Running+like+a+Girl

Name: Edison Law

Student Number: n7352743

Tutor: Jacinda Wilson

Running like a Girl: How Equitable is the Playing Field when it comes to Women in Sport? Sports teaches you character, it teaches you to play by the rules, it teaches you to know what it feels like to win and lose-it teaches you about life. – Billie Jean King



** Public Health Issue ** Women’s participation in sport has a long history marked by division and discrimination but also one filled with major accomplishments by female athletes and important advances for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Australia’s history is rich in sport, and women have contributed significantly to that history. Continuing to encourage women’s involvement in sport will largely benefit the country and in other social aspects. However, how much we have improved gender equality in sport and how equitable is the playing field when it comes to women in sport in 21st century?

** Cultural Artefact ** The photo I have chosen is a photo of Lingerie Football League, which portrays majority of the public’s thought about women in sport. This photo is about professional women sportsmen playing American football in lingerie. Lingerie is usually dressed to impress males, which I think it is a degrade when they wear it on a sport field. As we all know, American football is a tough sport but when women playing it in lingerie. This symbolizes that women cannot play it as tough as men even if they are “professional”, and people will directly compare it to men’s American football


 * Literature Review **

** The Benefits for women and girls of physical activity and sport ** Although many of the clinical trials and studies in health have excluded women, the available data suggest that women derive many health benefits from physical activity (Oglesby,2006). It has been clinical proven that physical activities have a positive impact on childhood health, as well as reduce the risk of chronic diseases in later life such as cardiovascular diseases, which account for one third of deaths among women around the world (Oglesby,2006). Also, the important role of physical activity is that it can prolong independence in later life of women. Much of the physical decline that was consider as an inevitable of ageing is now consider as the result of inactivity (Oglesby,2006). Furthermore, participation in sport can also facilitate good mental health for women of all ages, including the management of mental disorder. It can promote psychological well-being through building self-esteem, confidence and social integration, as well as helping to reduce stress, anxiety, loneliness and depression. This is particularly important as rates of depression among women are almost double those of men in both developed and developing countries (Oglesby, 2006). Sport can also be an effective instrument for empowering women socially through the skills and values that they learned in sport, such as teamwork, negotiation, leadership, respect and communication. It is especially important for girls to have equal opportunities in adolescence to learn these skills and value, and acquire new interpersonal new networks that are beyond family structures to develop a sense of identity and access new opportunities. Moreover, participation in sport allows women to enjoy freedom of expression of movement on the sport field, and increase their self-esteem (United Nation Task force, 2003)

Policy that protect women’s rights on sports field – The Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport Apart from different strategies to encourage women to actively involve in sport. There are various policies to protect women’s rights on sports field, one of the most famous one among them all is The Brighton Declaration on Women Sport. It calls for: 1) equality in society and sport; 2) build sport facilities that meet the needs of women, 3) an increase in the number of women coaches, advisers and decision makers in sport, 4) education, training and development programmes that address gender equality and, 5) Allocation of resources for sportswomen and women’s sport programmes. With these policies women can now enjoy more freedom and support on the sport field (International Working Group on Women and Sport, 1994).

** Barriers to participation **

Although various strategies have been adopted to protect the rights of women in sport, barriers still exist to stop them from involving in sport. These barriers can be summarized in five different areas:

Socio-cultural barriers Research has pointed out that although only minority of women had experienced discrimination or receiving sexist comments during sport events, they had profound effects on women’s involvement, leading to the result of withdrawing their participation or changing their chosen sports. Furthermore, even though only a minority of women had experienced sexism in sport events, women are more often to experience subtle and indirect socio-cultural barriers to their participation (AWRA, 2009)

Affective barriers Research has also pointed out that some of the women described sports as a unnecessary event in their life and did not wish to participate in any sport, because these activities were low priorities in their culture and it had been low since their childhoods. Other than the cultural affection, some of the women disliked the particular aspects of sport such as compete against others.

Resource barriers The other common barriers is the resource barriers which related to time and finances (both of women and sporting organisations). Time was the major barrier for women to participant in sport due to the family burden and work commitments. It was also discovered that most of the organized sporting activities were not offered at times that were convenient to them. Moreover, most of the women’s sport and recreation organisations are under funded and having resource problems. As a result, it prevented the organistions from advertising to attract new members or providing sufficient social activities for club members

Physiological barriers

Although physiological barriers were identified in those women who were in poor health condition or old age, this could be due to their inactivity in their early age. As it has been proven that sporting activities can prevent physical decline. However, it was also discovered that age related barriers were mostly about perception. For instance, a 33 years old woman perceived herself to be too old to learn how to swim.

Interpersonal barriers The last barrier is the interpersonal barriers, women also identified lack of self confidence to participant in sport, especially when they did not know participants. Without personal connection or companion, women often did not know what to expect and did not necessarily have the self assurance to join unsolicited.

** Media bias and funding **

In the past three decade, the world sports is no longer a “male preserve”, which means not only men enjoy the privileged and exclusive access to participation opportunities. No doubt gender equality in sport has been improved tremendously. However, are we actually playing it fair? According to Australian Womensport and Recreation Association (AWRA) data girls’ and women’s sport institutes are still generally under-funded, and girls women still too often have to fight for full and equal access as opposed to men (AWRA, 2009). Since there is lack of resources for women’s sport training, it leads to the shortage of professional women sportsmen. Therefore, it becomes a vicious circle, which means lacking of resource to provide a professional performance leads to a less opportunity for women sports appear on commercial TV. More importantly, research points out that audience-building, grounded in interlocking interests between television networks, news and highlights shows, commercial sponsors and athletic organizations is routinely built in to men’s sports. According to AWRA report, media coverage of women’s sport in Australia is deficient in extreme, commercial television coverage is approximately 9% for women’s sport(AWRA, 2009), except ABC channel is doing an outstanding highlight. Research also pointed out that if ABC was not for the national broadcaster there would be hardly any free to air viewing for women’s sport, only print media (e.g, magazine) coverage is slightly better ranging from 8-15% (AWRA, 2009).

