Chapter 12 Women and Sport

12

Women and SportWomen and Sport

C H A P T E R

Chapter Outline

• Historical Role of Women• Women and Sport Before Title IX• Title IX• Women and Sport After Title IX• Social Issues in Women’s Sport

(continued)

Chapter Outline (continued)

• Global Status of Women in Sport• Barriers for Women in Sport• Golden Age of Sports Reborn• Chapter Summary

History of Women and Sport

• Historically not allowed to be physically active outside of chores.

• Often excluded from participation or ridiculed for participation until mid-1800s.

(continued)

History of Women and Sport (continued)

• Participation in physical activity, individual sports slowly increased.

• Prohibited from modern Olympics until 1920.

• Sport greats include Collett, Wills, Didrikson, Joyner-Kersee, and King.

Reasons or Myths for Not Participating

• Lack of interest

• Harmful to health

• Only ladylike sports appropriate(continued)

Reasons or Myths for Not Participating (continued)

• Undeserving; quality inferior to men

• Lesbian stigma

• Gender verification practices

• Social attitudes

Discussion

• What is Title IX?

• How does it affect women and sport?

Title IX

• Passed in 1972 as part of Education Act.• Prohibits discrimination in federally supported

education programs.• Before Title IX, participation rates and financial

support lopsided.– In sports, 3.7 million boys versus 295,000 girls

– For every U.S. dollar spent on programs, $0.99 for boys, $0.01 for girls

• Confusion until lawsuits, clarifications.

Title IX Prongs

1. Proportionality test

2. History of progress test

3. Accommodation of interest test

Women and Sport After Title IX

• Sport participation nearly equal to that of boys (see tables 12.1 and 12.2 on page 228).

• Make up significant percentage of sports fans.

• Buy 81% of all sport or fitness apparel.

• Increasingly, males watch female sports.

• Atlanta Olympics named Year of the Woman.

Social Issues in Women’s Sport (Physical Activity Benefits)

Benefits of physical activity and sport participation

– Increased self-esteem

– Decreased drug use

– Decreased chance of unwanted pregnancy

– Increased graduation rates

– Four out of five women executives played sports

Note: Need to be careful with higher incidence of eating disorders

Social Issues in Women’s Sport (Media and Images)

• Gender: conflict over orientation labels

• Athletic apparel– Advances with sports bras (Chastain in 1999)

– Shoes not updated

• Objectification of athletes– Female athletic body now seen as sexy

– May be judged only on looks, not by talent

Global Status of Women in Sport

• Not all countries progressive (Arab countries still prohibit participation).

• In 2000, 30% of countries did not send a female athlete to the Olympic Games.

• In 2008, only 5 countries sent all-male team.

• White, middle-class athletes are most supported in developed nations.

Discussion

Do you think Olympic Games organizers and sponsors judge male and female athletes when making a decision about whether to promote them?

Barriers to Participation

• Title IX challenges– Football dominance: 85 scholarships for 22

positions!

– Schools cutting men’s teams: unintended consequences.

• Physical activity participation: Strides have been made. In 25 to 64 age group, women now actually exceed men. However, men are significantly higher in 18 to 24 category.

Women as Leaders in Sport

• In 1980, 90% of women’s teams coached by women; in 2008 only 42.8%, close to all-time low.

• Only 21% of college athletic directors are women.

• Only 27% of USOC are women.

• See University of Central Florida’s annual Gender Report Card (Lapchick 2008-2009).

Discussion

• What suggestions do you have for increasing the number of women in leadership positions in sport?

• Think not only of coaching and athletic director spots, but also league officials, marketing leaders, media leaders, athletic department staff leadership positions. Don’t think of just major college and professional ranks.

Equal Pay for Equal Play

• Only recently have all four tennis Grand Slams offered same prize money.

• LPGA purses still lag far behind PGA purses (and tennis and golf are the success stories!).

• According to Forbes.com, in 2008 the top 50 paid athletes were all male.

• Women do same endorsements for less.

Spending in College Sport

• In 2004-2005 at Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools, men’s athletics accounted for 70% of overall expenses.

• These schools spent more money on football programs than on all women’s teams combined.

• In 2005-2006, the average amount of money spent on recruiting for Division I women’s teams was less than half that of men.

Media Coverage of Women’s Sports

• Olympic coverage in prime time of women’s sports is increasing, but total programming still mostly men.

• Women’s coverage still lags behind men’s in newsrooms (less than 10% of sports broadcast).

• Scarborough Sports Marketing study: In 1998, percent of women over age 18 who identified themselves as very or somewhat avid sport fans was 28%. Four years later, up to 58%.

Discussion

• What vision do you have for a rebirth of the golden age of sports?

• Does it include more involvement of women in sport?