Gender discrimination
Dealing with the matter of sport and ethnology, three major factors come to mind; prejudice, racism, and discrimination. These factors span across ethnic, racial, religious, gender, and cultural groups. The principal intention of this paper is to explore how discrimination and prejudice have played a part in the evolution of sport in our society, through the effects of why a high percentage of females do not play sport and to cover the cistrons that are thought to influence their decisions to relinquish from sports.
The general public, athletic women and film have always been used as a medium to express the discrimination against women athletes today. Gender inequity has been a major issue throughout Australia for countless years, and predominantly impacts on young females. This issue involves any action that grants or denies opportunities, privileges, or rewards to a person on the basis of their sex ( 2006). The justification in terms of why females don’t play sport and why they are less interested in sport opportunities than men are all based on the way we define ourselves as Australians. The lack of media coverage for women’s sport, the competitive side of sport, the importance of family, the influential role of friends and peers and the absence of role models. The foundation of all these impact and influences results in the decrease of participation and interest of females in sport.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted a report in 1999-2000 on participation in Sport and Physical Activity. They concluded that the overall rate of participation in organised and non-organised activities for women (72%) is almost identical to that of men (74%). However, males (34.3%) were more likely to participate in organised ‘sporting’ activity compared to females (28.5%).
The Women’s Sports Foundation Advocacy Department has developed the most recent participation and resources statistics for gender equity in High School and College athletics this year and their reports show that high school female athletes received only 41% of participation opportunities, which is 1.25 million less participation opportunities than male high school athletes, in addition they received 38% of sports operating dollars, which is .17 billion less than male college athletes. These two reports, illustrate that boys and girls’ involvement in sport during primary school is almost identical. However, it is during the pivotal adolescent years then girls begin to depart and at a much faster rate than that of their male counterparts. This is evident in the report by the Women’s Sports Foundation Advocacy Department.
Sport is believed to play an important role in the way we define ourselves as Australians. It is considered to be very important in the process of turning boys into men and is a significant form of male socialisation. Sport is also a way in which males can gain status among their male and female counterparts. However, if a female plays sport, her sexuality may be questioned, especially if she is good at it or does not conform to the stereotypical expectations. This is definitely the case if she has chosen to play a so-called ‘male’ sport, which could be defined as being more masculine. Girls, from an early age receive the message that boys play sport and girls watch them. This sort of message is also emphasised at the time when a girl hits puberty, where they are told that for their own safety, they can no longer play any sporting activity, but should do something for which they are better suited, more feminine. This sort of message is not positive for those girls who want to play sport for the same reason boys do.
Many people think that girls are not as interested in sport as boys. Research shows that boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 9 and their parents are equally interested in sports participation. However, by the age of 14, girls refrain from sport at a significantly greater rate than men. Girls and women simply do not receive the same positive reinforcement about their sports participation. Little boys receive balls, gloves and sports equipment by the age of two. This reinforces the stereotyped expectations as they see their images on television as sportsmen, as they see their photos in the sports section and they know from their parents and friends that they are expected to play sports. Even though young females are not as likely to be discouraged from playing sports as they were ten years ago, they simply are not encouraged to the same extent as younger males. As a result, they enter organised sport two years later than young males and are therefore less likely to have the skills necessary for early successes. Typically, when girls play with boys, especially if they are in the minority, boys simply do not positively reinforce their participation, even-though girls develop much quicker physically than boys and often achieve better results then boys in the younger years.
In order to improve the interest of girls we must do a better job of supporting young females sports participation. A variety of methods that we can improve the interest of girls in sport would be by getting them to be aware other successful female athletes and this could be done by giving them a book about girls in sports or a book about successful sport stories of female athletes for Christmas and birthdays we must find, give gifts of sports equipment and sports lessons. We need to take our sons and daughters to see women playing sports so they grow up appreciating and respecting the sports skills of women and this could build up the confidents of a girl to see images of themselves excelling in sports because she is not going to see those images on television or in the newspapers, which brings us to our next point about Media coverage of women’s sport.
