Gender Inequality and Inequity as Factors Leading to Female Discrimination in Athletics

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Many people at present are well aware of gender inequality and gender inequity in several areas and fields of life. However, fewer people acknowledge the fact that athletics provides one of the most solid platforms for gender inequality and inequity by paving the way for discrimination against women. Today’s U.S society majorly believes that the involvement of inequality should be removed from athletics, as sports have the power to modify how women are perceived in many aspects of society.
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Giving opportunities for women to rise not only aids U.S society by make more social profit as a whole, but it also allows access to different mindsets in society which can help improve the western culture as well. Providing leadership opportunities to women and acknowledgement of women athletics improves the well-being of the nation, as well as enhance the expertise of the western society in academics, and professionalism. However, desiring for gender equality and equity in athletics is not sufficient when attempting to make a social change.

The most significant method for disabling women discrimination in athletics is to understand the core problem and the factors that contribute in hindering athletics opportunities for women. These factors include the role of the media, and their ignorance to women athletics and women journalists/news authorities; the lack of economic backing (lack of sponsorships for female athletic programs receive, reduced budget in these programs, and minimal benefits of female players), cultural conservativeness, and gender inequality and inequity enabled by interference of politics.
It is vital the United States society takes measures to prevent gender discrimination in athletics, as sports contain potential to bring about social changes in terms of gender equality and equity, but this task is difficult as economic factors, political involvements, media influences, and cultural conservatives hold back equality in sports.
Essentially, the foundation for gender inequality and inequity in the United States is the powerful influence of male hegemonic dominion; and this concept of male dominance is widespread and accepted on a large scale because it is a deeply indoctrinated concept in western culture. Ultimately, male dominance compliments western culture, and in turn western culture compliments and paves the way for male hegemonic dominance; resulting in uneven gender opportunities in athletics. First instance where the western culture boosts male dominance in sports and inhibits opportunities for females is during the childhood of any individual. Starting from a young age, the activities and lifestyles individuals are introduced to are primarily based on their sex. Male children are shown the direction of sports that demand aggression, skill, leadership, and strength. However, western culture isolates female children from these athletic options and they are steered towards activities that possess minimum risk of physical harm, passivity, and cooperation (Schell, Ann, Rodriguez, and Stephanie 7). Thus, in a somewhat opposite direction as males.
Male children and female children are not only segregated in terms of athletic opportunities by the activities and lifestyles they are urged to accept, but also by the material goods offered to them. When a male toddler receives a gift, it most likely is a football, an action figure, or other toys that could potentially raise the interest levels of the male child in athletics. On the contrary, when a female child receives a gift, it is most likely a doll, a doll house, or something that could potentially limit their exposure to culturally “male dominant sports.” The classification of gender appropriate activities in the U.S has led cultural resistance to not accept equal chances for both genders in sports, and as a result of exposing children to gender segregation, many girls have dropped from athletics, and many have convinced themselves to never start participating in sports. To support this claim, the Wilson report (1998) states that 38% of girls aged 7-18 quit playing sports because they developed attraction for boys; 18% of girls (7 10 years of age) quit athletic participation because they felt uneasy if boys saw them play sports; 22% of the same aged girls quit athletic participation because of their belief that sports were inappropriate for females; and finally 16% of the same aged girls quit athletics because of their belief that sports represented masculinity (Schell, Ann, Rodriguez, and Stephanie 7). As a result, the western culture supports male dominance in athletics to such an extent that young girls are discriminated, by indirectly being forced to part ways with athletics; and this notion is being accepted by females in the U.S majorly through cultural indoctrination.
Once culture sets a platform for acceptable and unacceptable activities in society for young girls and young boys, they further undermine and discriminate women who choose to continue taking part in sports by labeling them as lesbians (Schell, Ann, Rodriguez, and Stephanie 7). Whereas, it is considered an honor for males to be referred to as athletes, females that are referred to as athletes are bound to accept the labels of masculinity and homosexuality. This notion further exposes females to the stigmas associated with homosexuality in the western culture; and as an outcome of this norm, female athletes receive lower recognition and higher criticism than male athletes. A useful example of this view is the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Founded in the United States in 1950, it has received criticism and negative judgement ever since. Having been recognized as “a group of muscular women” they were made victims of exploitation, as media hesitated to recognize these athletes, and sponsors were reluctant in funding their association because they feared loss in revenue due to the cultural disgust associated with this organization. In addition to the skills of the female athletes being a source of cultural discrimination for them, their appearance, such as their clothing sense, make up, hair, were simply more opportunities to discriminate and provide support to the claim of “female athletes being lesbians” (Schell, Ann, Rodriguez, and Stephanie 8). If a female did not abandon athletics in her childhood, this form of negative scrutiny by western society severely damages the females desire to take part in sports. Essentially, the western culture determines the gender roles of men and women in the U.S society. The culture is a vital ladder for male dominance in sports and women discrimination in sports. Overall, culture is a primary factor that causes females to abandon athletics and adopt social norms set by society.
Culture enables the U.S society to implement female discrimination in athletics, and when society accepts this social norm, it gives rise to further gender discrimination in athletics, as it allows politics to interfere. Firstly, politics worsened the conditions of female athletes in the U.S by merging male and female athletic programs, which eventually gave more opportunity for athletics to be kept as a male preserve. Although, between the years 1971 to 1982 the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIWA) organized sports programs for fitness and friendly competitions solely, they still had the privilege of having an independent athletic department for female sports only. Plus, the athletic positions were for females only, and the leadership positions too were only for females. However, when politics came into play and laws such as Title IX were implemented, women were deprived of their leadership positions (Swaton 6).
