Gender Equality in Sports
Gender equality is that state in which men and women have equal access to opportunities and resources and are also involved in decision making. It also involves valuing of good diverse people behaviors, aspirations and their needs regardless of their gender (de Looze et al., 2019). The fact that we are all human beings, I strongly believe in gender equality and respect for the human rights because after all this is the world and we come and go. Gender equality in sports is necessary to protect the rights of everyone. This includes, equal recognition and also equal pay for all men and women in sport
Gender equality has been in existence for a very long time, UNESCO in 1978 recognized sports and physical activity as one of the human right but until today there is more room for improvements. There is still inequality in sports in regards to women and it can be related to mass media, gender stereotypes and inconsistent salaries. This are the causes that might have made this inequality continue existing even today.
Gender stereotypes has significantly contributed in gender inequality by defining the activities that the women are allowed to do and those that they are not allowed to do in sports. However there have been some developments in the Olympics for example sometimes back, women were not even allowed to enter the stadium but today they are able to compete in wide range of sports in the Olympic Games (Flowers, 2017). This shows that there is an improvement from where we were before.
The society in general still believe that women should not have that endurance or even be muscular, women should not be strong and thus they should be feminine and remain just pretty. That was what the society believes in but, the rights of women have been evolving and they have been given the right to participate in sports although the provision of playing field is not yet equal.
Inequalities in women has also been influenced by the media. Women have been given the opportunity to appear in the newspapers, magazines and on televisions but it is not yet equal to the way men are portrayed in the media (Sherwood et al., 2017). A small percentage of the sports media have been devoted to women (about 6-8%) which does not even correlate with the huge women participation in sports. Furthermore, the newspaper coverage on their sports section has dedicated the largest percentage to men which thus shows inequality. In terms of sports scholarships, for example in athletics, men get $179 million more than the female athletes get according to Women’s Sports Foundation, this is actually huge a difference
The media and the gender stereotypes has therefore defined women has less capable and thus the full potential of this women has not been brought out well. This has affected their salaries the women in sports receive. There is still a big difference for the highest paid salary in men and in women (Kahane, 2018). Some of the people claim that, men play a better game than women but the games are watched and enjoyed by many people, for example the women world cup finals, it came out to be the most watched soccer match in the united states attracting about 25.4 million viewers. The truth is, the women players did not receive enough compensation as the men. This shows that there is still inequality in sports
There is need to do more on the gender equality and promote it. Human beings are the same and therefore, appreciation of both genders is the best thing we can do for ourselves and our society.
References
de Looze, M., Elgar, F. J., Currie, C., Kolip, P., & Stevens, G. W. (2019). Gender inequality and sex differences in physical fighting, physical activity, and injury among adolescents across 36 countries. Journal of Adolescent Health.
Flowers, C. L. (2017). Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Women’s Sport, by Susan K. Cahn.
Kahane, L. (2018). Pay dispersion and productivity in sports. Personnel Economics in Sports, 136.
Sherwood, M., Osborne, A., Nicholson, M., & Sherry, E. (2017). Newswork, news values, and audience considerations: factors that facilitate media coverage of women’s sports. Communication & Sport, 5(6), 647-668.