Media coverage of women’s sport is limited in Australia compared to men and this restricts individuals discovering more about women’s sporting ability and accomplishments. This lack of media coverage also denies many young women sporting role models and decreases a female athlete’s chance to gain sponsorship. The Australian Sports Commission measured the amount of media coverage given to women’s sport on an average fortnight in a 1996 study. It showed that women receive on average 10.7% of newspaper coverage, 1.4% of radio coverage and 2% of television coverage compared with 79.1% for men. Dr. Murray Phillips suggests that this was mainly due to the fact that women’s sport is not marketable enough to rate community appeal, as media executives argue that it is due to the lack of public interest and demand. This in effect leads to many women sport’s having to ‘sell their sport’ by dressing the female athletes in figure-hugging body suits to attract more coverage. However, this has raised many recurring issues.
The competitive side of sport has deterred many females who like to or want to be active. Evidently, the ABS indicates that women (45%) are more likely to be active in non-organised activities than men (40%). However, of those who played organised sport outside of school hours, boys played more often: 52% of boys played an average of once a week or more over the year ending April 2000, compared with 45% of girls. Older children played organised sport more frequently, with 57% of those 12 to 14 year olds who had participated doing so an average of once a week or more over the year compared with 36% of their 5 to 8 year old counterparts. The main answer behind this large difference is that many sports have a great emphasis on competition, but most girls play sport to have fun and make friends.
Parents are a good indication of whether or not their daughter will continue participating in physical or sporting activities. Evidence shows that girls whose parents regularly exercise are much more likely to continue their involvement in sport than those whose parents are inactive. There are many girls’ however, who are encouraged to play sport from their parents, but those who have brothers are treated differently. Some examples include fathers instructing sons but not for daughters, parents making an effort to watch sons compete but not daughters and even parents making fun of their daughter’s skill level. There have also been many counts of mothers being poor role models when accepting their daughter’s body size and appearance. A mother can have quite a significant impact on her daughter, especially when it comes to food and diet. A negative attitude from a mother can be very damaging, in terms of how the daughter reacts to a comment made by the parent.
Friends and peers, much like family can have a very influential role on a girl who lacks confidence in their skill level, appearance and physical competence. Particularly, in schools, this can be seen as a way in which their peers treat them. In Western society, teenage girls are often confronted with taunts and insults mainly about their bodies. These taunts and insults largely come from their schoolmates at a time when they are particularly sensitive to such comments. Teenage girls are not just confronted with comments about their appearance, but have been harassed about their competence. There have also been cases of insensitive comments from teachers that have the same affect on a teenage girl’s confidence.
Sporting role models can range from athletes to coaches to even, physical education teachers. Role models are very important to young teenagers, especially girls who enjoy their sport. Without them, you would expect to see an even faster drop of girls participating in sport. A 1997 West Australian study by the Australian institute of sports was conducted, where teenage girls were asked to nominate their favourite sportsperson. Of the girls who underwent the study, 52% of them nominated a sportsman, 32% nominated a sportswoman and the remaining 12% did not nominate. However, the 32% who nominated a sportswoman, the majority named Cathy Freeman for her achievement in the 400M event, showing that when a sportswoman receives a high level of media exposure, it is only then she can become a role model for young women. Female role models in the form of coaches are also under represented with only 11% of women coaches coaching elite athletes (level three coaches). Fortunately, it is much better in schools, where women make up 43% of primary school physical education teachers (although only 80% of them are full-time, compared with 97% of males) and 51% of secondary physical education teachers. This provides girls with positive images of women playing sport on a daily basis.
In conclusion, this paper has stated out all the factors which are responsible for why girls don’t play sport. Quite simply, family, friends, peers, media executives, the Federal and State Governments should lead by example and encourage teenage girls to continue sport, in order to change the trend of young teenage girls departing of their sports due to the factors that have been made clear in the paper.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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