Gendered Perspectives on Current Events 2017 T2: Women & Professional Sports. Is That a Thing?

Women and sports. Often considered not an exact pair that would typically go together. But women are in professional sports from; players, coaches, referees to broadcasters. Women are slowly breaking down the barriers and stereotypes in the sporting world.

Jen Welter coached the inside linebackers
during the 2015 Cardinals preseason

The number of women playing sports has skyrocketed over the years. Women's professional leagues have come, some have stayed and others have gone. And the skill level of female athletes has improved tremendously throughout the years as well. But is it enough for the females of these sports to compete on the men's level or at the same skill level? Or are these sports strictly just a 'men's' worldview in society. The number of women in the coaching, and sports broadcasting has also risen enormously throughout the years, alongside professional female referees.

Bring active in sports all throughout my childhood and high-school days, and being a girl. I have always noticed the bias between males and females in sports. In both contact/non-contact sports. I played soccer, volley-ball, basket-ball, and also partook in competitive figure skating. I’ve played on co-ed teams, and all girls teams. But there is always a bias between genders when it comes to playing sports. I played on provincial teams, one being Team Manitoba for U15 girls volley-ball. My team; an all girls team went to a tournament with an all boys team. The boys got a few injured players and sick players so they were short. Myself and one other girl volunteered to play for the boys as it wasn’t against the rules if the team would allow it. It was either the team lets us play with them, or they must forfeit the tournament. The boys and coach eventually decided just to forfeit the tournament. Why? Simply just because they didn’t want to get ‘embarrassed’ or have girls play for them. It’s hard to be a female in sports with these kind of bias’ you have to deal with on a daily basis. Women who pursue professional sports of any kind are a strong breed of women. Taking the criticism, and working extra hard to get where they are today. Its absolutely inspiring, and women all over should be proud and stand up for these women.

Also - Women in most sports are also sexualised when it comes to advertising. Why? Because, sex sells. As sad as it is, its very true. After centuries of getting all the advantages over women in every aspect of life, of course men’s sport is more “popular.” As those advantages are starting to be shared on a more equal footing, more people are deciding that they like women’s sports. Men’s and women’s soccer may be the same game, but they don't have to be played identically to be appreciated..

San Antonio Spurs coach Becky Hammon was the first full-time,
salaried female coach in NBA history

Women’s sports that are identical to men’s sports; such as soccer, basket-ball, volley-ball and hockey for example. They will never be AS popular as the men’s division unfortunately. All because society sees men as faster, stronger, and more athletic. And basically, just more entertaining to watch. On the other hand of this argument, there is many other sports that highlight the different strengths of female athletes, and are categorized as being more ‘feminine.’ These sports being among gymnastics, figure skating, and tennis. These are all popular ‘women’s’ sports. And let’s face it, when does anyone ever rave about the fact that men’s gymnastics or figure skating is on TV? Another thing to note is that the women’s sports that are considered to be more popular and feminine, are all non-team sports.

The gender bias in professional sports can also be seen in players' salary’s as well. The top 10 highest paid female athletes earned approximately $124.7 million from their salary, prize money, endorsements, appearances, and licensing between June 2015 and June 2016. Where as the top 10 highest paid male athletes earned approximately $635.2 million in the same fiscal year. So when you ask yourself are men and women treated the same in the professional sporting world? Absolutely not, will there ever be equal pay or less gender bias’ between particular sporting events? Probably not.

Katie Hnida; wasn’t the first woman to compete in
NCAA football. She was actually the second. But was the first woman
to score points in college football’s highest devision (DivisionI-A)

Female athletes are of course well known in particular fields. But it's not really heard of, of women playing professionally in men's leagues. But it has been done. In 2011 a study was done, proving that female athletes are becoming more and more popular. And more importantly, well respected. But this wasn't always the case. For the last century or so, female athletes have put in a lot of hard work and perseverance to get the respect they deserve. And in some cases, this meant women actually competing against men in the very sports they supposedly dominated.

But despite the pay gaps, gender bias', etc.Female athletes who dared to take on the impossible by competing against men. They didn't always win (although sometimes they did), females definitely proved they held their own and proved to the world that they had to be taken seriously. Female athletes are kicking ass in the professional sporting world, and will continue to do so more in the years to come.