In this article I shall talk about the inequality that females have suffer(ed) in sport throughout the years.
Firstly let's define the two genders male or masculine and female or feminine.
Masculine qualities are thought of as strength, aggression, muscular and daring, while feminine qualities are thought of as sensitive, aesthetic, sympathetic and gentle
The nature of sport has been described as a pastime created by men for men.
The understanding for a boy growing up that to be successful at sport is the way of being a successful man.
For girls the problem however is that sport is considered something that does not go with the image of femininity or womanhood.
This is a problem found in research (Youth Sport Survey) 14% of boys believed it was important for a girl to be good at sport, while even more alarming is that only 27% of girls felt the same.
During the inter-war years women became more athletic but there was still the assumption that exercising would masculinize' the female body. Even today if a woman has a muscular physique they possibly face being labelled a man' lesbian' etc.
The thing with sport is that it's not supposed to be considered an equal opportunities pursuit but a test of strength, power and aggression all considered masculine qualities.
Sport has always been categorised into Male and Female sports with some being considered acceptable for both this is something that can be seen from an early age. "You throw like a girl" is a common taunt any child probably hears sometime during there childhood.
Tennis is a perfect example of sport that is considered acceptable for both genders but even then women are restricted in playing three sets to men's five.
This has caused much debate on the prize money paid at the Wimbledon event of women being paid less, former tennis player Billie Jean King has argued that woman are quite capable of playing five sets "but a woman, probably wearing a corset fainted and the then all-male board decided that we could only play best of three sets."
The Football Association banned women's football in 1921 a ban that was not to be lifted until 50 years later.
The first modern Olympics (1896) saw no women being allowed to compete, the 2nd they could play golf and tennis, gradually over the years they have been allowed to play in more and more sports and currently are only banned from boxing.
Despite bans being lifted it is still not considered appropriate to mix the sexes many schools segregate boys and girls in sport, with boys general doing the viewed male' sports and girls doing female' sports.
Even in events like the marathon men and women cannot start at the same time despite the fact they are not actually racing against each other.
Women who play traditional male sports rarely get sponsorship, as only sports that are considered feminine or neutral will receive funding.
The media is no help with covering women's sport look in many UK National Papers and you'll see that they receive very little to no coverage usually coverage is of traditionally male sports such as football and rugby rather than say netball, hockey and gymnastics. Also world record-breaking women are given less coverage than men.
In a recent article in a national paper one of the Williams sisters was being followed round for the day with a reporter. The reporter spent a bit of the article giving the woman a bit of stick because she was so dedicated to being a good tennis player that she doesn't socialise much or have a boyfriend. If it had been a male would the article have been worded differently, would he have been praised for being so dedicated to his craft and being a good role model for his fans?
It seems for a sports woman to receive media coverage (and hence money) she has to double up her career as a model/cover girl. The magazine Sports Illustrated has often featured sportswomen on the cover not doing sport at all but in a bikini or in a sexy pose.
Sportswomen who encourage this may get some stick, but others might view it as there only way of getting a decent income equal to the men. Women who have not even achieved much in sport have even managed to make a good career based off their looks.
At a grassroots level women experience getting problem accessing facilities. Not only are they working more than they used to, they are also still responsible for the domestic childcare tasks. They also find that at the local sports hall pitch time is prioritised to male sports, so men/boys get the pitches at better times while women/girls get inconvenient times.
Even in sports development schemes it has not been considered till recently that woman have generally been left out of sport.
A sportswoman's sexuality is a problem. Constantly the media may question or even mock that they are a lesbian or even used to be a man.
On the other side in coaching, management and the boardroom there is also a ratio of more men to women. It is quite common to see men coaching women but a lot less women who coach men.
Although there are women in sports admin quite often they have the lower positions while men have the management positions.
Final Thoughts
Although gender inequalities in sport are an issue that has only been developed on recently, from the information gathered it is pretty certain to say that women are still not recognised in sport. Hopefully since the problem has been recognised, things will begin changing in future years through the following:
1) Make females more comfortable and involved in sport
2) The equality of money earned in some sports either by matching men's with women's competition or vice-versa.
3) Media coverage needs to be less biased towards men. Having roles in presenting, such as Sue Barker and Gabby Logan, is putting women more into the spotlight and it would be good if a similar state of affairs could be repeated in management positions as well.
4) Social schemes to get women involved
"Women athletes are no different from men athletes in the skill, dedication and courage they bring to their sports" (Women's Sport Foundation (2006))