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Senior Research Paper 2014 Women in the Sports World By Victoria Glebe

When one thinks of baseball, the first, if not the following thought is probably about Babe Ruth. I mean how can one not know of the famous 7-time World Series champion, the man who was named the greatest baseball player of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated? What about Babe Didrikson? Ever heard of her? Probably not, yet she is an athlete of equal or perhaps greater, talent and noteworthy accomplishments as the before mentioned Babe Ruth. She was an accomplished athlete in almost every sport; from bowling, golf, cycling, tennis, and track, to boxing and basketball, to name a few. She was voted Greatest Female Athlete in the first half of the 20th Century the Associated Press, and won Female Athlete of the Year six different times (Didrikson was a women ahead of her time, ESPN.com, L. Schwaltz). Not only was she an outstanding athlete, but a female athlete who competed at a time when women in the sports world as seen as freaks or completely unacceptable to the public. She not only showed the world that gender did not define what you could accomplish, but redefined athletics as a whole. So next time one thinks of a famous Babe, perhaps Didrikson should be the last name that follows the greatest athlete of the 20th century, not Ruth. I do not see how gender can influence how intelligent one is, and it should have no weight in the rights we are born to. There have been enormous strides here in the United States to break down the barrier of gender inequality; there are women as the CEOs of major corporations such as Mary T. Barra of General Motors (Women CEOs of the Fortune 1000,

CATALYST, 2014). We have come as far as females as the Secretary of State, from Madeleine Albright (US Secretary of State Chart, About.com) to Hillary Clinton (who was also a United States Senator). Yet, despite these huge leaps toward gender equality in our society, there is still a case of gender inequality that seems to be overlooked; and that inequality is in the sports world. I want to understand why there is this huge imbalance in our supposedly progressive world. I know that women are no longer seen as less than men by most, but there are still some equality issues that need to be looked into. Women are just as capable as men to play rough, stay focused, and participate in a sport with the same rules as men. Throughout this paper I will address the rule changes in female sports, lack of funding, women as voices in the sports world, coaching differences, and the two genders in professional sports leagues. To be clear, I am not shaming male athletes, nor do I intend to blame them for any sexism in sports. I enjoy watching male sports just as much as the next person. I am simply advocating for a more balanced sports world where rugby is recognized as a womens sport as well as a mens sport, and where female athletes are taken seriously. Because trust me, it is the same sport and women can train just as long, learn plays just as well, and hit just as hard. How a woman looks does not affect her ability to play.

Maybe we do not notice that our televisions are dominated by the all-male NFL, or NBA teams; perhaps we are too distracted by the fit men running around in tights, or ripped six-footfour frames jumping for a dunk. Whatever the reason, there is silence around the lack of a female presence in the sporting world. There is womens basketball, soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, lacrosse, and, if one searches enough, hockey as well; however, one has to look more to find

information on these womens sports or switch to a weird channel to watch one of their games. With the exception of gymnastics and volleyball, the previous sports listed are all supposed to be contact sports; but it is not the same contact game when women are playing them. For example, the rules for lacrosse have been so drastically changed that one spends more time standing and being told to step back ten meters than actually handling the ball. In regards to soccer, although supposedly a no contact sport, it still allows more aggression without being carded when men are playing. However, as soon as a woman body checks (which is allowed in the game of soccer), a whistle is blown and a penalty is awarded to the opposing team. In hockey there is no checking allowed, and we all know that the Ladies Football League is a joke; they play in lingerie and helmets for Heavens sake, and by doing so the sport has become the farthest thing from a serious game. First, lets talk genetics. Genetics are the chemical makeup of every living thing. They control ones body shape, blood type, height and many argue even athletic ability. It is the hardware in the brain that was believed to make women bad-drivers who are empathetic, and men unable to handle pain but capable of possessing a superior sense of humor, (Genes/socialization). Genetics are passed down to us through our parents via chromosomes, 23 pairs to be exact. There are obvious differences between the male and the female body. Not just our sexual organs, but also our build differentiate us from one another. Men tend to have more distinguished upper bodies while women have more natural lower body power. These small changes do not, however, hinder a man from building lower body strength or a woman benching 500 lbs. Even as more and more females participate in sports there is still a great imbalance in gender equality. Despite the passing of the federal law Title IX in 1972, which was enacted to

