Gender and Sports:

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Sports in SocietyIssues and Controversies

• Chapter 8
• Gender and Sports
• Does Equity Require Ideological Changes?

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Participation and Equity Issues

• Participation by girls women has increased
  dramatically since the early 1980s because
• New opportunities Increased participation for
  girls women.
• Government equal rights legislation In 1972
  Title IX of the Educational Amendment was passed.
• Global womens rights movement Brighton
  Declaration pressured governments to create
  opportunities for girls women.
• Health fitness movement Companies that produce
  sporting goods recognized that women can be
  serious athletes.
• Increased media coverage of womens sports When
  girls watch women who are physically strong and
  competent athletes, it becomes easier to envision
  themselves as athletes.

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Title IX is 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.

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Legal Definitions Title IX in the US

• Title IX requires compliance with one of these
  three tests
• The proportionality test Equity exists when a
  school has nearly the same proportion of women
  paying sports as women enrolled.
• A 5 percentage point deviation has been okay
• The history of progress test
• Judged by actions progress over past 3 years. A
  practice of expanding its sport programs for
  female athletes.
• The accommodation of interest test
• Programs teams meet the interests and abilities
  of the under represented sex. Schools must
  accommodate.

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Title IX in the US has

• Supported dramatic changes in the sport
  participation opportunities available to girls
  women since 1972
• Evoked continuous resistance since it became law.
• 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.

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Figure 8. 1
Media coverage has changed how some people think
about women in sports. Media coverage makes women
athletes very visible now.
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Reasons For Caution When Predicting Future
Participation

• Budget cutbacks and the privatization of sport
  programs
• Gender equity is often subverted by budgets cuts.
  They are vulnerable to cuts because they are less
  well established and have less revenue-generating
  potential.
• 2. Resistance to government regulations
• Those who benefit from the status quo often
  resist legislation that mandated change.
• 3. Backlash among those who resent strong women.
• When women play certain sports, they become
  strong. Strong women as abnormal and they put
  down certain womens sports that involve strength
  and brutal body contact.
• 4. Under representation of women in
  decision-making positions in sport programs.
• As women sports became more important in high
  schools and colleges, men replaced female coaches
  and administrators.

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Reasons For Caution When Predicting Future
Participation

1. Continued emphasis on cosmetic fitness
2. Trivialization of womens sports
3. Homophobia and the threat of being labeled
   lesbian

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HOMOPHOBIA AND THE THREAT OF BEING LABELED

• Homophobia is a powerful cultural factor that has
  discouraged many girls and women.
• Homophobia causes some parents to steer daughters
  away from sports considered lesbians.
• Heterosexual men may use homophobic discourse to
  tease female athletes and control all women who
  are intimidated by it.

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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

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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

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Coaching and Administration Reasons for
Underrepresentation

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

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Coaching and Administration Reasons for
Underrepresentation

• Many women do not see spaces for them in
  corporate cultures of sport programs.
• Sport organizations are seldom sensitive to
  family responsibilities among coaches and
  administrators.
• Women may anticipate sexual harassment and more
  demanding standards than those used to judge men

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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?

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Strategies to Promote Gender Equity

• 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)

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Strategies to Promote Gender Equity

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

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Figure 8.4 The Two-Gender Classification System
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Girls and Women As Agents of Change

• Sport participation can empower women but
• This does not occur automatically.
• Personal empowerment is not necessarily
  associated with 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.

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THE FEMALE Athlete


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Why Elite Athletes Seldom Challenge Traditional
Gender Ideology

1. Women athletes often fear being tagged as
   ungrateful, man-haters, or lesbians.
2. Corporation-driven celebrity-feminism focuses
   on individualism and consumption, not everyday
   struggles related to gender.
3. Empowerment discourses in sports often are tied
   to fitness and heterosexual attractiveness.
4. Women athletes have little control or political
   voice in sports or society at large.

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Boys and Men As Agents of Change

• Gender equity also is a mens issue
• Equity involves creating options for men to play
  sports that are not based exclusively on a power
  and performance model.
• Equity emphasizes relationships based on
  cooperation rather than conquest and domination.

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Facing Football A Challenge for Equity
Strategies

• High profile football teams
• Involve more players and more resources than any
  other sport team
• Often promote a culture in which there is
  resistance to the organizational changes needed
  to achieve gender equity
• Often are supported by boosters who do not want
  gender equity to interfere with how they have
  always done things

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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

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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
• Encourages these categories to be perceived 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

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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 and lesbians by categorizing
  them as being out of normative bounds
• Lead women to be more apt to push gender
  boundaries while men are more apt to police
  gender boundaries for themselves and women

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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

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Gender Ideology in Sports Girls and Women As
Invaders

• Girls and women in sports often threaten the
  preservation of 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

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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 may be perceived as deviant in
  terms of gender definitions
• 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

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Figure 8.5 Gender ideology is changing but it
continues to create constraints on sport
participation for some people.
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Gender Ideology and Double Standards in Sports

• What would happen if
• Mia Hamm 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?

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The Challenge of Being Gay or Lesbian in Sports

• Popular discourse erases the existence of gay men
  and lesbians in sports
• Gay men and lesbians do not have the freedom that
  heterosexuals have in expressing their sexuality
• Being out in sports creates challenges
• Women risk losing social acceptance
• Men risk physical safety and losing social
  acceptance
• Most people in sports support a Dont ask, dont
  tell policy about homosexuality

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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, and bringing boys
  and girls and men and women together to share
  sport experiences

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Summary

• Know the benefits of Title IX.
• Know what the actual law of Title IX says.
• How can an organization prove compliance of
  Title?
• What has caused women sports to be visible? Give
  examples.
• What are the effects of practicing homophobia
  mentality?
• Title IX support of female athletes in what ways?
• Identify ways to promote equity.
• Is gender equity a mens issue?
• What is gender ideology?