Gender Barriers in Athletics Essay -- Sports Feminism Equality Essays

Gender Barriers in Athletics2. What are the social and cultural costs and benefits of an individual (male or female) entering a non-traditional sport for their sexuality/sex (eg women who enter body building, power lifting, boxing men who enter synchronized swimming or field hockey)?Throughout history it is clear that not only women, but twain sex activitys have faced seemingly insurmountable barriers when attempting to break into a sport that is not proper or stereotypical for their gender to participate in. Though as a society we are making strides towards equality in sport, such as the advent of Title IX, it is clear that we politic have a long way to go. Though breakthrough policies such as this are moving in the right direction, other evidence points towards the incident that as a society, we are solace more comfortable with women in traditionally female sports such as field hockey as opposed to boxing, and men in traditionally male sports such as body building as oppose d to synchronized swimming, since these activities fit with our preconceived notions of what is normal for a specific gender. Supporting this idea is the fact that though we seem to be moving towards equality in sport with many coeducational universities and colleges having sport opportunities for both sexes, funding is still extremely unequal, as states by the Womens Sports Foundation in 2001 But women and girl athletes have yet to reach parity with men. Women are still only about one-third of interscholastic and intercollegiate athletes. In addition, women college athletes receive less than 26% of college sports operating budgets, and less than 28% of college recruiting money. Though as a society we are making progress towards equality, there is no way... ...n of both sexes, as described below by Sandi Bittler, Director of womens sports marketing for NikeIts not homogeneous when the male childs used to play sports and the girls play with dolls. Now there is crossover in appeal. The first time I noticed it was in 1995 when I traveled with the womens depicted object basketball team tour to 30 universities. For the first time I started seeing these female athletes touching younger kids and it didnt matter if it was a young boy or a young girl (http//www.reporternews.com/1999/features/sport0822.html).In this manner, it is clear that these athletes are taking strides towards equality by affecting the futurity of our society, youth. Though as a society we face many remaining obstacles in striving toward gender equality in sport, it is important to look at what has been accomplished, and also look to the future for what can still be done.