prohibit discrimination based on sex in any federally funded activity (including sports); there were 31,842 female athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); and over 187, 041 male athletes. Maybe this has to do with lack of interest on the part of females, or the continued discrimination against women, or possibly the lack of available learning opportunities for young girls. Title IX was a law made with good intent, however it was not enough to break the barrier of the gender inequality in the sports world. It opened doors for girls and women that were not available before, yet it did not solve the problem of inequality, just highlighted the fact that it was, and still is, a major issue. This brings me to my next point, which is the obnoxious, yet profoundly excessive, amount of rule changes in female athletics. There are female sports, yet why are they categorized by gender in the first place when they are just a sport? We have womens basketball, soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, lacrosse, and, if one searches enough, hockey as well; however, one has to look more to find information on these womens sports or switch to a weird channel to watch one of their games. With the exception of gymnastics and volleyball, the previous sports listed are all supposed to be contact sports; but it is not the same contact game when women are playing them. For example, the rules for lacrosse have been so drastically changed that one spends more time standing and being told to step back ten meters than actually handling the ball. In regards to soccer, although supposedly a no contact sport, it still allows more aggression without being carded when men are playing. However, as soon as a woman body checks (which is allowed in the game of soccer), a whistle is blown and a penalty is awarded to the opposing team. In hockey there is no checking allowed, and we all know that the Ladies Football League is a joke; they play in lingerie and helmets for Heavens sake, and by doing so the sport has become the farthest thing from a serious game. Some people think womens sports are a joke and

say that they are easier and are boring to watch. I would not say that they are easier, having played on quite a few different teams myself, but they are different. If one has ever watched a game of lacrosse it is apparent how physical and aggressive the game can get. Male players are required to wear helmets, gloves, and padding for their safety; and slamming, checking and knocking down teammates with both their bodies and their sticks are acceptable. However, in womens lacrosse the only protection used is a pair of goggles and a mouth guard; and making little to no contact with teammates is expected unless playing on defense. In order for women to play lacrosse the members of the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) created rules that they believed would work best for female players. They took out the contact part of the game and added more restrictive rules, (Federation of International Lacrosse, filacosse.com, 2013). If women wanted to play a no contact game then they would have signed up for badminton. By nature, hockey is a brutal sport, where fights breaking out, people getting cut by skates and head injuries are all commonplace. Yet when comparing a female game with a male game one can hardly tell that it is the same sport. They are both on skates and are fighting over a puck but there is no body checking allowed in womens hockey, (Checking Rule Not a Hit in Womans Hockey, mndaily.com, 2002). Gymnastics, skating, track and field are all popular sports among female athletes. It may be in part because these athletes do not feel cheated in the sport. The rules are not changed because of gender and instead it comes down to who can run the fastest, flip the highest, or land the best triple axel. I believe that, if the rules were not changed in contact sports, we would have a much higher percentage of female athletes in what are now male dominated sports. Even as more and more females participate in sports there is still a great imbalance in gender equality. In 1972 there were 31,842 female athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); and over 187, 041 male athletes. Maybe this has to do

with lack of interest on the part of females, discrimination against women, or possibly the lack of available learning opportunities for young girls. Whatever the reason, there appears to be a lack of gender equality in the sports world. Basketball is the most popular womens sport. The male version of the game became known in 1891 and womens basketball followed closely behind in 1892. There are no specific reasons for its popularity amongst women. Possibly due to how long it has been around, or because it was never a contact sport so that nothing physical was omitted from the female rules. Moving on from rule changes, other differences between mens and womens professional leagues is quite interesting to look at. For example, in a regular NBA (National Basketball Association) season there are 82 games played as well as four post-season playoffs with up to seven games in each series. In the WNBA (Womens National Basketball Association) a regular season is only 34 games long and they have a maximum of 11 post-season games. The NBA can play up to 110 games during a season, which is a drastic imbalance compared to the maximum of 45 games that the WNBA can play, (Differences Between Mens & Womens Basketball, Scout, Illinois News, pg. 1). The pay that the NBA and WNBA receive is even more biased toward male athletes. In 2010 the average salary for women in the WNBA was $34,500 and the maximum was $95, 000. Although men do play more games, their average salary of $457, 588 and up to more than $24.8 million, seems a little uneven compared to their women counterparts, (Differences Between Mens & Womens Basketball, Scout, Illinois News, pg. 1). Lucy Harris was the first female to be drafted in the NBA in 1977 and Anne Meyers was given a contract of $50,000 to play with the Indiana Pacers in 1979. Neither woman ever appeared in a single game. The first female referee was Jo Ann Fairbanks who served at an international soccer match in

