Equality in Sports

Dawnn PerkinsDr. David MarquardEnglish 1060 – 002

June 27, 2014

Research Question.

Although female athletes go through the same training process of practicing, weight training, and making appearances, why is it that female athletes are valued less than male athletes?

Thesis StatementThe purpose of this paper is to argue that female athletes need to valued and treated the same as male athletes. The reasoning behind this is because there is still some sexism towards female athletes and the Title IX of the Education Amendment in 1972 was passes for equality, because of the different amounts of money spent between male and female athletes, and because most of the NCAA administration is made up men. Some solutions would be to get more women into the NCAA administration, to provide female athletes with more government funding and better equipment, and to give female the same amount of advertisement and publicity or the same amount as male athletes.

Research Methods The method I used to prove my argument was secondary research using the database from our

library. I used scholarly journals that have been throw peer reviews and rigorous editing by experts in this field as my main source for my research paper. One of the Sources I use was “The Feminist Case for the NCAA’s Recognition of Competitive Cheer as an Emerging Sport for Women,” written by Erin E. Buzuvis. This journal is part of the Boston College Law Review because inside of this journal it talks about the court system and passing the Title IX as well as passing cheerleading as an official sport so that cheerleaders can get the same opportunity as other NCAA sports. This article tell the reason on why cheerleading isn’t an official sport but then the author goes on to argue the cheerleaders don’t really have an off season and they make more appearances than any other sport which means they are representing the school more. After reading this article I do understand why cheerleading is not a sport but then again maybe NCAA should change their definition of what a sport is.

Another source that I found very helpful to my paper was, “A Sporting Chance?,” by Joannie Schrof. In this article she first tells what the Title IX of Education Amendment of 1972 then she goes on to talk about how male sports have an advantage. She then goes on to tell us about how the NCAA and colleges invest more money in male athletes than they do women sports. This article was very informative when it came to stating the facts about the money difference between the two genders in sports. All my sources helped me understand what exactly the Title IX is and how it has affected athletics today and how far we came since it was passed, but not all schools are abiding by this title. In another one of my source it told me what is supposed to happen to schools that violate this title but the government isn’t taking action when these schools are reported.

Significance One solution to this problem would be to evenly distribute federal funding and scholarships amongst all the teams, male and female. With breaking this money up between male and female sport, female athletes will then have better equipment and playing fields. Another Solution would be to check all the schools and make sure they are following the Title IX. However if a school is violating this title, further action should be taken such as; their federal funds should be cut until they start abiding by the rules. But some people may think so what if there is no equality between female and male athletes, so what if female athletes are under- represented? To be honest nothing is going to change, females have been dealing with inequality since the beginning of time and even if we take action and push for complete equality, no much will change. So we all we really can do is sit back and wait for things to change.

Title IX of the Education Amendment in 1972

In 1972 the Title IX of Education Amendment was passed stating that, “No person shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (Athlete 1). Before this title was passed, women weren’t allowed to play all sports because it people believed that women’s bodies couldn’t take the pressure (Lockhart, Black, and Vincent 507). Even after this title was passed the relationship between male and female sports still wasn’t equal.

Money Spent on Male Athletes Versus Female Athletes

Publicity wise, women get about 1.6% of airtime on television, men get about 96.3% and the rest 2.1% of the time is spent on gender-neutral topics (Lockhart 508). NCAA has tried to equal out the amounts of scholarships and the worth of scholarships distributed between male and female athletes. But they spend about 46.8% more money on recruiting male athletes than female athletes (Lockhart, Black, Vincent 508). If a female wanted to be a professional cheerleader or dance of the NFL or NBA, when looking at the requirements it will say must have a second part time job. The reason behind that is because they are paid so little it would be hard for one to live off of that salary.

NCAA Administration

After the Title IX was passed almost more of the women who had positions dealing with sports dropped their position. Prior to the Title IX, women were the coaches and referees for women sports. According to Schrof, after this title was passed, 90 percent of women still coaching women sports, today only about 48 percent of women are still coaching women sports.

Cheerleading/DanceCheerleading and dance mostly appeals to young women and may attract the best female athletes in certain school (Rhoads 90). Cheerleading and dance is not categorized as an official sport because it is not organized and defined like other varsity sports (Buzuvis 452). He says that the court told the National Competitive Tumble and Stunt Association (NCTSA) that they were going in the right direction when it came to passing cheerleading but they hadn’t developed competitive cheerleading into a varsity sport yet (Buzuvis 452). Rhoads states that, “The Department of Education’s principal objection is that cheerleading and dance teams usually perform to raise spirit at contests between other athletes, and Title IX guidelines stipulate that at least half of all outings must be in a competitive setting or the activity will not be considered a sport” (90). As a result cheerleading is not considered an official sport. Most school has split cheerleading into two different teams one being a “spirit squad” and the other team being a competitive cheerleading team.

SolutionsOne solution to this problem would be to evenly distribute federal funding and scholarships amongst all the teams, male and female. With breaking this money up between male and female sport, female athletes will then have better equipment and playing fields. Another Solution would be to check all the schools and make sure they are following the Title IX. However if a school is violating this title, further action should be taken such as; their federal funds should be cut until they start abiding by the rules. But some people may think so what if there is no equality between female and male athletes, so what if female athletes are under- represented? To be honest nothing is going to change, females have been dealing with inequality since the beginning of time and even if we take action and push for complete equality, no much will change. So all we really can do is sit back and wait for things to change.

Thank You (:

Dawnn PerkinsDr. David MarquardEnglish 1060 – 002

June 30, 2014