Analysing Gender Inequality In Sports Sociology Essay

Analysing Gender Inequality In Sports Sociology Essay This essay will seek to describe the issue of women in sports, and discuss the reasons for this, with relevance to some of the concepts covered in this course. It will also go on to discuss the improvements and positives observed in recent years, and explore some other possible measures to improve the situation in the future. 2. Background In Ancient Olympics, competitive sports were masculine affairs. While males compete to show their prowess, women were prohibited to even watch competitions, much less compete. Quite simply, even in this day and age of supposed equality and meritocracy, sport still remains a male domain, especially on the community level. Even with improved opportunities and treatment, there is still an invisible barrier between sport and the everyday woman. In the next section, this essay shall explore some of the reasons for this situation. 3. Reasons 3.1 Introduction to Gender Ideology in sports The concept of ideology is one that we take for granted, or rather, something we do not even think about. It refers to the ideas and explanations we have been given since young, to explain personal and social life. We have been using our ingrained ideologies to make decisions and judgments ever since we could, without ever questioning or knowing them. In addition, Taylor (1994) mentioned that our identities are formed based on dialogical relations with our significant others. In other words, the complexities of our identities are not formed through cultural identification alone (monologic model) but through the interactions with people who are important to us. Gender, even more so than race or class, is a pivotal organizing factor in social life. While a person’s sex is decided by physical characteristics such as genitalia, gender is a social construct formed and shaped by the society (James A. Banks).It is the fundamental way humans classify each other. Thus, we are especially reliant on gender ideology and it is extremely influential on ho w we organize our thoughts, actions and lives, and how parents bring up their offspring. The deep-rootedness of gender ideology means that everyone makes decisions based on it, from children, teenagers, parents to people in power. Gender ideology plays a big role in how sport has been carried out throughout the ages. The idea that men are supposed to be strong, aggressive, fast and competitive is reproduced in many sports. Conversely, women are not encouraged to play sports because the above traits are not associated with women (women’s athletics: coping with controversy). Thus, a woman exhibiting the above traits would be going against the gender ideology that most people submit to, and this would make her an anomaly. A woman would have to cope not only with her community seeing her as ‘not feminine’, she also has to deal with lack of resources and financial support because her politicians also have the same ideology and do not support women in sport. Fortunatel y, the situation has considerably improved from the past. 3.2 Gender Ideology: dominance and stereotypes The fact that males are the dominant group is also accepted by most as part of their understanding of gender ideologies. This is correspondent to John Clammer’s point that social inequalities are seen as ‘natural’ and hence not to be tampered with.