1991. Despite there being 122 teams in the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL combined, none have a female coach or assistant coach, (Where Are All the Women Coaches?,TheHuffingtonPost.com). The odds are set against many female athletes at the professional level, but there are a few renowned individuals who deserve recognition for their athletic prowess. Soccer player Mia Hamm scored more goals than any other woman in international soccer. Erin Didrikson was an American athlete who earned more medals, broke more records, and competed in more tournaments in varying sports than any other individual, male or female. This woman is incredible, but I have never heard her name before doing research for this paper. Then we have people like Jackie Joyner-Kersee (considered one of the greatest athletes of all time as a womens heptathlon and long-jump champion), (Joyner-Kersee completes huge leap, ESPN.com) or Yani Tseng who was the youngest golfer ever, male or female, to win five championships (Yani Tseng, wikipedia) and Tracey Caulkins (three-time Olympic gold medal winning swimmer) (Tracey Caulkins, SR/Olympic Sports). These women are unbelievably talented athletes who do not get the same kind of recognition as male athletes like Dan Marino (renowned football quarterback for the Miami Dophins)(Glebe, Marte. Personal interview. 25 feb.2014), Walter Payton (legendary running back for the Chicago Bears, known as Sweetness) or Michael Jordan (a former professional basketball player) (Glebe, Marte. Personal interview. 25 Feb.2014).What do these people have in common and how are they different? Each one of these athletes mentioned are remarkable at their sport and are considered to be star players for their commitment to their teammates, coaches and fans. The first three named deserve the same recognition as their male counterparts, but they do not receive the same attention for one reason: they are female.

Athletes are people who play a sport for a living, train every day and live for their passion. Like celebrities, they are broadcasted in the media for us to gawk at and envy. When I type Michael Jordan into a search engine I find images and articles about him playing basketball; with action shots and magazine spreads showing a focused athlete who is all talented and concentrated on his sport. Yet when one looks up Michelle Jenneke there is more information about her bathing suit modeling for Sports Illustrated than her winning a silver medal at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics for hurdles. Countless other times I have come across advertisements for running shoes or new sports gear for women and I have had a hard time deciding whether they want me to buy the shoes or the bikini the athlete is wearing in the ad. The over-sexualization of women in the media is pretty apparent these days. Insecurity surrounding body image and violence against women because of the way that they are portrayed in the media is a major issue in society to this day. I can see how this happens to celebrities, and models of course, but athletes? I have a hard time finding the connection between being a professional snowboarder and how good her body looks in a bikini top and thong. Running is hard enough fully clothed, and doing it naked like some women seem to be doing in advertisements would be downright impractical, not to mention uncomfortable. Facility availability and quality of equipment are also factors influencing the participation of females in athletics, (Do You Know the Factors Influencing Girls Participation in Sports, womanssportsfoundation.org). Men receive more money overall than women in college level athletic scholarships, recruiting opportunities, and head coach salaries, (Feminist Majority Foundation, feminist.org). According to Sadie Anderson of the USA Womens Rugby Team, the reason they receive less funding than men is because they do not bring in enough

viewers; she argued that perhaps if female athletics were more easily accessible and better known and appreciated then they would be of interest to more people. Less than one in five D1 colleges have a female head athletic trainer and only one out of ten has a woman as SID (Sports Information Director). Less than 40% of PE directors are female, half of womans college teams are coached by men and only 2% of mens college teams have female coaches, (Female Participation in College Sports Reached an All-Time high, The Chronicle of Higher Education, B. Wolverton). Of all the interviews that I have done with players and coaches, none believe that women are less capable of being a good coach then men. It comes down to the qualifications of the person to teach, not what sex they are, that affects their abilities as a coach. After the passing of Title IX (a law that was meant to prevent discrimination based on gender in any federally funded activities including sports) most womens teams are now coached by females and although short-lived womens teams did see an increase in salary. As previously mentioned, there are no female head or assistant coaches in any of the mens professional leagues of baseball, soccer, football, lacrosse, or basketball; nor for most of the female teams of professional competitive sports. This is not to say there arent any successful females in the sports world. In fact, womens college level sports participation has increased over the past forty years since Title IX was passed; almost 200,000 women will play for a college team, the highest amount ever recorded for female athletics, (Female Participation in College Sports Reaches an All-Time High, the Chronicle Of Higher Education, B. Wolverton). There are also more women working in college sports than there have been in the past thirty five years; there was also an increase in female coaches of womens teams reported in 2012, (Female Participation in College Sports Reaches an All-Time High, the Chronicle Of Higher Education,

B. Wolverton). In regards to Title XI and the opportunities it has given women, Professor Linda Jean Carpenter stated in an interview: This has given credence to the good will and understanding that athletics belongs on campus because it has some connection to the educational mission-and if so, those opportunities should be open to both men and women.

