Chapter 7
Gender and Sports:
Does Equity Require
Ideological Changes?
Gender ideology
p . . . interrelated ideas and beliefs widely used to define masculinity and femininity, identify people as male or female, evaluate forms of sexual expression, and organize social relationships
p Orthodox gender ideology = ideas and beliefs associated with this _________________approach.
n Using the word orthodox is meant to show that this view of gender represents a traditional way of thinking that many people have internalized as unchanging “truth” and often linked to their religious beliefs or an overall sense of right and wrong.
p Gender ideology _______________ change, but it can and often does change as other parts of society change
Gender ideology in many societies is based on a
two-category classification system that
p Assumes two mutually exclusive categories: _______________ male and _________________female
p Presents these categories in terms of difference—as “opposites” across physiological, psychological, and social dimensions
p Leaves no space for those who __________________________________
p Infers the subordination of women to men when it comes to power and access to power
Research across many scientific disciplines shows that
p Biological sex is not manifested in either/or male/female terms—it is manifested across many traits in terms of shades of difference
p In most societies, people are forced into one sex category or the other, and if they don’t fit, they are socially _________________
p Being classified in one or the other normative category ____________________________
Gender ideology
p A tool for maintaining the _______________
n Males are defined as _______________ in terms of traits that are connected with status and power
n Women are defined as _______________ to men except in their ability to nurture
p Leads social worlds to be
n _________-dominated
n _________-identified
n _________-centered
Gender (in)equity issues always exist when sport cultures are:
p Male-dominated (i.e., ability and performance qualifications are associated with masculinity)
p Male-identified (i.e., sports are a “man’ world” that emphasizes values associated with men and manhood)
p Male-centered (i.e., men and men’s lives are the expected focus of attention in stories, legends, and media coverage related to sports)
Facts about gender ideology
It is defined in ways that
ü Give some men more access to ___________ while restricting the __________________ for all men
ü Marginalize gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals by categorizing them as “out of normative bounds”
ü Lead women to push gender boundaries while men are more apt to _____________ gender boundaries for themselves and for women
Like many corporate cultures, sport cultures often are organized to make women feel that they are not ________ _________for their abilities.
For women, pain and injury are simply the price of playing elite sport; for men, they are badges of masculinity . . . Sports is a gendered institution, whose values, symbols, and core audience are masculine, even with the rise of women’s sports and women athletic stars.
—Judith Lorber, professor emerita,
City University of New York (2007)
Gender ideology in sports:
Girls and women as invaders
p Females in certain sports may threaten traditional ideas about gender.
p Through history, _____________ have been used to discourage participation by girls and women.
p Encouragement varies by sport, and whether the sport emphasizes grace or power.
p Being a “_____________” is okay as long as traditional “______________” are presented.
Through most of the 20th century gender ideology
led to the exclusion of girls and women in sports.
Prior to the late-1970s most girls in schools had one or
two “field days” each year to engage in sport activities.
For most of the twentieth century, few schools sponsored competitive teams for girls and young women. Instead, they sponsored semi-annual “field days” or “sport nights” during which girls could compete in running races and other field events or give skills demonstrations to parents. Until the 1960s there were widely believed myths that vigorous sports would harm the female body and make it difficult for a woman to conceive, carry, and give birth to children.
Girls and women did engage in physical activities during
the early 20th century, but those activities usually emphasized
grace and beauty as the basis for “ladylike character.”
Ladies, not invaders
p When women wanted to play sports during most of the 20th century, they often named their team “Ladies this” or “Ladies that,” and referred to themselves as “ladies” to defuse the threat they presented to men and male control of sport resources
n This was especially prevalent in southern states where men controlled women by identifying them as ladies who would always be “ladylike”—that is, subordinate to me, but taken care of by men.
n
p Today, the term “___________” does not come with these constraints—but “_________ ________” continue to receive fewer resources than the men receive
Gender ideology leads to many strategies when seeking _________________________—even today.
The most certain way for women to be on a basketball court in front of a sold out stadium game after game.
Women’s professional sport leagues struggle to _____________,
including the professional-amateur mixed W-League supported
by the USL Soccer organization. Does orthodox gender
ideology undermine professional women’s sports?
Mainstream Sports Reaffirm
Orthodox Gender Ideology
p Because gender is not fixed in biology, sports are key sites for maintaining ideas and beliefs about ___________ - ____________differences
p Sex-tests for women are used to maintain the _________ - ________ classification system
p Sports, especially media sports, celebrate traditional _____________ and the “natural power and emotional fortitude” of males
p “Sport talk” and sport images often glorify a heroic manhood based on being a _____________
n Some people use this to legitimize male __________ and ______________ in gender relations
Some men’s sports inspire fantasies of a heroic manhood in which masculinity is equated with being a “warrior.”
