Park and recreation agencies are one of the largest providers of youth sport programming and thus play a critical role in the lives of our younger generations. But in that role, are we doing enough for young women? Are we providing equal opportunities, safe environments, effective leadership and mentors to help our youth achieve their full potential? If we go beyond park and recreation and look at what role society at large plays in providing these opportunities equally for boys and girls, perhaps we can start to answer these important questions.
When examining the current state of advancement of women in sport, one must look at three components. The first and biggest piece of the equation is: Are we currently providing equal opportunities for women and girls to play and compete in sports? Second, opportunities aside, how do we look at and treat girls and women in sports? Finally, when we talk about women in sports, we must look at the cultural implications of how women are treated with regard to men’s sports.
A Spot on the Team
To address the first question, it is important to think about the lack of opportunities our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers had available to them and examine those athletes who led the way for equality. The United States has come a long way since Title IX was signed into law in 1972, but have we done enough to advance women’s equal treatment? Title IX was a piece of legislation that put into place protections against sex discrimination for federally funded schools to provide equal opportunities for women and men in educational programs and activities. For the first time, public high schools and universities were legally required to provide equal opportunities for women to participate in sports. Even today with Title IX in place and risk of a penalty that would withdraw federal funds from noncompliant organizations, reporting and enforcement of the law is still spotty. Despite the fact that most estimates indicate 80 to 90 percent of all educational institutions are not in compliance with Title IX as it applies to athletics, such withdrawal of federal moneys has never been initiated.
There have been many women who were and are champions for this cause who helped get us where we are today. Two of this writer’s personal heroes who broke barriers for so many women after them are Billie Jean King and Joan Benoit Samuelson. King started playing tennis well before Title IX when opportunities for women were scarce. King would go on to win 12 Grand Slams, including 12 singles, 16 women’s doubles and 11 mixed-doubles titles and has been a very vocal leader in advocating for women in sports, founding the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1974. Who can forget the legendary “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between King and Bobby Riggs on September 20, 1973? The televised event was watched by 90 million people worldwide and became an iconic win for women’s athletics. One wonders how many little girls watched King win numerous matches and thought, “I can do this too!”
Samuelson raced her way into the running scene as Title IX was being enacted and women’s running still had major strides to make on the equality front. At that time, it was commonly believed women were not physically capable of running long distances, justified by such silly notions as a women’s uterus would fall out and it would affect her reproductive ability. These beliefs may have stemmed from writings penned prior to modern understandings of medicine and anatomy. In 1898, a doctor in Berlin wrote in the German Journal of Physical Education that, “violent movements of the body can cause a shift in the position and a loosening of the uterus as well as prolapse and bleeding, with resulting sterility, thus defeating a woman’s true purpose in life, i.e., the bringing forth of strong children.” This was used as logic against women running long distances, such as in the 1960 Rome Olympics when women did not participate in running events exceeding a distance of 800 meters. It was not until 1984 that the women’s marathon was introduced into the Olympics — Samuelson was the first to take home the gold. Samuelson held the American marathon record for years and her career is studded with many wins including the Chicago and Boston Marathons. Throughout her life, she has been a tireless advocate for Title IX, and her leadership for advancing women’s running has inspired many.
These dynamic women are but a small sample of the leaders that helped get us to where we are today. The number of participation opportunities for girls in high school athletics grew from fewer than 300,000 before Title IX to more than 3.2 million by 2012, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. While we have made leaps and bounds, even in 2014 we are still looking at major inequities in both sports participation and women in leadership roles around sports. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, girls have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than do boys and there are 12 million 3rd-through-12th-grade boys playing sports while only 8 million girls do so. Sadly, economic disparities also play a role in the numbers — it is often in impoverished and urban neighborhoods where girls are left behind.
Some of the largest inequities can be observed in specific sports that offer few opportunities for women’s teams or report low female participation numbers. Leading the way in female participation for organized sport is track and field, which sees near equal participation numbers to its male counterpart. Yet there are still many sports where women have limited opportunities or there are different rules imposed for females. Young girls aspiring to compete in sports like football or wrestling often find significant barriers to even participate on a team. In sports such as track and field or baseball, there are divergent events or rules for each sex. In track and field, women compete in the heptathlon, while men compete in the decathlon. We often see softball teams provided for young women, but not baseball.
At the highest international level of sport, we have seen incredible progress — in the Olympics, women began competing in 1900 and were only allowed to participate in five sports: tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian and golf. The Olympics has gradually progressed to add more women’s sports programming almost every cycle, including the most recent Olympic competition, when women competed in ski jumping for the first time. Today at the Olympic level, we have almost reached equal opportunities and all new sports added to Olympic programming must include women’s events. As bright a mark as this is, there is still progress to be made in order to increase participation, whether in toddler T-ball or senior programming for women.
