The Women's Participation in the Olympic Games - Research Paper Example

Chapter 1: Introduction The face of Olympic Games has changed significantly over the years especially with regard to the remarks made by the Olympics founder that female participation in Olympic Games was unacceptable. The participation of women in Olympic Games has cultural roots that are engraved within the psyche of people that women are not supposed to engage in any physically demanding activity. Such fallacies have continued to deny women participation in male dominated fields even the ones unrelated to sports. According to Houlihan (2008), the historical experience of women in participation in sports reflects upon the perception of the society of the feminine in general. Houlihan defines it using one word “exclusion.” The situation in Britain perhaps provides a very important answer as to the root of the concept of exclusion of women from olympics. The 19th century physical education curriculumn in Britain discouraged against the participation of girls in sporting activities that were considered rough. The concept came from the society’s definition of feminine where being feminine was associated with being soft and not being able to endure the challenges associated with most sporting activities. Presumably, the same notion is being held even today considering that it was only in 2012 that female amatuer boxing was allowed in the female olympics. During the first summer 2010 and the first winter 2012 youth olypmics, female participation was evident. The paper will highlight the female particiaption in these two important olympic events and establish whether female participation reflects upon what happens in the major olympics, or whether female participation is higher or lower. Research Problems The study seeks to compare the female participation in the first 2010 summer and 2012 Youth Winter Olympics with the male participation in the same events. The paper also seeks to establish whether female participation in the first summer 2010 and Winter 2012 Youth Olympics was greater or lesser, as compared to the main Olympics of 2010 in Vancouver and 2012 in London. Chapter 2: Terms and Theories According to Krikos (2004), there are many gender and cultural aspects that surroudn the participation of women apart from just exercise and physical fitness. She outlines that there are a variety of issues involved that have historically prevented women from effectively taking part in sports. Some of the factors outlined by Krikos are “feminist, feminist separatist, gender equity, leadership, Marxist, equipment, the media, market, career in sports and olympic triad.” The general realization is that there are underlying issues withint societies that have continued to create barriers for the participation of women in sports. The paper will outline some of these issues as identified by previous studies. Feminist Theory In the United States at the peak of women rights movements in the 1960s, the general realization is that sports was not a key consideration for the women rights groups. Instead, these groups were more concerned with the participation of women in other areas tht dealt with social and political issues. The major emphasis was to promote the participation of women in the workplace and to ensure that the right’s of women were protected and respected within the family. However, it was not until 1972 that the government through a legislation opened doors for the consideration of women participation in sports and how it compared with the participation of men. According to Delaney (2009), the passing of the education legislation “Title IX” ensured that no person was to disciminated against in participation sports on the basis of gender. In 1971, year before the passing of the legislation, there were around 200,000 girls participating in college sports as compared to 3 million boys. Perhaps the passing of the legislation drew the attention of women rights groups because it was followed by series of lawsuits that sought to fight against the barriers that undermined female particiaption in sports. The number of female participation subsequently increased in the 80s and 90s. With these developments feminist groups saw an opportunity to outline the role played by sports in consdolidating male dominance even in the wider society through the exclusion of women in sports. In essence, the feminist groups outlined that the fact that sports was an institution that had been dominated by the male created social inequalities even in the wider society that promoted gender inequalities. The criticism towards male dominance of sports by feminists and other related groups led to the increase in women participation as a way of creating balance. Consequently, feminism movements in the 70s, 80s and 90s played a significant role in bringing into perspective gender discrimination in sports. Women participation in sports still lags behind and the general realization is that there are other contributing factors that still undermine women participation in sports. However, one cannot fail to appreciate the role played by feminist groups in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Feminist Separatist Theory Feminist Separatist theory was an approach that was used by early feminists in abid to make the contribution of women regognized and appreaciated by the general society. The approach began in mainstream institutions and academia. In academia women chose courses such as “home economics, education, nursing, library science and social welfare” (Pasque, 2011). Women in the professional world often chose to work in areas or fields where there were women administrators in a bid to create a parrarel channel of recognition. According to Pasque, some of the women who registered developments by following the separatist approach were Hilton and Sibley. However, the approach did not work for all the women as some of them experienced hostile reception from the male dominated societies. The general realization is that the separatist approach did not solve the problem of gender inequality but only created alternative areas for women to express themselves. In higher institutions, women often found themselves grouped together within faculties away from the men. However, in most countries in Europe after the Second World War when institutions sought intergration of men and women studies, the women found themselves ince again in hostile environment being forced to take lesser roles as compared to their male counterparts. Supporters of separatism argued that it gave women a chance to direct their own affairs while opponents complained that it denied effectve participation of women in student affairs. The same approach was adopted when it came to the management of sports in colleges according to Pasque (2011). As physical education took root in most colleges especially after it was associated with health, the emergence of women physical educators became inevitable. The women physical educators fast tracked the education of girls for degrees in physical education to ensure that there were enough