Many boys find this fantasy (temporarily) empowering
Sex testing:
a legacy of the two-sex system
Sport organizations (& public toilets) remains the last bastion of enforced sex segregation in society
n This creates problems because objective distinctions between male and female cannot be made across all humans by using chromosomes, hormones, or secondary sex characteristics—all of which overlap among men and women.
p These problems have forced sport organizations to use a succession of invalid tests to make sure women athletes are females that fit their definitions.
p Caster Semenya was the latest of many victims of this approach.
The current IOC approach
to sex testing is
p _____________
p Ethnocentric
p _______________
p Unfair to ____________
p Psychologically harmful
p Based only on _____________ level
p Anti-___________
p Based on a double standard and not applied to ______ for the sake of fairness
Gender ideology
and other double standards in sports
What would happen if
p Tennis player Serena Williams beat up a man or a woman in a bar fight?
p A high-profile woman athlete bragged about having numerous sex partners?
p A WNBA player had arm tattoos expressing strength and dominance?
p The captain of the national women’s soccer team was photographed with near-naked men ogling and hanging on her?
Changes in gender ideology:
A prerequisite for gender equity
Changing gender ideology is crucial because
p Gender is a fundamental organizing principle of social life
p Gender ideology influences how we
§ Think about and identify ourselves and others
§ Form and evaluate relationships
§ Present ourselves to others
§ Develop expectations for ourselves and others
§ Organize and distribute rewards in social worlds
Despite orthodox gender ideology, notable progress toward gender equity has occurred since the 1970s
This progress is due to:
p Government _______________ mandating equal rights (eg., Title IX in the U.S.)
p The global ____________ rights movement
p The global __________ and ___________movement
p Increased __________ coverage of women in sports
Fairness and equity issues
revolve around
p Sport participation patterns compared by gender
p Gender inequities related to
n Participation opportunities
n Support for athletes
n Jobs in coaching and administration
p Strategies for achieving equal opportunities for girls and women
Title IX
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
— a
law passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, signed by President
_____________, June 23, _____________
Title IX has ________________ millions of girls and women.
It remains controversial among those who say that gender equity
is unfair because more males than females want to play sports.
Title IX requires compliance
with one of three tests:
p The proportionality test
ü A ______________ percentage point deviation has
been okay
ü The history of ______________ test
ü Judged by actions and progress over past ____________ years
ü The _________________ of interest test
ü Programs and teams meet the interests and abilities of the___________________ ________
Title IX in the U.S. has
p Fostered major ______________ in sport participation opportunities available to girls and women
p Evoked continuous _____________ since it became law in 1972
p Demonstrated that laws and law enforcement do ________ exist in a social and cultural vacuum
p Demonstrated that when laws challenge the ideas and lifestyles of people with power, the legitimacy and enforcement of those laws will be questioned
Gender inequities remain
in the U.S. and worldwide
p Unfortunately, progress toward gender equity in U.S. sports seems to have _____________ since the beginning of this century.
p Significant inequities remain in
n ___________________ rates and absolute numbers for males and females
n ___________________ given to female athletes
n ___________________ to power positions for women in sports
Categories of support for athletes:
ü Access to facilities
ü Quality of facilities
ü Availability of scholarships
ü Program operating expenses
ü Recruiting budgets
ü Scheduling of games and practice times
ü Travel and per diem expenses
ü Academic tutoring
ü Number of coaches
ü Salaries for all staff and administrators
ü Medical training services and facilities
ü Publicity for players, teams, and events
On Brighton Beach in England, and in most other public spaces in which sports are played, men are more likely than women to claim that space. Women are also more likely to watch men than men are to watch women play sports. Gender ideology and the structure of opportunities go hand-in-hand when it comes to sports.
Facing football:
A challenge for equity strategies
High-profile football teams
p Involve ____________ players and ____________ resources than any other sport team
p Promote a culture in which there is ________________ to gender equity
p Often are supported by __________ who see gender equity as an ___________ to the way they do things
When football is the cultural and structural centerpiece of a school and community, gender inequities are likely to exist and persist over time.
Informal and alternative sports
p Organized around the values and experiences of ___________ and young ___________
p Participants say that inclusion is based on skills, guts, and aggressiveness, not ____________
p Most girls and young women feel ________________ in alternative sport cultures
Access to informal sport participation for females is usually afforded by a male—a brother or friend who serves as an advocate
Public skate parks have become male turf.
To enter these spaces, a females often needs
a male advocate to “explain” her presence
When males shape __________ and control ___________to participation, “playing like a boy” becomes a ______________ for playing at all.
