Preview

Equality in Women Sports

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2732 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Equality in Women Sports
Equality in Women Sports Gender equality in sports is something women have been trying to pursue over and over again. As in professional publicity of sports, men vs. women is no competition, men blow women out of the park on this issue. Men are more dominant in the sports world, and women just live in the shadows. Women are not given the chance they deserve to prove that they are just as good, so as of now, the media presumes them to be inferior to men. The myth many people believe for this reason, is the simple answer that women are not as strong as men. Others say that women’s sports are not as popular because they are not as entertaining to watch. Many people have different reasons for why women do not get the equality that they deserve, but there are more reasons for why women should be just as successful in professional sports as men. Women in sports began with very few opportunities, until a few pioneers paved a way for the future of women sports. Such female athletes that paved the way for other females were Babe Didrikson and Wilma Rudolph. Babe competed in the 1932 Olympics and qualified for five events, but at the time, women were only allowed to complete in three. Babe also took up golfing and won 55 tournaments in all, with 13 consecutive in 1946. Wilma Rudolph was another admirable female athlete, whose forte was in track. Rudolph was the first women to win three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics. Her winnings allowed for more women to take part in what was previously, all male track and field events. Both of these remarkable female athletes are recognized among ESPN’S Sports Century Greatest Athletes, ranked 10th and 41st (Elyachar and Moag, n.d.).
During the Olympics, at the time of Babe Didrikson and Wilma Rudolph, women were allowed to compete in various events, such as swimming diving, tennis, and short distance sprints, but were not allowed to compete in the marathons. This is because experts said women could damage their organs

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Babe Didrikson Essay

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Before the late 1500s, it was deemed inappropriate for women to play in sports. It wasn’t until around 776 B.C. when women began to participate in foot races and even after women were allowed to compete in the Olympics, hey still had a hard time being accepted into athletic teams. However, these problems didńt seem to daunt Babe Didrikson.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    To give this league the popularity it needed, the girls needed to work hard to be the leagues top players in every team. They all acquired the chance to go to training camps and try out for teams that would be placed into the league. The amount of work they displayed to get placed on the team showed that they wanted to earn the respect of the country and show that women could do more than just care for kids or be in charge of the kitchen. They worked extremely hard to show that women could play the sport as easily as men could. For example, this hardworking value was best portrayed by Kit, one of the individuals who played for the league. She got her sister to play because that was the only way they would take her and she did not want to stay on a farm for the rest of her life. Her persistent attitude helped her reach her goal and she became one of the top players of her time just like her sister.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Olympics Dbq Analysis

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Women were rarely included in the Olympics. This is proven by Document 2 that states in the caption that 2 percent of athletes were women in the 1908 games. However, women have made progress since then. In the 1992 games, there were 29 percent women who competed in the games (Document 8). Another document that could’ve helped further emphasize this statistic is a graph that shows the change in women participants in the Olympics from 1892 to 2002. Document 8 also highlights how victories gave countries confidence. Also, Hassiba Boulmerka, a female Algerian competitor in the 1992 games held in Spain, felt that her victories would inspire other women to compete in later games. Another example of social impacts on the games is the performance by the Pakistan man’s field hockey team. When Pakistan first became a country, the citizens had pride in their country so they gave their best effort towards the Olympics. They won silver and gold in their first two Olympic hockey games. However, the current team has no sense of urgency and they are playing horribly. Their social values have changed and their pride in their country has lessened (Document 10). All in all, social values have impacted the…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    How would you like to experience being the world’s greatest athlete? Ever since Babe was a child she strove to be the best at everything she could do. Babe Didrikson was the world’s reknown woman athlete because she was extremely determined to accomplish her goals, she was so competitive in being the best, and she was extremely successful in her abilities. At a young age Babe Didrikson knew what she wanted to do with her life.…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the key points to evaluate here is the argument that males biologically have an advantage in the majority of sports. In the vast number of cases this is true, however this should not be a reason why females are either discriminated against or feel pressurised to not participate in a sport. In a study done by McArdle, Katch & Katch in 1981, it was shown that among Western adults, men are around 50 percent stronger than women1. One thing that is important to point out here is that the average female has not been encouraged to participate in activities that would develop the growth and potential of muscles in the same way men have been encouraged to do. The stereotype that women should be slender and with little muscle does not aid this particular viewpoint on women’s sport. This leads on to the point of the history of female sport and the view on women’s roles in society. The earlier you go back in history, the more the viewpoint has existed that women are there to aid the husband in the house and bring up the children whilst he is out earning the money. This was very much the case and still is in some cultures, which inhibited and inhibits women from participating in sport because they simply do not have the time for it. As Spears (1978) said in his study, “Only the exceptional woman was involved in sport”2. I think it is fair to say however, that this viewpoint is quite clearly changing because participation in female sport is at an all time high at the moment. According to…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sport is not traditionally seen as feminine. Ex-professional women’s basketball player, Mariah Burton Nelson begs the question then- “How can you win if you’re female? Can you just do it? No. You have to play the femininity game. Femininity by definition is not large, not imposing, not competitive. Feminine women are not ruthless, not aggressive, not victorious. Femininity is about appearing beautiful and vulnerable and small. It’s about winning male approval (Burton 1998).” Gender roles play a large part in the media’s representation of female athletes. In a historically sexist world where ruthlessness, aggression, and victory are associated as male characteristics, female athletes are viewed as masculine and undesirable. In order to be socially…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Prior to Title IX (before 1870), women’s opportunity for physical activity was restricted due to the fact that sports were a “men’s” thing. Activities for women included noncompetitive and rule-less where they emphasized informal activities rather than competition. Women in sports, before Title IX was signed, made huge strides against the stereotype that women cannot compete. In 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel and who set the world record. In 1945, Babe Didrikson Zaharias became the first woman to compete in the PGA golf tour where she made the 36-hole cut to compete against men. On June 23, 1972 Title IX was signed and put into effect. Title IX stated that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Even after the implementation of Title IX, women in sports still make strides for equality among sports with men. Not only are they in competition with each other, they are in competition with society and the equality amongst themselves and men.…