Being a female athlete myself I have seen and experienced firsthand some of the gender inequality I have discussed. I have been on teams where we had to use old jerseys from the boys team because we could not buy our own. I have mentioned to people I played lacrosse and seen the surprise on peoples faces while they asked if it was really a sport, and do you still have to wear skirts? I have dealt with the social stigma that seems to come with female athletes; being called gay and manly because of playing sports. Through the interviews I conducted for my project the women all mentioned things very similar to one another. They were all angered by how many rule changes there were in female sports, how women do not have a strong voice in the professional sports world. Even a male soccer player I interviewed agreed that if women are playing women in any contact sport, they should be allowed to have the same rules; they have the same body type. Sadie Anderson of the USA Emirates discussed the issue of funding; how she believed female sports are just as important as male athletics, they just need more of a chance to get recognized. And they cannot achieve that if people do not take them seriously. Women are not weaker; they are not less able to understand plays than men, and can certainly play any sport they choose with the same fire and tenacity as any male athlete. Women have the ability to change how female in our society. We cannot fix all gender inequality at once,

but sports seem a good a place as any to start. We just need to give them the opportunity to do so.

Works Cited Anderson, Sadie. Personal interview. 20 Oct. 2013 Credibility of a professional athletes of the USA Womens Emirates Rugby team. Angel, Brett. "Checking Rule Not a Hit in Women's Hockeu." Minnesota Daily. Minnesota Daily, 05 Dec. 2002. Web. 12 Jan. 2014. <http://www.mndaily.com/2002/12/05/checking-rule-not-hitwomens-hockey>. CatalystInc. "Knowledge Center." Catalyst. CATALYST, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. <http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-ceos-fortune-1000>. Credibility of informational site. "Empowering Women in Sports - Women Still on the Sidelines - Feminist Majority Foundation." Empowering Women in Sports - Women Still on the Sidelines - Feminist Majority Foundation. Feminist Majority Foundation, 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. <http://www.feminist.org/research/sports/sports3.html>. Evans, Hilary, Arild Gjerde, Jeroen Heijmans, and Bill Mallon. "Tracy Caulkins." Olympics at SportsFootball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC, 2000. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. <http://www.sportsreference.com/olympics/athletes/ca/tracy-caulkins-1.html>. Family of Babe Ruth and Babe Ruth League C/o Luminary Group LLC. "Introduction." Babe Ruth. Family of Babe Ruth and Babe Ruth League C/o Luminary Group LLC, 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <http://www.baberuth.com/>. Credibility of a site dedicated to a single person, solid information given by a group. Glebe, Marte. Personal interview. 25 Feb. 2014 Levy, Ariel. "Either/Or." The New Yorker. Thenewyorker.com, 30 Nov. 2009. Web. 3 Jan. 2014. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/11/30/091130fa_fact_levy?currentPage=all>.

McKie, Robin. "Male and Female Ability Differences down to Socialisation, Not Genetics." TheObserver. Theguardian, 14 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. <Male and female ability differences down to socialisation, not genetics>.
Schwaltz, Larry. "Didrikson Was a Women Ahead of Her Time." Sports Century. ESPN.com, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. <https://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00014147.html>.

Schwartz, Larry. "Joyner-Kersee Completes Huge Leap." ESPN. ESPN.com, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016055.html>. "Scout.com - College and High School Football, Basketball, Recruiting, NFL, and MLB Front Page." Scout.com - College and High School Football, Basketball, Recruiting, NFL, and MLB Front Page. MSN Scout, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. <http://www.scout.com/>. Staurowsky, E., M. DeSousa, N. Gentner, Miller, Sabo, Melnick, and Farrel&Barnes. "Women's Sports Foundation." Women's Sports Foundation. Women's Sports Foundadtion, 2011. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. <https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/en/sitecore/content/home/support-us/do-youknow-the-factors-influencing-girls-participation-in-sports.aspx>.

"US Secretary of State Chart." Secretary of State. N.p., 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. <http://americanhistory.about.com/od/historicalfigures/l/blsecretary_of_state.htm>. Credibility of known facts on About.com which can contain good information.

Wolverton, Brad. "Athletics." The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. <http://chronicle.com/article/Female-Participationin/130431/>. "Women's Lacrosse Rules August 2010." Filacrosse.com. Federation of International Lacrosse, 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. <https://filacrosse.com/wpcontent/themes/sportedge/downloads/FIL_womens_field_rule_book.pdf>. "Yani Tseng." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yani_Tseng>.

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