Increasing Female Participation in XYZ Sports Club - Research Paper Example

The social system tends to relate all benefits associated with sports to men. This setting has discouraged many women from engaging in sportive activities especially in male dominated societies. However, the recent trend indicates that women are increasingly participating in sports even those that were solely preserved for men. With this new promise, the purpose of this paper is to present the barriers preventing women from participating in sports and recommend the best ways reduce them in order to increase their participation in XYZ club activities.

Barriers to women participating in sports Essentially, women are barred from participating in sports due to practical barriers such as lack of enough time, money, transport, as well as personal safety, funding, and access to facilities. Women have less time for leisure than men due to the greater burden of family roles such as housework and childcare. In fact, many American women are trying to balance family and worker roles, and thus have no space for leisure time (Klein, 2004). Many women argue that the lack of money is a barrier to sport activities as they earn less than men.

Sport is often seen as a luxury, or reward for paid work. Although many women are paid workers, the perception that men deserve such reward is still evident. Nonetheless, poor families may be unable to afford to pay sporting attire or equipment as well as investing in cub membership. Transport is also a major problem especially for mothers with children and women living in rural areas. These individuals rely on public transport which is sometimes unsafe, inconvenient, unreliable, and expensive.

Safety within the sports venues is also a barrier to women as they fear sexual harassment as well as unwanted attention. Accessibility to sports is also a practical barrier for women to engage in sports as the system prioritize male sports and women cannot access the facility at their preferred times. Women also find it difficult to engage in sports due to individual or personal barriers such as body image, lack of confidence, clothing and equipment. According to Lynn (2002) the issue of body image affects all features of the society and research indicates that women report greater dissatisfaction in their body image than men.

It is also noted that women are more self-conscious when participating in sports than men. Therefore, the more self-conscious the women feel about their body image, the lower the chances of participating in sports. While some sports equipment might be quite expensive, some sports clothing are pretty revealing to the disadvantage of the body image. There is enough evidence that women have less self-confidence when compared to men (Birch, 2005, p. 245). Societal expectations are for the man to show confidence while confidence in a woman would be seen as a deviation from the normal.

Finally are discouraged from sportive activities due to social and cultural barriers such as the male-dominated culture of sport, sexual abuse and harassment, as well attitudes and prejudices about sexuality, disability, and ethnicity. Male domination in sports has been a factor that turns women off sports as it feels strange with being feminine. The same domination has made sports women to be associated with uncouthly acts such as lesbianism refraining others from certain sports. Disabled women