How Women Have Been Neglected In The Field Of Sports (Essay Sample)

The Dominion of Men in Sports.
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Research has been conducted on the participation and involvement of both men and women in sports and how each group for this matter had been represented. This was done by taking samples from two television programs that air sports news and activities, these were, ESPN and CNN. This study emphasized on the coverage of the women’s athletics as was by these television programs.
The research conducted showed that female related sports are given less emphasis compared to men related sports. However, people expressed different views. In the US, the civil rights were amended so as to improve the participation of the females in sports as well as to provide financial support to these female players. The department of education here made an amendment to increase the participation and funding of women in athletics which stated that no one should be discriminated either on their gender basis or any basis or even be excluded from participating in or in the distribution of benefits regardless of their educational standards or an basis, ((Educational Amendments, 1992). his seemed to have brought an impact as the number of female participants increased in all participation levels. However, this addressed only on the involvement and no single effort was made in ensuring that female sports also received attention from the television programs that aired news concerning sports. This only favored the participation leaving out the expansion of the media coverage on female related sports. It is a clear indication that even the education system and the government has failed in the attempt to make female sports participants feel present in a world of competition. The females have been understated in both the print and the broadcast media as it was stated (Himmelberg, 1992).
Men competitions and sports have received not only much of the broadcasters’ attention but also the people attention. This has led to the framing of female sports as less important compared to the men sports. Many magazines and other news material rarely show coverage to women athletics and those in what is regarded to as masculine sports get little or even no attention at all.
In the past men sports as well as their athletics have been considered much to the extent of forgetting the female sports. It has been said that over seventy percent of the sports programs aired none of them has shown any female sports coverage (Duncan and Messner's (1994) with only around five percent time give to female athletes. Much of the time has been devoted to male athletics and sports giving only five percent attention to female associated games or even female associated teams. Men related sports have however dominated the sports area. As it was usual stories on female related sports occurred in March or July rather than in November when several female sports were ongoing, but now instead male professional games dominated this period with only highlights being given about female sports without any player or individual interview on the status of the game. Male coaches and athletes gave some comments, and these are what were used as sports reports. It is very necessary to note that the men sports are completely well constructed compared to the female sports making this to be a male dominated field. Different studies have said that the women who participate in some games like tennis (feminine sports) are socially accepted compare to those who participate in others like softball or basketball (Kane 1989).
Many studies have been conducted on the national sports programs, and no one of them has shown as much interest in the coverage of female sports as expected. What can this be attributed to? What can we do as patriotic citizens to ensure that everyone receives an equal representation on the games platform as the other? What should the media do to make sure that also the female sports are taken with some seriousness? The underreporting of the female competition has contributed to the domination of the males in the games category. Women are just viewed as spectators as they comprise of more than forty percent of viewers of games ranging from Major League Baseball to National Football League. This is not numerically different for men as nearly half of people watch televised games and sports. This also shows the interest of females in games has been degraded hence making it more dominated by men. This is some of the factors that contribute to male dominion in sports and games as they acquire more skills and interest from watching these games. If all females would try this, maybe it would work and curb the dominion of males in these great sports which are viewed as “masculine.”
This male dominion could be as a result of underrepresentation of the females in the reporting sector. Maybe if we had more female journalists as there are today, an impact would be felt. Many sports journalists are males, and this could be a favoring factor that boosts the participation of more men in ...