Chapter 15, Section 3

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Chapter 15, Section 3

• Social Issues in Sport

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Sport and Social Mobility

• Many athletes have used sports as their way out
  of poverty
• Participating in a sport does increase the
  likelihood of improving a persons place in the
  stratification structure
• College athletes are more successful than college
  students who do not participate in sports

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Sport and Social Mobility

• Some people argue that sport is a social class
  escalator for minorities
• Some argue that sport is harmful because it
  diverts attention away from learning the academic
  and business-related skills necessary for success
  in mainstream American society

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Sport and Social Mobility

• Some evidence supports those who see sport as a
  barrier to upward mobility for minorities
• There are over one million high school football
  players 60,000 of these become college football
  players 1,600 of these become professional
  players
• However, sport does provide athletes with a good
  college education, but one should not rely solely
  on sport as a ticket up the stratification
  structure

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Sport and Racism

• Stacking players are assigned to less central
  positions (those that involve leadership and
  decision-making responsibilities) on the basis of
  race or ethnicity
• Discrimination in salary at the professional
  level exists
• African Americans in the major professional
  sports are (on average) paid as much as or more
  than their white counterparts

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Sport and Racism

• When level of performance is controlled
  discrimination appears African Americans have
  lower average salaries than whites for the same
  level of performance
• Few minorities are represented in the power
  structure at the professional level

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Sexism in Sport

• Women have experienced sexism in athletics
• Stereotypes have traditionally discouraged
  females from playing sports
• To be an athlete is to be unfeminine
• Sexism has denied females equal access to
  organized sports

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Sexism in Sport

• Title IX 1972 Educational Amendment Act
  public high schools and colleges were required to
  offer females equal access to sports
• Very ambiguous
• Women are still denied equal access to the power
  structure of sport
• Many womens teams are now coached by men

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Sexism in Sport

• Many people blame Title IX for the decline in
  women coaches
• Few females make it to the professional ranks and
  even those earn significantly less than their
  male counterparts

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Assignment

• Section 3 Assessment (p.518) 1-3
• Create a survey (Due Thursday, 12/7)