Women in Sport

Women in Sport In the early 18th century ladies academies were established for the upper class, which varied in quality and cost, some being more expensive than others. These provided activities such as dancing, sewing, singing, piano, posture and graces. They did not consist of physical activity. In the Victorian era, 1837-1967; the biggest effect limiting women's participation in sport occurred, as it was not good for their health. Over the years theories of medical reasons why women could not participate in sports; e.g. leading to fertility and the shape of their bodies were set aside. By the 1880's tennis and cricket were brought into girls schools, due to them being non-contact. Daughters of wealthy men were allowed to play tennis and hockey providing it was non-contact. The working class were excluded from all forms of physical activity and sport up until the 1880's drill was introduced to prepare children for the war. This was compulsory for all children including girls. Gradually women were allowed to play field sports, archery, garden games, golf and athletics. In 1972 "Sport for all", was introduced as a campaign to rule out all types of discrimination whether it be racial, sex, social class, disabled or unemployed. In 1975 the sex discrimination act was introduced to make sexual discrimination in employment, training, education and provision of goods,

  • Word count: 693
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Women in Sport Today

Women in Sport Today Women Against Men? It may be argued that women still do not compete on equal terms with men in many sports, but this is really a matter of performance rather than opportunity. This is traceable not to lack of application or unsuitability, but to physiological differences. We need to take into account that women in many sports are following rules originally designed by men to test male skills. It may be that some sports would see women emerge as more successful than men if they were played within a regulatory framework which was adapted to female strengths. This is unlikely ever to happen, because the traditions in women's sport are now so strong, but it is one more factor which has worked against women as competitors in sport. While physiological differences may have narrowed considerably in the last thirty years, they are still wide enough for almost all athletic competition to require single-gender participation. There are exceptions. Women have competed at the top level at croquet, but this is not a popular activity: the outstanding success of women in equestrian events, on the other hand, has shown that the term 'horsemanship' is not only sexist but inaccurate. However, women do not and almost certainly will not compete with men in most sports, and, indeed, there is no reason why they should, although there is occasionally a dispute over which

  • Word count: 4217
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)
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The discrimination of women in sport.

Danny Meaden AS Physical education -Mr White The discrimination of women in sport: A woman's place in sport has changed unrecognisably over the last hundred years or so. At the beginning of the 20th century sport was seen as a male preserve accentuating masculine values, a woman who showed any interest in competing was thought to be 'strange' as it was not a very 'lady like' thing to do'. This kind of discrimination seems hard to comprehend for many of us, as we are so used to living in a time of such equality and equal rights. Now days in sport there is not one sport which can be categorically called 'male' only. Although the roots of the sport may have stemmed from male participation you can be assured that there are now provisions set up so that women can train and compete. A great example of this would be 'rugby union' this may be perceived by an ignorant few to be a 'real mans' game as it a game that centres on aggression and injuries are common. There is now a scheme set up in our local area, in accordance with Thanet wanderers RFC, so that woman of all ages can take up the sport and develop their skills under the supervision of fully trained coaches. Unfortunately this type of encouragement has not always been available to potential athletes. Although the participation of women in sport can be traced back to the very first Olympics in 1886, they definitely did

  • Word count: 1112
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)
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Sport in society - media coverage.

DAVID MADONDO Sport in society Assessment objective 3 Mass media Media refers to various means of communication. For example, television, radio, and the newspaper are different types of media. The term can also be used as a collective noun for the press or news reporting agencies. In the computer world, media is also used as a collective noun, but refers to different types of data storage option. http://www.iwebtool.com/what_is_media.html The British media is dominated by UK wide outlets, with local media playing a much smaller role. Traditionally the BBC played a dominant role in televising sport, providing extensive high-quality advertisement free coverage and free publicity, in exchange for being granted broadcast rights for low fees. ITV broadcast a smaller portfolio of events. British Sky broadcast based its early marketing largely on its acquisition of top division English league football, which was renamed The Premiership as part of the deal. It has subsequently acquired many more top rights in other sports. However, Sky tends to focus on competitions which can fill its specialist sports channels on a regular basis, and many events are still shown on free to air television, especially annual and quadrennial events such as Wimbledon and the Olympics. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own feeds for BBC1 & BBC2 allowing the BBC to opt out

  • Word count: 1641
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)
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An Investigation in media representation of gender in sport

An investigation into media representation of gender in sport In the late 19th century only 'functional' activities such as horse riding and cycling were seen as suitable for women, even before this era it would have been inappropriate for women to be involved in any sporting or physical activity (Boutilier and SanGiovanni, 1983). However, over the past 20 years women have seen an increase in media coverage in sport due to government legislation - which states equality between men and women - as well as women being given more opportunities to reach elite performance within the sporting world (Coakley, 1998). In today's society the media is still dominated by male sportsmen and traditionally male identified sports, including football, rugby and golf. The main media medium which covers sport is television broadcasting. It has promoted sport; making it an extremely popular activity (Burton, 2005). Male and female athletes both perform in high status competitions, but it is possible to see through American television coverage of the 1996 Olympic games that male athletes are more likely to be seen and talked about on television than female athletes (women received 43% television coverage while men received 57% television coverage) found by Tuggle and Owen (1999). On Australian television less television coverage of women (33%) was found by Toohey (1997) and in Italy, during the

  • Word count: 1469
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Social studies
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Pregnant Women in Sport.

