Gender and Sports

Since the passing of Title IX, the number of females participating in high school sports alone has gone from 295,000 to 3.2 million. The number of females in college athletics has also increased from 30,000 to over 193,000. With the numbers of female athletes rapidly increasing, one would think the media between male and female sports would be close to equal, that is not the case however. Female sports receive only 1.6 percent of airtime. Do you think this is fair?

Through policies put in place by the NCAA as well as the Olympics, athletes can now compete with the gender of their choosing regardless of the sex they were born. The regulation is they must have undergone a year of hormone replacement therapy before participating. There have been many that are expressing concern for the fairness of competition for women athletes. Check out this article for more information.  http://www.wnd.com/2017/03/female-athletes-crushed-by-women-who-were-once-men/

There has been much debate over the amount of gender testing that is required for male and female athletes. A big issue lately has been whether a woman’s testosterone level should play a factor on her being allowed to participate in female athletic events in the Olympics. There are concerns that women with abnormally high testosterone levels could have an unfair advantage. This is because a person with more testosterone has greater muscle growth, bone mass and an increased competitive drive. Caster Semenya was banned from international competition between 2011 and 2015 because of her increased testosterone levels. After the regulations were lifted in 2015, she participated in the women’s 800 meter dash in the Olympics and won gold. What are your views on the subject? Do you feel gender testing should be more or less strict?

Check out this awesome article that talks about "Can Women Play With Men?" http://www.espn.com/espnw/news/article/6495612/women-pro-sports-women-play-men

Title IX  - "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." This does not mean that if a school has a mens football team, that they have to offer football for women. It means that schools must offer women equal opportunities to participate in sports as a whole. Title IX also makes it so male and female athletes receive the same amount of "treatment" and "benefits." However, this does not mean that the same amount of money must be spent on female teams as compared to male teams. Mens athletic gear is bigger and usually costs more. As long as the athletic equipment is similar in quality, the price spent is not taken into account. We will look more at Title IX and explore some real life examples in future posts!    

Sports play such a big role in todays society, so it is only fitting we bring up the topic of "Gender and Sports." Over the years, this is a topic that has been under much debate. Since the creation of Title IX, women have experienced a dramatic increase in their opportunities to participate in sports. One problem that still remains to this day, however, is complete gender equality. With women rising higher to the level of men in the business realm, why does it seem they are being held back when it comes to sports? These are the types of questions we will be viewing in more detail.