .400” (XXII/XXIII Johnson). Today, these women still hold records in major league baseball. At the peak of the league in 1948, the league “ consisted of 10 teams that entertained nearly 1,000,000 fans in middle sized Midwestern cities” (XXI Johnson). Every team attracted loyal and enthusiastic fans. At first, crowds came to the game to see the unusual sight of women playing baseball, but soon kept coming back because of the level of play and because they enjoyed watching the game. Every woman in that league just
Women have been playing basketball for over a century before the Women's National Basketball Association came into existence. It was here at Smith College where many women got their first taste of the game. Women were described as having a "masculine performance style... rough and vicious play... worse than in men" (Hult 86). This aggressive playing style had to be modified because the violence and rough-housing that was going on were becoming intolerable. Eventually the Official Women's Basketball Rules were modified in that there was no dribbling allowed on the court at all, players were not allowed to make physical contact with each other and women were not allowed to grab the ball out of another women's hands.
Robinson, J., Peg Bradley-Doppes, Charles M. Neinas, John R. Thelin, Christine A. Plonsky, and Michael Messner. “Gender Equity in College Sports: 6 Views.” Chronicle of Higher Education 6 Dec 2002: B7+.
These women laid the groundwork for future women's sports and professional women's teams. They displayed an independence unheard of at that time, and they served as role models to their fans. For all of these reasons the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was a significant part of women's history.
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.
Frantz, Chris. A. The "Timeline: Women in Sports." Infoplease/Pearson Education, 2007. Web.
Jill's invitation came in the mail and she was off to Spring Training. In what would be the ride of her life, Jill became the only female to every manage an MLB game. It was not easy, as to be expected, glaring eyes from some of the players annoyed at the idea of a female managing them. Interaction with a certain player when she changed the lineup to fit what she thought was the optimum order to get runs on the boards. Add in a heated interaction with a grumpy, old umpire resulting in her being thrown out of the game, ultimately gaining the respect of the team, the day was epic.
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.
Sargent, Jim. We were the all-American girls: interviews with players of the AAGPBL, 1943-1954. : , . Print.
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.
Lesko, J. (2005). League History. All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association. Retrieved for this paper Mar 20, 2014 from, http://www.aagpbl.org/index.cfm/pages/league/12/league-history
Sports are so prevalent and popular these days that we often see them as symbolic of real-life issues and real-life drama. The football field can illustrate the battle between good and evil. The baseball pitcher, nearing retirement, can come back to give one last game and wow the crown one last time before gracefully surrendering the field. Isn't that what sports represent? The good guys (i.e. your baseball team) go to battle against the bad guys. It's not quite war, but it might as well be war without causalities. If they win, you celebrate. If they lose, you say, "Well, there's always next time." But if we can say that sports represent real life, do the players always represent real people? Is the quintessential soccer star also the quintessential man? He's controlled, fit, focused and aggressive. He wants to succeed and he wants to do his personal best. These are all admirable qualities.
Since the passing of Title IX in 1972, a law that mandates that both men and women have equal opportunities in any government funded institution, it has created numerous opportunities for girls and women not only in an education and schools, but also in clubs and especially sports. Having the opportunity to play a sport and practice teamwork and leadership is an invaluable experience; and because of the approval of Title IX, many girls, including myself, have been able to join youth sport clubs and continue their athletic careers. Any level including little league, high school, college, or even to play sports professionally. Although women have perceived and progressed themselves upward through society,
Women are being allowed to participate now, including professional leagues such as the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Women in sports, especially softball and basketball, have become a big-time business. World War II is when the basis of women’s professional sports began. While the men were overseas fighting the war against the Nazis and Germans, the women entertained the people who stayed back by playing baseball.
“Honey, you do not want to play baseball; that is for boys. Why don’t you take dance lessons instead?” At a young age, girls do not understand what this comment can mean to them in the future. Are males the only group of people who can play baseball or football? Why do parents want their little girls to play “girl” sports rather than the societal “boy” sport? This ideal of separating boys and girls into different sports can and will have long-term effects that adults are not aware of if they instill this mentality into their children. In today’s society, men and women are compared on the traits they have or don’t have when it comes to sports. In 1972 after Title IX was passed, there were uphill battles that women had to face and a lot