graduates to take over the physical education of girl in colleges. The women’s physical education was however targeted at sporting activities that involved women only. In the US, the developments witnessed in women physical education saw the establishment of the Athletics Association for Women (ALAW). ALAW was responsible for organizing intercollege athletics for women participants in schools. ALAW was completely governed by women directors and the activities were only limited to the ones that involve women only. However, the introduction of Title IX once again undermined the participation of women in sports because after intergration of women sports with men,s sports, women sports took a minor role (Pasque, 2011). The general realization is that although the separatist approach empowered women and improved their participation in sports, it did not promoted their sidelining from the mainstream sporting activities undertaken by their male counterparts. Gender Equity Theory The notion that women were less superior to men when it came activities that were considered strenous, is perhaps one of the root causes of gender inequlity in sports. In as early as 1920s, there were already female pioneers who sought to diapprove the notion. An example is Sherman who outlined that women given the necessary opportunities were able to perform as well as men in activities that were physically demanding. However, women participation later met opposition when female competitor Babe Didrikson won two gold medals and a silver gold medal in the Los Angeles Olympics of 1932 (Klein, 2007). The fact that Babe and other women competitors defied the notion that only men could compete in strenous sporting activities was surprising and soon people began questioning the authenticity of such women. In essence, the society sought to label such women as abnormal because they competed like men. The male dominated society sought for biological explanations of such feats by women but failed to find any evidence that the women had masculine features or behaviors. According to Klein (2007), the society’s perception of the female body as beautiful, vulnerable and soft greatly contradicted the achievements that had been made by women athletes. These notions automatically condemned women to inferiority in the society hence promoting gender inequality even in sporting activities. In the 1960s women had aleady began to call for moderation with regard to female participation in sports. The women requested that women be allowed to participate in sporting activities that did not violate the societal notions of gender roles (Klein, 2007). Equipment and Media Coverage Unavailability of training and sports equipment and inadequte media coverage played a significant role in blocking women out of sports during the 1980s. The idea of role conflict that was being encouraged in the society affected many other social aspects thereby discouraging the women from participating in sports (Weed, 2008). The aspect of lack of equipment is demonstrated in the sports that have historically been a reserve for men. Such sports include motorsports where most of the equipment have been designed to suit men with no attempt to design equipment that can be favorable and comfortable for women. Chiesi (1999) introduces a new aspect in equipment where he outlines that the participation of women in sports, has also been restricted to the type and cost of equipment that are required in sports where women participate. Chiesi explains that sporting activities such as gymnastics required “fixed equipment” that were more costly than sports such as football that men engage in. With regard to media coverage, LeUnes (2011), outlines that the disparities in sports participation has significantly been undermined over the years as a result of media coverage. A study conducted in 2011 estbalished that stories that the ratio of the stories devoted to male athletes to the stories devoted to women athletes were in the ratio of 25 to 1 and more than 90% of all sports photographs were of female athletes. Another study conducted in iceland established that when media featured male athletes they were mostly portrayed in as strong and truipmhant while women were protrayed as being desperate and in defeat. LeUnes, outlines that such a trend has been termed as soft pornogrpahy because there is an attempt to use sports as a tool to being out the aspect of dominance and submission. State of Research In looking at the theories that have been developed in the 20th and 21st centuries, the general realization is that the participation of women and sports have been hindered by social, cultural and economic aspects with socio-cultural aspects being the major contributors. The feminist theory, female separatist theory, gender equity theory all bring out the social-cultural aspects that have hindered women participation in sports, and the attempt by gender activists to bridge the gap between male and female participation in sports. The economic aspects outlined that affect female participation in sports are availability of equipment and media coverage. In looking at the highlights of the theories, one realizes that the participation of women in sports reflects upon the perception of the society with regard to gender roles and the position of women. The gender constructs of the society with regard to the female is reflected upon in sports because sports is a social undertaking. In addition, gender activisim has failed to reap full benefits because of the societal mindset in existence regarding gender roles. In essence, changes in gender perception in the society may have an effect on female participation in the olympics that should be reflected by a general increase or decrease in female participation. Therefore, there should be a relationship either positive or negative between female participation in the first summer 2010 and the first winter 2012 youth olympics , and the main Olympics of 2010 in Vancouver and 2012 in London. The realization led to the formulation of the following hypotheses: Ho = There is no significant relationship between female participation in the first summer 2010 and the first winter 2012 youth olympics and the main olympics in Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. HA = There is an increase in female participation in female participation in summer in the first summer 2010 and the first winter 2012 youth olympics as compared to the main olympics in Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. Chapter 3: Samples and Methods The research design will basically follow the descriptive statistics approach in order to allow for complete description of the data results without any bias from the researcher. Data will be collected from statistics kept by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) in the main Olympics of 2010 and 2012 and in the first summer and winter youth Olympics. In essence, the study will use secondary data exclusively from the IOC. The statistical tools of significance tests will be employed to accept or refute the hypotheses adopted for the research. Research Read More