Gender Inequalities in Sports



Pat Summit (above) is one of the more famous women's college basketball coaches.

Sports offer an abundance of sociological advantages to children. Sports can offer children a chance to develop good character, social integration, achievement motivation, and competitive skills. All of these advantages help promote a better society, but what if only one gender really gets to reap the advantages that organized sports offer? Some girls are restricted to what sports they can and cannot play. If a little girl has the aspiration to become a professional football player, she may receive some strange looks from society because society perceives football to be a “man’s sport”. The same has been seen in baseball, despite many women’s baseball leagues that were developed during this nation Second World War. Based off of these two examples, girls are restricted in what sports they can and can’t play at a very early age. Despite the restrictions women face in sports, many of them are still extremely motivated to participate in many organized sports such as volleyball, softball, basketball, and soccer. But are they treated as equals.

Before the passing of “Title IX” which is a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972 which claims, “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 education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance”. Women were subject to unequal benefits in high school and colligate sports during the 1960s and 1970s. The most notable difference was in employment in these women sports, as men heavily outnumbered women on coaching staffs. Women were also subject to unequal funding and publicity for their sports. Because of the harsh inequalities faced by women in high school and colligate sports, many would have been unmotivated and unwilling to participate or seek job opportunities in organized sport in the 1960s and 1970s. Title IX has done a great job in increasing exposure for women’s sports in the NCAA and it has balanced out the power distribution in men’s and women’s sports in the sports world, but has it stopped societies view on women participating in sports? In modern society the world of sports seems to be still dominated by men and it doesn’t seem to be changing in the near future. This is a good example when studying gender inequality.             

Gender Roles and Sports

In our society, there are specific gender roles that dictate our behavior and expectations. Gender roles are a set of social and behavioral norms that are generally considered appropriate for either a man or a woman in a social relationship. These preexisting roles may dictate the opportunities one may experience throughout the course of their lives. For example, many believe that men should have more access to education because they will be more likely to enter the workforce while women should be more focused on raising children and learning specific household tasks such as cooking and cleaning. Gender roles will also dictate what toys we play with, what games we play, or what sports we participate in.

The sports men and women participate is a very interesting trend in gender roles. Men have a wide range in what sports they decide to play while women have a rather condensed range of sports they can play. Men are expected to play sports such as football, baseball, basketball, etc. while women are expected to play volleyball, softball, soccer, basketball, tennis, and gymnastics. Women are restricted in joining certain sports such as baseball or football and men are able to join almost all sports without any problems. If a woman wants to join baseball or football they may get some ridicule from society as they will be violating a norm in sports if they decide to participate in these sports. It will be interesting to see if our society is willing to change its expectations and allow women to participate in “men’s sports”.

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Folkway and More Norms in Sports

Superstars such as Alex Rodriquez (above) have broken more norms in baseball by taking performing enhancing drugs.

Having a hard time remembering the difference between folkway and more norms? These are two very important concepts in sociology because they will dictate our actions in a given situation. A simple way to look at it is norms are the expected way that people should act at all times and there is many ways we can break these norms. Breaking a folkway norm can range from belching loudly at a formal event or using your sleeve to wipe your nose. The punishment of breaking these folkway norms are not severe, but people will usually recognize them and they may not accept your actions. Breaking a more norm can range from theft or killing another person. The punishment of breaking these norms will be far more severe because we hold these norms more deeply and we may even codify them into our laws.

Now apply this into a different world, the world of sports. One can break more and folkway norms in sports very easily (it can sometime be comical). For example, in baseball, if a player hits a homerun he is expected not to “show up” the opposing pitcher. He can “show up” the opposing pitcher by acting in a cocky fashion after he hits the homerun. These cocky actions can range from posing after the homerun is hit, tossing the bat in an over exaggerated fashion, or rounding the bases at a very slow pace. These actions may spur some jeers from the opposing players and fans but the batter will not get punished for his actions. Now compare this to a baseball player who uses performing enhancing drugs (PEDs) to boost their performance or a player who gambles on games they are participating in. These actions would be considered a breach in more norms because professional baseball deeply cherishes its integrity. If a player decides to break one of these more norms then they will be subject to severe punishments such as a long suspension or a lifetime ban. Many players’ have been suspended because they have tested positive for PEDs (Alex Rodriguez, Nelson Cruz, Manny Ramirez, and others) and some have received a lifetime ban for gambling (the entire 1919 White Sox team for throwing the 1919 World Series). Major League Baseball has even barred Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson from entering the Hall of Fame because of their history of gambling. If you are a baseball fan, you can probably make a huge list of folkway and more norms. Can you think of any other examples of more and folkway norms that other sports preach?

