Sociology-I Project

(Monsoon Semester, 2017-18)

Paper Title: The participation of women

profession sports and its role in promotion of
gender equality in the dynamic society

Submitted By: Gaurav Karwa

ID: 217022

Word Count: 1505

(Excluding footnotes and bibliography)
THE PARTICIPATION OF
WOMEN IN PROFESSIONAL
SPORTS AND ITS ROLE IN
PROMOTION OF GENDER
EQUALITY IN THE DYNAMIC
SOCIETY
****

‘If you let me play, if you let me play sports

I will like myself more, I will have more self confidence

If you let me play sports. If you let me play,

I will be more likely to leave a man who beats me,

I will learn what it means to be strong,

If you let me play, if you let me play sports.’ (Nike, 1995)

****
 ABSTRACT

This research paper analyses the factors influencing gender stereotypes in general and with
specific reference to India. It has now become a general belief that the women are not less
than men in any field if not more they stand at an equal footing in the modern society
contributing to the productivity of a nation together. However it is very shocking to learn that
there exists differences between them in professional sports. In the field of professional
Sports which involve pure competence and merit distinguishes sportsperson on the basis of
gender. This research paper of sociology is based on the hypothesis that the women are being
discriminated on the basis of sex discrimination in professional sports which in turn affects
their participation, income, mental health, societal status and role. The importance of the
same is also tried with full effort to be identified and dealt with.

1. INTRODUCTION:
The participation of women in professional sports and representing their country at an
International Professional Sports1 event say “Olympics” only came at the advent of the
twentieth century.2 (Stillmed 2017). According to UN the involvement of women in
professional sports have acted as a tool to promote women’s emancipation and breaking
of gender stereotypes which earlier thwarted their involvement in these sports. Though
given equal social status in the athletic world, there still lies some differences as to the
pay scales, sponsorship and media coverage and the limited opportunities available for
women in the professional sporting arena to the women.(UN 2007) (Kosofsky 1993)
The gender stereotypes are probably hindering to produce a female Sachin Tendulkar,
Mike Tyson. Thus, research on this aspect would enable us to know the causes of these
above common neglected social phenomenon which6 would be very informative and
exploration worthy.
2. OBJECTIVES
The prime focus of this analysis is to answer few questions pertaining to the impact of
advent of women’s professional sports participation on the present gender stereotype in

1
In this paper professional sports refers to any recognised and organised sport internationally which has a
regulatory board. For example hockey is regulated by International Hockey Federation

2
The participation of women in the professional sports at Olympics is constantly increasing form their first
participation i.e. around 2.2% of total athletes in 1900 in Paris to approximately 50% of the total athletes in
2016 in Rio.
 sports. Moreover this paper will try to understand the other related factors associated
with gender based discrimination.

3. RATIONALE
The rationale behind this research is to highlight and analyze the gender based
discrimination on various parameter which exists in almost all professions as how it is
different in case of professional sports and how this participation of women in sports
can be used as a social tool in uplifting the status of women in the society with specific
focus on Indian society.
4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODOLOGY
The secondary sources were used to explore and find answers to the questions listed
below. Literary devices such as scholarly journal articles and research papers have been
relied upon. In addition to this, online data bases supplemented my research to reach to
a conclusion. The most relevant research questions which are addressed are-
Q 1.) Does the factors which lead to a limited increase in opportunities for women in
professional sports have contributed to remove gender stereotypes and promoted
women emancipation or not?
Q 2.) Why is there a difference as to the media coverage, pay scale and portrayal as a
“Role Icon” and analysing the difficulties as to the participation in a sport?
5. ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
It is a universally accepted preposition that the opportunities available to the women
have increased substantially in all the fields including sports which is attributed by
many to the increased social awareness created by NGO’s and various programmes
conducted by governments around the world and particularly in India (UNICEF 2017)
(Flanagan 2006).This chart from the Official Olympics website clearly indicates the rise
in participation of women at Winter Olympics over the years. The prime question of
this research paper is not only related to the participation of women as participation in
itself does not ensures equal rights and equal opportunities.
 Historically speaking, the definitions of masculinity and athleticism were the same.
(Staudte 2015) The women were not in present in the arena of professional
sports.3There is no doubt as to the difference between the physical capabilities of men
and women. But these physical differences are not always in favour of men but for
example in some sports which require endurance women outsmart men (Anon 2014).
However, the capability of women in hard-core professional sports can be understood
by the fact that in 2016 Rio Olympics, women brought the two precious medals to India
(not to miss Dipa Karmakar) and the one bronze medal won in Wrestling was from the
region of Haryana in India which is overwhelmed by patriarchal ideologies (Saurabh
Duggal. 2017)(PTI 2016)
Women are constantly being discriminated in every field and it is visible quite clearly
in sports that women are being discriminated in terms of pay scale, opportunities, media
coverage and recognition as a role model.
There is a law which protects gender based discrimination in sports in USA4. Sadly,
there are no specific laws in India in this context. "I think a lot of controversies that I
faced in my career were because I am woman. Had I been a man, I could have avoided
some of the controversies" said Sania Mirza who is renowned Professional Tennis
player(Midday 2014). This must be referring to the many social hurdles which a women

3
Participation in sports in ancient Greece was exclusively male. This has paralleled women's
Absence from government and other roles of social power. Some very early societies were
Matriarchies, cantered around the Goddess. Those societies reflected a social order of
Partnership between men and women. Power was not equated with dominance, destruction,
Or oppression. The last such society was ancient Crete, which fell to invasions over three
Thousand years ago.
4
As per Title IX "[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be
denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education
Program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” and sports receives financial assistance in US and
sports being one of them.
 particularly in a patriarchal society has to overcome before actually starting to play a
sport informally. Further, participation in a professional sport is still much more
difficult which requires complete dedication to it. (NCW 2014).5

At the turn of the millennium finally women are now being exposed to the benefits of being a
sport. There has been arguments that participation in sports will not lead to any empowerment
as it is just physical. This argument is flawed in itself as every women by birth has a right to
play sport he or she wants. According to some sociologists666 exposure of women to sports
will have a positive psychological impact on the way a woman perceives herself and getting
involved physically and mentally in sports will make them feel more independent and
competent(Cantor and Bernay, 1992; Hargreaves, 1994; McDermott, 1996;Young, 1990).
Moreover as per some other set of sociologists that the realisation by women of their physical
strength and capabilities and body will bring in confidence and realisation and help them to
gain psychological security (Birrell and Richter, 1994; Blinder at al., 1993, 1994; Nelson, 1991,
1994; The Berge, 1995; Young and White, 1995).
Extending the observation made by these sociologists further logically, this mental realisation
of abilities by women in some indirect way will help in emancipation and empowerment. There
lies a gap as to the payment to men and women in professional sport (Newstatesman 2017)
(Kosofsky 1993). It would be not correct to say that there is a difference as to the skill of men
and women as gender is not the basis of any skill. There also lies a difference as to the
popularity of female professionals in sports.( Kosofsky 1993) These differences are to a certain
extent results of media coverage to them which further re enforces the gender roles and
stereotypes.( Kosofsky 1993). The differences as to the above are created right from childhood
through parenting, schooling and then continue to be reinforced by the social forces.
6. CONCLUSION
After reading upon various articles from various different sources and analyzing them
with the statistics of recent times, It could be reasonably be concluded that the women
in professional sports except a few have to gender stereotypes in some form or the other
which have improved quite a lot from earlier times with the change in society. Parity
with men in professional sports in every aspect seems a little difficult preposition as of
now and which might become possible later due to the very dynamic nature of society.

References
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5
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