Initially, laws, such as Title IX were supposed to serve the purpose of allowing equal access to sports facilities for both genders in the United States, but in the long run it only gave male dominance more strength in athletics. Women lost their leadership positions as men acquired control over women’s athletics by gaining control of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which was the result of mixing male and female athletic programs in the United States (Swaton 9)(. As an outcome of this fusion, the number of female representatives in NCAA fell below 20% and the percentage of female voters in the NCAA dropped below 5%. The fact that women were deprived of their leadership chances, not only disallows them from being part of the decision making body that may help prevent female athletic discrimination, but it also gives their share of power to men, who are then viewed as representatives of both male and female athletics in the U.S. Such an act hinders the uprising of women in sports as it keeps women in the margins and officially makes them incapable of being part of a change in the athletic department. When viewed through the bigger picture, women are discriminated through some athletic laws, as their leadership roles become insignificant, while the athletic association still gets the praise for being run by both sexes.
Even when female athletes accept the barriers of cultural criticism, and political exploitation, they are still prone to face discrimination conducted by the media. Despite their professionalism, skill, beauty or grade, their image can be molded and modified by the media. This is primarily true because the media in the US is a crucial source in educating the public. Media has the ability to twist the minds of the audience in the intended direction, and when media is under the control of western culture, media presents sports coverage with respect to western culture. The media often displays their cultural beliefs of athletic segregation with the notion that some sports are meant for men only (Matheson, and Flatten 3). They display their belief to the audience by providing insufficient knowledge on athletes who perform outside of their cultural norms. This in turn, influences the beliefs of the audience; making them believe that women do not take part in certain sports. For example, until 1991 women’s sports received only 29 pages of coverage, where men’s sports received 527 pages of coverage. Also, the ratio of newspaper photos of female athletes to male athletes was 1:22 (Schell, Ann, Rodriguez, and Stephanie 5). Evidently, the images the media project have a vital influence on the US culture, which then has an influence on the audience. When the quantity of images projected vary, based on sex it reinforces the concept of male dominance and female irrelevance in sports, in the perceptions of the audience.
Additionally, female athletic discrimination is not only established through the representation of information by the media, but by the employees in media too. As established previously, the media plays a vital role in promoting male leadership in sports; and due to that female reporters and journalists are also discriminated. As most male sporting events are considered important, female reporters are restricted from accessing lead stories and on-air broadcasts. When women are minimally allowed in male sporting events, their value decreases. Female sports news reporters become prone to discrimination by being victims of unfair opportunity and uneven income. For example, some of the highest paid female sports news reporters earn approximately USD 250000, while the highest paid male sports news reporters earn in millions of US dollars. The opportunity for female news reporters to cover male sports could have served as a starting point for equality, as male news reporters frequently broadcast female sports news, but by preventing female reporters this opportunity, male dominance is prevailed in sport, and the access of women in sports related occupations becomes limited. As the media portrays female athletes as trivial and less marketable, they are also portraying them as less worthy of fair income. When female athletes are displayed as undeserving, they are discriminated economically as well. One of the oldest economic factors in the United States that lowers the value of female athletes is uneven income.
Despite the sport, female athletes earn less compared to their male counterparts. The most profitable sports for female athletes are the ones that do not threaten the reputation of male athletics, such as tennis, ice-skating, etc. However, even these sports are structured in such a way that income gaps based on sex are inevitable. The comparison is such that the lowest gender-based monetary gap in the US exists in tennis, where male athletes only earn twice the amount female athletes earn. This comparison shows the degree to which female athletes are discriminated economically. Although, the income gap based on tennis is not too much; when comparing income from male dominant sports in the United States, the income gap based on gender is tremendous, which results in higher degree of discrimination against female athletes. For example, female athletes who took part in the American Basketball League (ABL) earned 140 times less than their male counterparts. As a result, weather the sport was male dominant or female dominant, female athletes were discriminated. The primary difference was that in stereotypically feminine sports, women were discriminated less based on income, when compared to income from male dominant sports.
Furthermore, female athlete’s unequal economic conditions in the United States not only prevail because of lower income then male athletes, but also because of lower sponsorships received (K.S.C 1). As mentioned previously, sponsors chose not to be associated with the stigma of “sponsoring lesbians.” This would not only hurt the cultural sentiments of the sponsors, but also could result in an economic loss. It is argued that viewers want to view the top athletes, and that too in the highest standards possible; making the sponsors to only want to associate with the top athletes (K.S.C 1). Due to the lower demand of female athletes, they are forced to accept discrimination and are obliged to accept lower income. Sadly, the lower income of female athletes in the United States echoes through all aspects of women athletics, and discriminates everyone associated with it. This included the coaches, reporters, directors, and the athletes themselves.
In conclusion, women discrimination is an evil in society which needs to be changed. One of the greatest platforms to providing female equality and equity in the United States is through athletics, but female discrimination in athletics is enormous because it is backed by economic, cultural, political, and media-related conservativeness, which is a large fragment of western society. Culturally, females are discriminated in sports starting from their childhood, all the way to adulthood. Based on the western culture females are diverted away from sports in their childhood, but if they continue athletics in their adulthood they are viewed in disgust. Furthermore, the media takes advantage of the social culture in the United States when attempting to allow males to dominate the world of sport. The fact that the media does not fully aware the public on female sporting events causes the public to lack awareness on female athletics and the importance of equality in athletics. With the support of the media, the male athletic systems in the United States take control over the merged athletic programs, and maintain control over the media by limiting the vacancies for women in athletics related occupations. Finally, influenced by the cultural, political, and media-related factors sponsors divert their interest from female athletes, and allow them to be victimized of economic discrimination. Although, it is essential that female athletes need to be given an opportunity for equality and equity in athletics in the United States; economic, cultural, political, and media related factors severely contribute to damaging their chances.

Maxine Maxwell

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