Changing Attitudes
The second component involves the culture of women in sports and how we view and treat girls and women. This point is to highlight prejudices in society that underlie why opportunities and participation are not equal. We have all heard the following “insult” hurled at both men and women: “You run like a girl!” When did it become a negative to simply run as a young woman? Or, some may remember in 2007 when radio talk show host Don Imus called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, a winning NCAA program, “nappy-headed hoes.” The reaction was strong because the sexism and racism of the remark offended many people — unfortunately, there are far too many of these public examples that persist in disparaging women in sport. What in our modern society is still lacking that these types of attitudes prevail? Are girls not participating in sports because of these attitudes, and if so, how can we change this? We should be allowing girls to be proud of their athletic achievements so they can take their abilities and talents to the highest levels.
The visibility of positive female role models at high levels of sport surely plays a role. While the opportunities for female professionals in sports are slowly improving, again we have gains to make. The current number of coaching and officiating opportunities to which girls can aspire is small. A common argument is that there is not enough demand for women’s sports, and thus attendance and ticket sales are low. This may be true, but what we need to look at is why do we not have enough support for women in all levels of sports and how can we change this? Part of the answer may lie in the fact that the culture of women in sports is affected by those who run women’s sports — the coaches, athletic directors and owners. With mostly male-run programs, we are missing an important voice. Sadly we have actually seen a decline in female coaches of women’s teams at the collegiate level since Title IX passed. In 1972, more than 90 percent of the people coaching women’s teams were women. Today, that number is 43 percent, according to a 2012 Acosta/Carpenter report.
But even when the opportunities are available, the pay inequities are staggering. The average salary for the coach of an NCAA Division I men’s team in any sport — including universities in the Football Bowl and Football Championship Subdivisions — increased by 67 percent to $267,007 from 2003 to 2010, according to statistics from the Department of Education. By contrast, the average salary for the coach of a women’s team increased by 16 percent to $98,106, as reported in a 2012 New York Times article examining the subject of pay inequity in collegiate sports coaching. In men’s sports, just this year, a woman became the first full-time member of a National Basketball Association coaching staff when the San Antonio Spurs hired Becky Hammon as an assistant coach. If we truly want our girls to excel, we need to make sure that they have inspiring role models to which they can aspire, as well as opportunities to follow their sports dreams.
Finding Respect
The final piece of this important discussion is the culture of women in men’s sports and what messaging girls receive about their standing in society. If athletes are given preferential treatment and don’t receive the full repercussions of criminal offenses against women such as sexual or physical assault, what kind of value is being assigned to women as a whole? We have seen convicted rapists such as Mike Tyson continue to compete at high levels of sport, and the news has been filled with recent events regarding domestic violence allegations. The list is sadly too long to include here, but in recent months alone, we have seen violence against women and children in the headlines involving athletes Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. In 2013, Lindsay H. Jones, reporting for USA Today, wrote that in the NFL dating back to 2000 there were 84 arrests for domestic violence and no player received more than a one-game suspension. Professional and college football programs have entire teams of public relations staff that play the role of “damage control” to minimize or conceal incidents when they arise. We have players with charges pending or convictions who return to their respective teams while the victims’ stories are silenced. Worse yet, women are often revictimized by sensationalized media reports. Progress is being made — the National Football League has strengthened its policies on domestic violence in recent months and there will likely be more changes to come across the sports spectrum with increased pressure from fans and corporate sponsors. While these strides are positive signs, they were only made possible through the rising role of women as football consumers and heavy media coverage. Women and girls need to know they are valued regardless of financial motivations that may inform an administrator’s decision to not bench an offending player. We as a society lose if we tolerate violence against women or similarly marginalized populations for any reason. Athletes male and female are looked up to as role models, and we want younger generations of girls and boys to view women as equal and deserving of respect.
The Pivotal Role of Parks and Rec
The work done at park and recreation agencies is critical in developing these young girls to succeed in sports and life. Across the country, programs are available at park and recreation agencies for young women to develop skills and gain confidence. Youth sport leaders are encouraging young women to participate and are taking into account such important factors as not giving preferential access to facilities for boys even when there is a precedent; providing gender-, age- and skill-level-appropriate coaching to enable girls to develop in their sport; providing the opportunities in safe and comfortable environments; involving women at all levels of coaching and leadership; ensuring girls are encouraged and supported; and adopting zero-tolerance policies for violence and sexist attitudes and behaviors.
We have come a long way since the days before Title IX when few opportunities existed for women and girls in sports, but it is important to continue to reflect on the current state of this demographic. Park and recreation agencies are champions in providing opportunities for our youth, and there are so many young women who had their start in sports in youth recreation leagues. However, as these inequities persist, the best thing we can do for our female sports heroes of tomorrow is to look at what more we can do today. I leave you with this question: Are we doing enough to encourage and protect our up-and-coming female athletes?
Sage Learn is NRPA’s Government Affairs Manager.