Bullying and Sports

Richie Incognito (above) has been accused of "bullying" his teammate Johnathan Martin

One would associate bullying as a problem that is felt primarily in the lives of young children and teenagers but it has recently found its way into an unexpected place, the NFL. By now you have probably heard of the story of Miami Dolphin’s offensive lineman Jonathan Martins departure from his team due to excessive bullying from his teammates. Some call it bullying and others may call it “hazing” which is an accepted norm in most professional and colligate sports. Veteran players will often haze younger players in order to toughen it up. In this case, it lead to a player quitting the sport he loves to play and this example raises the question, does bulling/hazing contribute to a dysfunctional society?

Because it is an accepted practice in most sports, bullying or hazing could find its way into high school sports. This can be even more detrimental because high school students are very vulnerable at that point of their lives. Perhaps bullying may lead to something more severe than a player quitting their sport. As bullying becomes more of a problem in high school, there have been many cases of a drop in school performance, depression, and in some cases, suicide. If it is socially acceptable to haze or bully teammates, will the effects of bullying be magnified in high school sports? 

Racial Discrimination in Modern Sports

Pittsburg Steelers coach Mike Tomlin (above) is one of a very few African American coaches in the NFL.

Racial inequality and discrimination has existed in professional sports for a very long time. Most notably was the banning of African Americans from Major League Baseball. It wasn’t until the year 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier”, did the owners of professional baseball organizations start signing African American baseball players to major league contracts (it should be noted that a few African Americans did play in the MLB during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, but they were quickly released as other teams refused to play against any team that allowed African Americans to play). Due to the intensely segregated society that was prevalent in America during the 1940s, these ball players were often harshly criticized by opposing players, fans, owners, and at times, their own teammates. Eventually, the American public started to relinquish some of their stereotypes towards black ball players and started to accept them into their games. In today’s society, one will have a hard time believing that the sports world used to be so racially intolerant as more African Americans and foreign athletes made their way into professional sports. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are treated as equals.

The examples used above are advertent uses of discrimination, but many of the racial discrimination found in sports today can be considered inadvertent thus making it difficult to identify possible discrimination. For example, in professional baseball, African American players are more likely to play one of the three outfield positions, which are considered to be the “athletic” positions in baseball and a very low number of African Americans are expected to play pitcher or catcher, which are consider to be the “thinking” positions in baseball. This can be referred to as “stacking”, which is the position segregation by race or ethnicity in team sports. This is not only found in baseball. In professional football, traditionally white players are expected to be quarterbacks and this position is usually considered to be the team’s “leader”. Segregation also seems to be a common trend when examining the coaches for professional sports teams. Coaches in the NFL, NBA, and MLB are heavily occupied by Caucasians despite a large number of African Americans and Latinos participation within these organizations. The message this sends society can be problematic. Will African American and other minority athletes not aspire to become managers or coaches? Are minority players expected to assume their roles as just “players” and not “leaders”? These are interesting questions to ask oneself while watching a professional sporting event.   

Do Sports Promote Violence?

 
Many of the more popular sports in our society incorporate some sort of violence. This could be getting encouraged to make a hard tackle in football, wanting to knock the puck loose from an opposing player by using a body check in hockey, or trying to “knock out” your challenger in boxing or mixed martial arts. These mentioned examples of violence are accepted in our society because it is integrated into the sports rules, but what of the inadvertent uses of violence in sports?

 

These inadvertent uses can range from starting a fight or “scrum” in hockey just so your team can get a motivational boost by an individual’s actions. Another example can be used in baseball, when a pitcher intentionally gives the opposing batter “chin music” or the pitcher may even hit the batter with the pitch in order to keep the batter from “crowding the plate”. These two examples from hockey and baseball would be considered against the rules of these sports and they are strongly discouraged. It can also result into a serious injury if a hockey player intentionally starts a fight or a pitcher intentionally hits a batter. If a baseball or hockey player decides to act in this aggressive manner, they may be ejected from the game. That begs the question, if it is against the rules, why do players still engage in these aggressive antics?  Many argue that it is simply a part of the unwritten rules of hockey or baseball. This means that these antics are being supported by the many people involved in these sports because it is considered the norm. These violent actions will be ultimately promoted by these sports because they will likely be broadcasted to a mass audience through TV broadcasts. As a result, young children who are fans of these sports will be exposed to violent behavior.

 

As many of you know, people turn to sports to provide them with guidance in life. If people are exposed violent acts in sports, will it lead to more people (especially children) using violence to solve some of their problems? Will people gain a distorted message of sports in general? Would it be better for our society if we stop the broadcasting of violent sports? Do sports inadvertently contribute to a dysfunctional society? Or do these certain actions contribute to a functional society because some in of these mentioned examples, one can be contributing to “team morale”.  These are all difficult questions one should ask themselves regarding how sports impact on our society.