Pregnant Women in Sport I have decided to study the important issue of pregnant women in sport. This is a topic that affects nearly all sports in Australia mostly netball and basketball because they are the two most popular female sports in Australia. Netball has 505,000 female participants and basketball has 147,000 (source of statistics from www.abs.gov.au). "They should not be able to play after they are five months pregnant or if a doctor advises them not to." (Annette Hadges; 19/11/2002) Until the last ten years it wasn't looked at positively for a women to keep playing sport while pregnant. But due to the change in social attitudes a pregnant women isn't looked at as stupid if she decides to continue playing sport; however there are risks to doing this. The main reason why people don't want to see pregnant women in sport is because of the potential risk of abdominal injuries. I also think that it would be a tragedy to see a women lose her baby from a sports injury she could have avoided. Sporting associations that have pregnant women playing may face lawsuits or compensation claims if a women was to be injured and lose her baby. Sporting associations would need to advise a solicitor about getting the pregnant player to sign a form that indemnifies them from compensation claims if that player is injured. There are no actual legal rules that can currently stop

  • Word count: 1050
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Sport and the Media

Sport and the Media The growth of television as a significant cultural form during the 1960s put the relationship between sport and the media on the public agenda. In late 1969, the US magazine Sports Illustrated drew attention to the ways in which television was transforming sport. In effect, sport in the television age was a 'whole new game'. The growing economic and cultural significance of television for sport gradually became a pertinent issue in countries around the world. Clearly sport and television had developed a degree of interdependence. They belonged together 'like ham and eggs'. In the view of some, television had 'made' sport Newsweek expressed concern, in 1967, over the extent to which television was the powerful partner in the relationship. Debates developed from the 1970s as to whether the effects of television were beneficial or harmful both argued that television had transformed sport. By the 1980s, academic research had mapped out the field and proposed research agendas and book-length studies had appeared. It is noteworthy that, to date, far more critical attention has been paid to television sport than to sport coverage in the print media. The study of the media has been informed by sociological and semiological traditions. I will outline work in these areas and then discuss some key themes and topics before concluding by outlining current research

  • Word count: 1216
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Media Studies
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The Role And Development Of Women In Sport

The Role And Development Of Women In Sport Introduction Through out the history of the advancement of sport, women have had to strive twice as hard to gain the same status and recognition as their counterparts - men. There have been many factors, which have prevented women from participating in sport and reaching their full potential (for example, lack of finance, time or education). Perhaps the biggest factor has been prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination. The Changing Face Of Women's Sport The changing face of sport has always been influenced by the stereotypical discrimination that women have always faced. In the beginning of the 19th century, the view of women typically characterised them as emotional passive people who were unable to take part in energetic activities where as men were seen as naturally aggressive, so were therefore more suited to sport. To defend and justify this view, the Victorian's and Edwardians maximised on the physiological differences between women and men, (i.e. women having wider hips, higher fat distributions and breasts) to further 'prove' that women were unsuited to sports. Numerous scientists, medical practitioners and social theorists developed the theory of 'social Darwinism'. This drew from Darwin's 'theory of evolution' in which the common view of women's role in society was to 'produce healthy offspring' and so increase the

  • Word count: 4112
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)
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Sport, media and current issues

Social aspects of sport assignment 1 Sport, media and current issues The relationship between sport and the various different media has developed over time, with more significant developments in recent years. This has had and impact on both sports that are well covered and sports that are not covered by the media. Some sports have become multimillion-pound empires whereas some are virtually unknown. The media is any type of communication that reaches a large amount of people. There are many various types of media that have developed over time with the invention of newspapers, radio, television and the Internet; sport has been made more accessible to millions of people worldwide. A brief timeline of media and sport 733 Boston gazette first reports on sport 800s circulation rose along with sports coverage The "sporting life" the first paper devoted just to sport is a success Regularly reported football and cricket instilled them as national sports Steady increase in coverage 1900 - 1975 Relationship developed between sport and media 920s radio developed (1922 BBC developed) 936 the arrival of television 988, 97% of houses owned a television set watching 28 hours a week Entrepreneurs became aware of selling rights to TV companies Increased participation in sport Sports enter into a war for ratings and coverage Sports start developing rules to assist their TV

  • Word count: 4202
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)
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I am investigating women in sport

Research Project AS - Unit 2 Section B I am investigating women in sport. The particular are of focus for this study will be women's participation in sport. This interests me as participation in sport for women is a lot less than men. I can see this is apparent from my own experiences, amongst my peers sport participation has decreased as we've got older there doesn't seem to be as many sporting opportunities, consequently interest in sport is lost. Books identify and discuss the problems with women's participation in sport, television has hardly any women's sports coverage due to few women athletes. I am interested to find out why this is, what effects it and what can be done to solve this problem. I will begin this project by trying to find out why women play less sport, I will then investigate the issue further by finding out the factors which affect this, whose responsibility it is to ensure there is women's participation and what is being/can be done to improve this. I can research this by looking in physical education text books, sport websites on the internet and sport articles in the newspaper. 33% of men participate in sporting activity only 10% of women do. Womens role in society is to be a certain way , to be 'feminine' the amount of sport played must correspond with this, sport isn't considered very feminine so little is played. Along with being feminine

  • Word count: 1081
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)
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