1. Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies
Chapter 8
Gender and Sports:
Does Equity Require Ideological Changes?

2. 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 women’s 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 women’s sports: When girls watch women who are physically strong and competent athletes, it becomes easier to envision themselves as athletes.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Figure 8. 1
Media coverage has changed how some people think about women in sports.
Media coverage makes women athletes very visible now.

7. 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 women’s 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.

8. Reasons For Caution When Predicting Future Participation
Continued emphasis on “cosmetic fitness”
Trivialization of women’s sports
Homophobia and the threat of being labeled “lesbian”

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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?

16. 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)

17. Strategies to Promote Gender Equity
Inform media of unfair and discriminatory policies.
Package women’s sports as revenue producers.
Recruit women athletes into coaching.
Use women’s hiring networks.
Create a supportive climate for women in your organization.

18. Figure 8.4 The Two-Gender Classification System

19. 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.
Girls and Women As Agents of Change

20. THE FEMALE Athlete

21. Why Elite Athletes Seldom Challenge Traditional Gender Ideology
Women athletes often fear being tagged as ungrateful, “man-haters,” or “lesbians”.
Corporation-driven “celebrity-feminism” focuses on individualism and consumption, not everyday struggles related to gender.
“Empowerment discourses” in sports often are tied to fitness and heterosexual attractiveness.
Women athletes have little control or political voice in sports or society at large.

22. Boys and Men As Agents of Change
Gender equity also is a men’s 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.

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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 women’s 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

30. Figure 8.5 Gender ideology is changing but it continues to create constraints on sport participation for some people.

31. 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 women’s soccer team was photographed with near naked men ogling and hanging on her?

32. 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 “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about homosexuality

33. 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

34. 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 men’s issue?
What is gender ideology?