Access to informal
and alternative sports
Gender inequities also exist in player-
controlled sports:
p _________ and ___________ may face greater access challenges than are faced by boys and men
p Boys and men often control access to these sports, and they control access on their terms
p Title IX does __________ apply to these sports
Question: Do the X Games perpetuate inequities related to access in these sports?
Roller derby teams are being formed by women seeking sport experiences on
their own terms. The athletes embrace many ideas and beliefs about femininity.
The culture of roller derby is female-dominated, female-identified, and female-centered.
In percentage terms, women have lost ground relative to men as head coaches in NCAA Division I sports. As women’s sports have become more important, men are hired for a greater proportion of the jobs. At the same time, fewer than 3% of men’s college teams have women as head coaches
Coaching & administration:
Reasons for underrepresentation
Women are underrepresented in decision-making positions in sports worldwide, and progress toward equity is very slow. Men do not give up power easily, nor do they want to change the male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered culture of sports.
Barriers to gender equity
Some men continue to have a difficult time taking female athletes seriously as athletes. Gender ideology appears to be deeply grounded in their psyche when it comes to sports.
Events for men have always outnumbered
events for women in the Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games were totally dominated by men until the 1990s when women’s participation had increased due to global changes produced by the women’s movement that began in the 1960s.
Gender inequities are especially prevalent in the Paralympic Games, although there have been some positive changes in recent years.
The gendered choices faced by athletes are also faced by women who apply for cheerleading and dance teams in men’s professional sports. The bodies of these women are assessed to see if they meet specific physical criteria. If they do, they will be allowed to try out. If these women had the power to choose how they are included and represented in sports, would they choose this?
Gender Equity and Sexuality
p Sports have long been associated with male ______________ & the expression of ______________.
n Growing rejection of orthodox gender ________________ has led to a desire for changes
p Challenges for ___________s continue to exist
n In some sports in certain cultural areas, these challenges are ____________
p ____________s worldwide are careful to keep identities hidden
n If and when LGBTs come out, it is done strategically
Challenge of being
gay or lesbian in sports
p Popular discourse erases gay men and lesbians from sports.
p Gay men and lesbians have less freedom than heterosexuals when expressing sexuality.
p Being “out” in sports creates challenges:
Ø Women risk social acceptance
Ø Men risk social acceptance and physical safety
p Most people in sports support a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about homosexuality.
When Martina Navratilova came out as a lesbian in 1981 as a 25-year old, her character was attacked. She lost millions in endorsement deals and faced challenges from other players, fans, the media, and the general public.
But she initiated a conversation that was revived in 2013 and 2014. And she continues to participate in that conversation.
Homophobia =
. . . ____________________________________________________________________________
n Homophobia is a powerful cultural factor that affects everyone, because it creates fears and pressures to conform to traditional gender definitions, and silences all who are not gender normative.
Intersex and Transgender
Persons in Sports
p Intersex and “trans” people have been ignored or routinely excluded from organized sports
p Intersex and trans athletes push gender boundaries and create confusion for those using orthodox gender ideology to make sense of the world
p Some sport organizations have taken on the challenge of creating rules that foster the inclusion of intersex and “trans” athletes
n The next challenge: how to include those who reject gender as an identity category
Strategies to Achieve Equity
p Using the law and engaging in grassroots _____________
p Showing boys and men that they benefit from gender __________ and recruiting them as __________ in making changes.
p Changing the _________ we do sports
Strategies to promote
gender equity
If the culture and social structure in Bangladesh are
organized to prevent females from gaining power in society,
this girl’s joy and sense of empowerment from winning this
race will be temporary and difficult to convert into the power
to make needed institutional changes as an adult.
Strategies for changing
ideology and culture
There is a need for
v Alternative definitions of masculinity
ü Critically question violent and destructive behavior
v Alternative definitions of femininity
ü Becoming “like men” is not the goal
v Changing the ways we do sports
ü Focus on lifetime participation, supportive vocabularies, gender equity, and bringing males and females together to share sport experiences
ü Why aren’t varsity sports in schools organized around gender mixed sports that people will play in the future?
Girls and women
as agents of __________
Sport participation can empower women,
but
p This does ______ occur automatically
p Personal empowerment does not always lead to an awareness of the need for gender transformation in society as a whole
p Elite athletes seldom are active agents of change when it comes to gender ideology
Elite female athletes seldom challenge traditional gender ideology
Boys and men
as agents of change
Gender equity in sports is a men’s issue:
p It creates options for men to play sports that are not based only on a power and performance model.
p It emphasizes relationships based on cooperation rather than conquest and domination.
p It provides opportunities for boys and men to learn how to maintain emotionally satisfying relationships.
Achieving full gender inclusion:
Where we are and where we need to go?