Even in the 21st century, there are distinct
differences between men’s and women’s sports on all levels of play. For
example, I played basketball for almost a decade before coming to college. In high
school, the boys’ basketball team was ALWAYS advertised on social media, the
morning announcements, posters, and any other platform to think of. Though our
(the girls’ games) were on the same days, they never thought of adding us to
the posts. We were lucky if we were to get actual fans to our games rather than
our parents while the boys’ games sold out almost every time. I think the
funniest part of the situation was that we were just as good, if not better than our opposing gender. Though, we never publicly complained to
anybody because we thought it didn’t really matter at the time. It was just high school. It wouldn't always be like this right? We liked to think the anger
made us better, but who knows.
My roommate,
Madi White plays for the basketball team here at Shepherd. So, being the supportive
roommates we are, my suitemates and I go to or stream every one of her games.
We even made t-shirts. I always notice that the women’s team plays before the men’s
and that more people show up for the women’s team after the second half. I’ve
noticed that these people come for the men’s but get there early (aka the half time of the women's games) to get decent seats.
As of January 30th, the women’s team has a record of 15-5 while the
men’s team is 9-11. Though I know a bad record is not always a good determining
factor of the talent of a team, I can tell you that almost every female game
has been far from boring. So, why is there a higher attendance at the men’s
games? I think that the school does a good job of showing equal advertisements
for the games (at least better than my high school). Gender inequality seems to
be a reoccurring trend no matter the level, age, or location.
Professional
female basketball players get paid, on average, $51,000 per year. Their male
counterparts earn an average of $6 million per year (salaries). I don’t believe that the organizations
that pay them are to blame; they can’t pay them money that they don’t have.
People just don’t watch as many female sports compared to men’s. Though, I
found it interesting that this trend is mostly popular with team sports. Chris
Bodenner puts in his article that
“Women’s sports that are identical to men’s sports—soccer
and basketball, for example—will never be popular, because men are faster,
stronger and more athletic. On the other hand, sports that highlight the
different strengths of female athletes—tennis, gymnastics, ice skating—are popular.
None of those are team sports, so there may be something there.” (
Women’s sports are a different
experience than men’s (that is something that I can agree with), but should
that be the reason for a multi-million-dollar salary difference? They work just
as hard to get to the professional level but still are not as appreciated as men.
I can only hope that this stereotype changes eventually and that women will be
appreciated just as much as men.
Hannah, I too played sports in high school. I played women's lacrosse which I can tell you is drastically different from the mens. It is defined as a sport of "finesse and skill." However, the exact same game played by the boys has totally different rules when it comes to physical contact. Women are seen as the weaker sex, so these rules that are put in place are to protect our fragile bodies. I always disagreed with this no touching rule, so I was known on my team for the most yellow cards. I know it seems odd to gloat about, but I just wanted to play the game like a man would be able to. I can also relate to the lack of support from administration. We received less funding and support than the boys team and we were not even allowed our own practice field, we had to share with the boys. It is frustrating to consider that still gender equality is in the distant future.
ReplyDeleteIt really is unfair that men's sports are advertised more as well as watched more. It's like the women's games are secondary to the men's games according to those in charge. My sister played basketball in middle school and I went to watch a couple of games. The majority of the people in the audience were family members of the players like you state happened at your games.
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah, I love reading your post and I could relate to so much of it! I have been playing sports since I was little but it wasn't until I got to middle school that I saw the crowd differences between boys and girls. In high school, it was even worse! My school also never really advertised our games, but the guys always got the best advertisements. Now, I'm not discrediting the guys team at all, because they were really good, but I will always remember a conversation I had with one of the guy players after our game. They had been there watching because they played after us, and he came up to me and said that he loved watching us play because he didn't realize we were so aggressive, etc... It's like in his mind women's basketball was going to be super passive and just us running up and down the court all night, and I think this is a testament to our society! There is actually a sociological research method for sports that deals with feminism and how women are always downplayed and disregarded in sports, regardless of their talent!
ReplyDeleteI was at yesterday's game and those women (including your roommate) killed it! The things you point out here are part of the reason why I love going to see the women's team play and then leave before the men's game starts. Yesterday I also noticed that the cheerleaders were arriving to cheer for the men's game, but not the women's game. That's fine, but I hope there's also a game where they just cheer for the women.
ReplyDeleteThat price difference between the men and women basketball player salary is appaling. The inequality within sports shows how our generation is still coming up to the times. In our world women have to prove their worth not against each other but to the norms. Fey said we were competing between women, when I feel like it is mostly with men. No matter my job, or my hours a man is always held at higher esteem. It makes no sense and its exhausting, and I hope we can all come to grips that we are obviously the superior being. Next to cats.
ReplyDeleteI am on the Shepherd Softball team and its crazy to think about how many fans other teams get. But not only that we are one of the few sports were don't charge people to get into the games. Although I may be biased I really do think softball is just as good if not better than baseball as a sport. But people just don't watch because it is women playing. The softball team is at quite a few of the basketball games, because we find that supporting all sports teams is important. But girls in sports definitely do get less recognition. I'm glad there's someone else who sees this too!
ReplyDeleteI go to every home game I can make it to as well! Abby Beeman is like a little sister to me. I definitely think the advertising and exposure has a lot to do with professional sports, though. I can't remember the last time I was flipping through the TV channels and saw a WNBA game, but there are at least 4 NBA games on at any given time from Nov-March. It is hard to build a fanbase if the fans have no way of accessing the games. It is very disappointing, and something that will hopefully get better with time.
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