Gender and Sports:

1

• Gender and Sports
• Does Equity Require Ideological Changes?

2
Participation and Equity Issues

• Participation by girls women has increased
  dramatically because of
  
• New opportunities
• Government equal rights legislation
• Global womens rights movement
• Health fitness movement
• Increased media coverage of womens sports

3
Title IX a US law stating 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 educational program or
  activity receiving federal financial assistance.

4
Title IX requires compliance with one of these
three tests

• The proportionality test
• A five percentage point deviation has been okay
• The history of progress test
• Judged by actions and progress over past three
  years
  
• The accommodation of interest test
• Programs and teams meet the interests and
  abilities of the under represented sex

5
Title IX in the US has

• Fostered major changes in sport participation
  opportunities available to girls women
  
• Evoked continuous resistance since it became law
  in 1972
  
• Demonstrated that laws and law enforcement do not
  exist in a social and cultural vacuum
  
• Demonstrated that when laws challenge the ideas
  and lifestyles of people with power, the
  legitimacy and enforcement of those laws will be
  questioned

6
Title IX Categories of Support for Athletes

• Access to facilities
• Quality of facilities
• Availability of scholarships
• Program operating expenses
• Recruiting budgets
• Scheduling of games practice times

• Travel and per diem expenses
• Academic tutoring
• Number of coaches
• Salaries for all staff and administrators
• Medical training services and facilities
• Publicity for players, teams, and events

7
Cheerleading Is it a sport?

• Cheerleading in the late 1800s was a male
  activity it changed after World War II
  
• Cheerleading today is a diverse phenomenon, but
  it often is organized in ways that reproduce
  ideas that undermine sport participation by girls
  and women
• Be attractive, and pure wholesome
• Support men as they work
• Be an emotional leader without receiving material
  rewards

8
Is this the way to gender equity in sports?
9
Reasons For Caution When Predicting Future
Participation (I)

• Budget cutbacks and the privatization of sport
  programs
  
• Resistance to government regulations
• Backlash among those who resent changes that
  threaten dominant gender ideology
  
• Underrepresentation of women in decision-making
  positions in sport programs
  
• (continued)

10
Reasons For Caution When Predicting Future
Participation (II)

• Continued emphasis on cosmetic fitness
• Trivialization of womens sports
• Homophobia and the threat of being labeled
  lesbian

11
Gender equity issues always exist when sport
cultures are

• Male-dominated (i.e., the characteristics of men
  are THE standards for judging qualifications)
  
• Male-identified (i.e., the orientations/actions
  of men are THE standards for defining what is
  right and normal)
  
• Male-centered (men and mens lives are THE
  expected focus of attention in stories, legends,
  and media coverage)

12
Gender and Fairness Issues in Sports

• Inequities in participation opportunities
• Often grounded in dominant definitions of
  masculinity and femininity in a culture
  
• May be related to religious beliefs
• Establishing legal definitions of equity is a
  challenge
  
• Support for athletes covers many issues
• Women are underrepresented in coaching and
  administration jobs in sports

13
FIGURE 8.1 Number of Summer Olympic events open
to women and to men, 1908-2004
Fig. 8.2 Number of Summer Olympic Events open to
women and men.
Includes 12 mixed events in 2000
14
Coaching and Administration Reasons for
Underrepresentation (I)

• Women have fewer established networks and
  connections in elite programs
  
• Subjective evaluative criteria that favor men are
  often used by search committees
  
• Support systems and professional development
  opportunities for women have been relatively
  scarce
  
• (continued)

15
Coaching and Administration Reasons for
Underrepresentation (II)

• Many women do not see spaces for them in
  corporate cultures of sport programs
  
• Sport organizations are seldom organized in
  family-friendly ways
  
• Women experience more sexual harassment and
  perceive they are judged by more demanding
  standards than

16
Access to Informal and Alternative Sports

• Gender inequities also exist in player controlled
  sports
  
• Girls and women may face greater access
  challenges than are faced by boys and men
  
• Boys and men often control access to these
  sports, and they control access on their terms
  
• Title IX does not apply to these sports
• Question Do the XGames reflect or perpetuate
  inequities related to access in these sports?

