Policy and Politics in sports and gender - Essay Example

Sports And Woman A Need Of A Shift In Approach Women have been a victim of male dominated society and structure since a long time. Male dominance exists in each and every aspect of life, whether it is personal or social. Sports field is no exception. The author Margaret Talbot, through her article ‘Playing with patriarchy: The gender dynamics of sports organizations’ has described how the dominance of male in the sports field is making things difficult for females in different departments of sports organization to create a change that will provide equality to the women.

The sports policies, as they are made by men keeping the development of men in mind have failed to bring any significant change for women. The example is an adoption of ‘woman and sports’ format where a woman is expected to change according to the rules of the policies rather than policies being changed according to the woman’s need ( Talbot 2002. p.277). The meetings of the organizations are held on weekdays when women are busy with their family duties and are held in such locations that women members find it difficult to travel there.

These are the things which show that there is a resistance to women participation in the decision making process by sports bodies. There are no written experiences as women usually withdraw after the resistance. However, the author says that to change the situation, these experiences and discrimination should be recorded in written format and a creative way should be found to create a change ( Talbot 2002. p.278). A research conducted during the commonwealth games in 1994 showed that the women participants from different levels of the team from different countries felt that they were not supported at all and experienced many barriers through ignorance and neglect by the male authorities.

The response to the questionnaire revealed that women get very less share of attention and resources available and because of their gender, they experience negative feelings by their male managers and coaches (Talbot 2002. p.284). It was found that the establishment of The Working Group and Sport by European Sports Conference in the year 1989 to bring in practice the gender equity in sports led to nothing new. In 1991 and 1993 there were very few women in decision making positions and women were still not enjoying equal opportunities and treatment( Talbot 2002. p.281).

The Brighton conference held in the year 1994 to discuss ‘women, sports and challenge of change’ was not a success simply because the participants did not consist of enough women member so as to create a real change. The only solution is to have more women in decision making and powerful positions so that they can help create a genuine change in the structure and provide equal opportunities to women. Today, no matter what changes are made, they are made by the all male committee and hence fail to understand the basic needs and the talents of woman.

There has been consistent effort by al male dominated organizations not to create the change and keep the policies as they are by saying that they are fundamental aspects of the policies which cannot be changed (Talbot 2002. p.282) The writer has emphasized that men are enjoying the power because of their gender and hence it is always proving to be disadvantageous to women as all the efforts to change the condition of women is done half heartedly and without really taking women’s opinions in consideration (Talbot 2002. p.283).

Not only women athletes but also few women managers have experienced the neglect and the inferior treatment from male authorities (Talbot 2002. p.286). They experience male dominance and deliberate ignorance which make them feel unwanted and discourages them to be in that position (Talbot 2002. p.288). The article demonstrates that women are capable of being strong in authoritative position and can make the genuine change in the policies keeping in mind the needs of a women and hence, the immediate need is for women to be in decision making and powerful positions in sports field.

However, this will happen only when women become strong enough to ignore the neglect from men and carry with strong determination towards the goal.ReferenceTalbot, M. (2002). Playing with patriarchy: The gender dynamics of sports organizationsScraton, S. & Flintoff, A. (Ed.) Gender and sport: a reader ( pp. 277-291)Routledge