Women in Sports

It is interesting to work in the sports industry and see the issues that we discuss in class being played out in reality. A lot of our discussion about controversial topics is ways that we can implement change. Today I was working for the LA Clippers and the cheerleaders came out to the event at a middle school in south central Los Angeles. The principal of the school came out to introduce and kick off the event and to when she introduced the cheerleaders she addressed the females and said look how beautiful and skinny these women are- we are supposed to be beautiful and skinny too. She told the whole student body that if the girls wanted to be great they had to be beautiful and skinny.

This made me think of an issue we have talked about which is: where and how do we educate our children that you do not have to follow a specific role based on your sex? I found this article put up by the women’s sports foundation and there was not

http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/home/research/articles-and-reports/equity-issues/pay-inequity

one mention on educating youngsters that gender roles are constructed. There was not one mention on how to change the way of thinking about men and women. I personally believe there is too much focus on making nominal changes that we forget the root of the problem. I do believe that we need to make these changes, like pay rate between men and women and TV coverage- however I think we lost track of what we really need to focus on- changing the normative way of thinking.

Another article I found regarding women in sport does focus on gender roles and the social construction of gender. At the end of the article the author says women have made strides in sports through Title IX but collegiate athletics spend one dollar on women per two dollars on men. Again, the target here is to change the numbers to make sure the number match. All this is good and is making a positive change on women, but to really make a change I think we need to implement an education program that changes the way of thinking.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/scisoc/sports02/papers/jpadgett.html

Alexandra Mitchell