17
Strategies to Promote Gender Equity (I)

• Confront discrimination and be an advocate for
  women coaches and administrators
  
• Be an advocate of fair and open employment
  practices
  
• Keep data on gender equity
• Learn and educate others about the history of
  discrimination in sports and how to identify
  discrimination
  
• (continued)

18
Strategies to Promote Gender Equity (II)

• Inform media of unfair and discriminatory
  policies
  
• Package womens sports as revenue producers
• Recruit women athletes into coaching
• Use womens hiring networks
• Create a supportive climate for women in your
  organization

19
Girls and Women As Agents of Change

• Sport participation can empower women but
• This does not occur automatically
• Personal empowerment does not always lead to an
  awareness of the need for gender transformation
  in society as a whole
  
• Elite athletes seldom are active agents of change
  when it comes to gender ideology

20
Elite Female Athletes Seldom Challenge
Traditional Gender Ideology

• Female athletes have much to lose if they are
  perceived as radical, feminist, or lesbian
  
• Corporation-driven celebrity-feminism focuses
  on individualism and consumption, not everyday
  struggles related to gender
  
• Empowerment discourses in sports often are tied
  to fitness and heterosexual attractiveness
  
• Women athletes have little control or political
  voice in sports or society at large

21
Boys and Men As Agents of Change

• Gender equity in sports is a mens issue
• It creates options for men to play sports that
  are not based only on a power and performance
  model
  
• It emphasizes relationships based on cooperation
  rather than conquest and domination
  
• It provides opportunities for boys and men to
  learn how to maintain emotionally satisfying
  relationships

22
Changes in Gender Ideology A Prerequisite for
Gender Equity

• Gender ideology is crucial because
• Gender is a fundamental organizing principle of
  social life
  
• Gender ideology influences how we
• Think of ourselves
• How we define and relate to others
• How we present ourselves to others
• How we think about and plan for our future

23
Gender Ideology

• Gender ideology in the U.S. is based on a
• two-category classification system that
• Assumes two mutually exclusive categories
  heterosexual male and heterosexual female
  
• Presents these categories in terms of difference,
  and as opposites
  
• Leaves no space for those who do not fit into
  either of the two categories
  
• Involves inequities when it comes to power and
  access to power

24
FIGURE 8.3 The two-category gender classificatio
n model a representation of gender construction
in U.S. culture.
25
Facts about Gender Ideology

• It is defined in ways that
• Give some men more access to power while
  restricting the range of behavior among all men
  
• Marginalize gays, lesbians, and bisexuals by
  categorizing them as being out of normative
  bounds
  
• Lead women to push gender boundaries while men
  are more apt to police gender boundaries for
  themselves and for women

26
Some mens sports inspire fantasies of a heroic
manhood in which being a warrior is equated
with being a man. Are boys influenced by these
fantasies?
27
Gender Ideology in Sports

• Gender is not fixed in nature, so people often
  use sports to maintain dominant definitions
  
• Sports often are sites for celebrating
  traditional ideas about masculinity
  
• Sport images and language often glorify a heroic
  manhood based on being a warrior
  
• When sports celebrate masculinity, female
  athletes often are defined as invaders

28
Gender Ideology in Sports Girls and Women As
Invaders

• Females in certain sports may threaten
  traditional ideas about gender
  
• Through history, myths have been used to
  discourage participation by girls and women
  
• Encouragement varies by sport, and whether the
  sport emphasizes grace or power
  
• Being a tomboy is okay as long as traditional
  femininity cues are presented

29
Women Bodybuilders Expanding Definitions of
Femininity?

• Competitive bodybuilding for women did not exist
  before the 1970s
  
• There is a clear tension between muscularity and
  ideas about femininity in womens bodybuilding
  
• Women bodybuilders often are perceived as deviant
  in terms of ideas about femininity
  
• Women bodybuilders challenge traditional
  definitions of gender, despite commercial images
  that highlight heterosexual attractiveness
  
• Women bodybuilders use femininity insignias to
  avoid being marginalized as they push boundaries

30
Gender Ideology and Double Standards in Sports

• What would happen if
• Michelle Wie beat up a man or a couple of women
  in a bar fight?
  
• A high profile woman athlete bragged about having
  numerous sex partners?
  
• A WNBA player had tattoos expressing strength and
  dominance on her arms?
  
• The captain of the national womens soccer team
  was photographed with near naked men ogling and
  hanging on her?

31
The Challenge of Being Gay or Lesbian in Sports

• Popular discourse erases gay men and lesbians
  from sports
  
• Gay men and lesbians have less freedom than
  heterosexuals have when expressing their
  sexuality
  
• Being out in sports creates challenges
• Women risk losing social acceptance
• Men risk physical safety and social acceptance
• Most people in sports support a Dont ask, dont
  tell policy about homosexuality

32
Strategies for Changing Ideology and Culture

• There is a need for
• Alternative definitions of masculinity
• Critically question violent destructive
  behavior
  
• Alternative definitions of femininity
• Becoming like men is not the goal
• Changing the ways we do sports
• Focus on lifetime participation, supportive
  vocabularies, gender equity, bringing males and
  females together to share sport experiences