** Social and Cultural Analysis **

Gender equality in sport has been improved tremendously in the past three decades. However, how much we have improved gender equality in sport and how equitable is the playing field when it comes to women in sport in 21st century? As we all know sports can empower a person in various ways not only physically but also mentally. As can be seen in the literature review, actively participating in sport in early year can prevent chronic disease and physical decline, it is especially important for women to participate sport during adolescence, as it helps them to develop a better self esteem and facilitate a better mental health management. Moreover, sports empower women socially through the skills and values they learnt in sports. Although different policies exist to protect women’s rights on the sport field (e.g., The Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport), barriers and inequalities still exist. Two of the major barriers that they are facing are the socio-cultural and resource barriers. For socio-cultural barrier, although only minority of women experienced sexism during sport events, it has a profound effect on women’s involvement. For resource barriers, most of the women sporting institutes are under funded, and women are still too often needed to fight for full and equal access as opposed to men. More importantly media bias is the major cause of inequality when it comes to women in sport. The media coverage of women’s sport in Australia is deficient in extreme, only approximately 9% of the commercial TV sport news are for women sport. So, when women are not provided the equal opportunities to perform on a commercial TV and getting report on their triumph, it is hard to change the current image of women in sport. Inequality in sport will extend and affect to different social level because it has a gender oppression nature. According to Marxist feminism women oppression will lead to a state of private property, which generates economic inequality, dependence, political confusion and unhealthy social relations between men and women. What he asserted in the past is still applicable to today’s society. It is very logical that if women are being oppressed, most of the wealth will go to men, since women are not financially independent it leads to the dependence to men. Furthermore, it will result to unhealthy social relations between men and women because of the oppression. Applying this theory in the current social context, it is not hard to notice that the gender war has been happening around us quietly not only on the sport field, but gaining equality on the sport field will empower women to speak up in different circumstances and reduce oppression emotions.

** Analysis of Artefact ** The issue that has been discussed is well represented by this cultural artefact. How fair are we playing when it comes to women in sport? The photo depicts the reality of women in sport. Majority of people think women cannot play tough sport, even though they do they are not as good as men. One of the most obvious example is rugby, people tend to watch men’s rugby rather than women’s rugby because they believe women is not as good as men in rugby. However, this is due to the media bias, majority of media only present men’s sport around world. How often do we see major news channels in Australia report women’s involvement in sport except net ball? The information that we have been fed all these years is the bias image of women in sport. Media should stop using the misleading image about women in sport. In fact women can play sport that is as good as men (e.g., Stephanie Rice and Billie Jean King), but it is only hard for women to prove themselves when they are not provided an equal opportunity to perform themselves on the sport field. Reflection I will not deny that I was a sexist, because I used to think women do not have the physical ability to compare men in sports. Most time when I receive information about women in sports is about swimming or gymnastics, when it comes to team sport such as rugby. The image that I perceived was exactly same as the cultural artifact – women only play weak sports. However, after finishing this assignment it really widened my view about women in sports, I realized that media has a major impact on how I perceive women in sports and how effective it is that media is controlling over us.

** References **

Australian Womensport and Recreation (2009). Senate inquiry into the reporting of

sports news and the emergence of digital media.thttp://www.australianwomensport.com.au/images/Articles/Senate_Inquiry_into_the_reporting_of_sport_news__etc.pdf

International Working Group on Women and Sport (2002b). The Mon- treal

Communiqué. Canada. Avail- able from http://www.canada2002.org/e/communique/index.htm

http://www.feministissues.com/marxist.html

Oglesby, Carole A., in collaboration with the International Working Group on

Women and Sport, WomenSport International, the International Associ- ation of Physical Education for Women and Girls, and the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Educa- tion (2006). “Positive Embodiment: Contributions of Sport, Exercise and Physical Recreation to the Life-long Development of Girls and Women”, brief prepared for the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women.

United Nation Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace (2003). op. cit.

Vande Kemp, H., & Anderson, T. L. (1999). Feminist psychology and humanistic

psychology. In D. Moss, D. Moss (Eds.) ,Humanistic and transpersonal psychology: A historical and biographical sourcebook (pp. 125-144). Westport, CT US: Greenwood Press/Greenwood Publishing Group.

World Health Organization (2007a). Why move for health. Geneva, Swit- zerland.

Comments

Page – You run like a girl

Great insight! It’s true that women have been suppressed in sport for a long time. Your cultural artefact represented the situation well in 60’s and 70’s. There was no policies and regulations to protect women’s right in sport such as the Brighton Declaration on women and sport. Although, situation has been improved tremendously since the 70’s, sport is no longer a men’s privilege and women started to appear on TV and in some important sport events such as Olympic, are we actually playing fair? I think we are not in my opinion, just like your literature review, it states that only minority of media is covering women’s sport. It looks like we are playing fair because we got various polices to protect them, but in fact media bias is the main culprit of causing the inequality in sport.

Page – Are you sexy enough for sport

I really like your title because it’s such an iconic representation about women in sport. Overall you got great research and great insight. In Australia, most of the sport magazines are about hot women, their existence are merely to attract men buyers, and they all provide very little “sport” information. The whole magazine is only composed with hot pictures. I didn’t realize we are born to believe women aren’t equal until I read thought your article. I think it is somewhat true, but in 21 century gender equality has been improved tremendously. The most important thing we should do is to change the mainstream media, in order to influence the culture on the image about women. I am having trouble with my references, don't know why I can't edit them If someone sees this please help.