    • 2483 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Title IX

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A fundamental factor in American culture and the development of many crucial life skills, sports have historically excluded women, pushing them to watch from the sidelines rather than partake in them. It is not only important for women to experience the sports lifestyle, but also for society as a whole to have its entire population participating in a common activity, thus breaking away from the archaic norm.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My paper is about gender roles and sports. Why are women and men not considered equal in sports and why are gender roles different? It explains differences in men and women and why men don’t want women on their sports team. It discusses the history of sports and the different roles that men and women play in society. What sports are considered to be for men and women and how women got to play sports? It talks about how the Women’s Sports Foundation was established. Have you ever wondered why sports are divided by gender?…

    • 95 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Female athletes should get evaluated in there own right and not be compared to men. One example Bille Jean King gave was, just like a heavyweight boxer and a lightweight boxer are not compared to each other when deciding prize money and the value of the boxers skills and ability are not based on weight class and size, then we cannot do this to classes of male and female athletes who are not competing against each other (para 4.). Most people also believe that the only reason why professional male athletes get paid more is because they are powerful than us females, and because there competitions are more excited than ours. In this same way many people say that “female athletes do not bring in as much money in terms of sponsorship television or that there competitions aren’t as long the men’s games” and they do not include as much games as they do in the men’s league.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the ancient Olympics women were forbidden to compete and faced possible execution for being a spectator at the games. In 1896 the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens Greece, founded by IOC president Pierre de Coubertin. Like most of the men of his time, Pierre de Coubertin was not in favor of the participation of women in the Olympic Games. “… The true Olympic hero, in my view, is the individual adult male.” There is evidence that regardless of de Coubertin’s thoughts a woman named Melpomene competed in the first ever marathon despite being denied an official entry. Melopomene warmed up out of site and jumped in as the race started. She…

    • 1692 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    University athletics and rowing have a long-standing history. While this is particularly true of Great Britain and the United States of America, this essay will focus primarily on the current approaches of the United States and Canada. Both countries offer a variety of varsity sports among their university athletics programs. Rowing is not an incredibly popular sport in either country, especially when compared to the professional sports that are organized and offered at any level. To narrow the scope of this essay, I will examine the difference between the countries as understood by gender-based opportunities in university rowing. This is particularly interesting to study due to the effects of Title IX in the American context. Given…

    • 1360 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before the 1970’s women had a very low chance of becoming a doctor or a lawyer just because they were women. They had a very low chance of getting into a college to even get that degree. If schools are a problem, then sports are an even bigger problem (Women’s Sport Foundation). People are thinking “Why are women treated as a lower class than men?”…

    • 2124 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our nation has invested itself, economically and socially, in sports for more than a century. To the athletic elite, there is the opportunity to turn their childhood passion into their livelihood. From the four most recognized professional sports in America - Baseball (MLB) , Football (NFL) , Basketball (NFL), and Hockey (NHL) - only a select handful of athletes reach the professional level, and even fewer remain at that level and see long-term success. Our nation as seen a continuous evolution in professional sports when regarding the integration of race and gender into the games. It provides a unique experience to view sporting events, one being performed by female athletes and the other by male athletes, from a sociological mindset and take…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    n the sports world people often do not acknowledge female sports as much as men's sports. Women sports are newer and hence the reason for them not getting the recognition they deserve. But the sports world is starting to see how women's sports can be just as interesting and exciting as men's sports can be. I am going to show you some discrepancies between women and men's sports. Women and men's sports should each have equal opportunities.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics