Gender and Sports

Even though participation for women has increased in sports since the passing of Title IX, their pay checks are still a fraction of their fellow male athletes. The max salary for a professional female basketball player is $110,000 annually, compared to a professional male basketball player whose max annual salary is $16.407 million. Part of the reason for the low payment in women's athletics might have to do with the low percent of media coverage we looked at in an earlier post. What are your thoughts on why men get paid more?

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