In today's society, particularly in the United States, an individual entering a non-traditional sport for his/her gender takes on many tasks besides playing the sport, the individual also takes on the criticism (good or bad), Gender discrimination in the sports industry has always been a controversial topic. There is a huge controversy around the US, concerning the general idea that women can’t play sports.
Much has been written about the ways that contemporary sports reinforce a male model of (heterosexual) physical superiority and, at the same time, operate to oppress women through the trivialization and objectification of their physicality and sexuality. Some writers explain that aerobics and bodybuilding operate to reproduce established gender ideology by feminizing the corporeal practices, rituals, and techniques in which women are involved, as well as objectifying and sexualizing women’s bodies. Gender Inequality in sports is a serious issue so let’s take a closer look. ‘Gender norms’ refer to the responsibilities and privileges assigned to men and women. Jennifer Hargreaves (2000) explains that a sense of difference is characterized by power relations operating simultaneously at the personal and institutional level.
Gender Equity, Sports Participation, and Title IX Before the enactment of Title IX, less than 32,000 women participated in intercollegiate athletics and 300,000 girls in high school athletics (13, 11). Discrimination in sports and athletics is still an issue that women have to face in society.
British and American society at this time was characterized by social relations that were becoming less violent, there was a decreasing reliance on physical strength in the workplace, and home and educational environments were becoming ones in which young males spent increasing amounts of time with females. ), Handbook of Sport Studies. And while a lot of female athletes and prominent male allies (such as the late Kobe Bryant) have been staunch advocates for change, there is still a long way to go for the gender gap to narrow down. Scholars concerned with the relationship between sport, ethnicity, and femininity emphasize that sportswomen are not a homogeneous group. There is no single feminist movement or theory that has informed current scholarly work on gender and sport. It is now 2016 and sports play an enormous part in the U.S. culture. Discrimination towards people has been around for a long time and it's affecting the entire world and has taken large steps towards being demolished.
This section gives an overview of the IOC support activities for gender equality. As the leader of the Olympic Movement, the IOC has an important responsibility to take action when it comes to gender equality – a basic human right of profound importance and a Fundamental Principle of the Olympic Charter. & Dunning, E.
‘Gender’ refers to the socially-constructed roles of and relationships between men and women. Not only has sports vastly changed but so have social norms around the United States, roughly half of what a US Men’s soccer player earns. Sport is one of the most powerful platforms for promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls. Women in intercollegiate sport: A longitudinal, national study thirty-five year update 1977–2012. Liberal feminist accounts of sport are based on claims that women should have equal rights to those of men in terms of access to resources, opportunities to participate, and decision making positions. Finally, gender stereotyping preserves the dominant social position of males and subordinate position of females in sport, which many people in society would like to continue.
Sociologists of sport have illustrated that the historical development of modern sports laid the foundations for the gendered character of sporting practices.