Female Participation in Sport

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Development Stage - Introduction

For this part of the investigation a planned research report has to be carried out. Many resources will be accessed such as the internet and books. Effective research techniques will be applied and a report will be produced. The topic which is going to be investigated is female participation rates in sport. By looking at many different sports such as hockey, athletics and basketball I will be able to see the struggles woman have had to become an equal force in the sporting world which they are today seeing as in the past the woman was not on a level playing field to men and where seen as giving children to men and putting their meals on the table for their husbands. Straight from the outset this idea was suggested as in the cavemen days the males where known as the “hunter gatherer”. This idea of the “hunter gatherer” allows you to understand why at first the males where so superior to the females. When hunting the males would have to throw spears, wrestle animals in order to kill them for food etc. These actions gave males a superior head start considering the first events in the Olympics in Ancient Greece was events closely linked to the jobs entailed in hunting. For example, throwing events such as the javelin, the hammer throw etc and also wrestling events. The first Olympics to take place were in 776BC and women were excluded. “Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a women ride on a wheel. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self reliance.”This was said by Susan B. Anthony a suffragist in 1896. It explains in merely a few sentences the struggles of women in sports of the years and the fact it’s a suffragette saying it makes it effective as they are the people that fought for woman’s rights. So as this is an interesting topic area the investigation topic is why it is harder for female to participate in sport than to males.

Review of background literature

Many have researched this topic of female participation in sport and many different reasons have been given why it is harder for female to take part in sport. Over the years female in sport has become a big thing. Women are becoming an increasingly formidable force in the sporting world. The achievements of female athletes are contributing to a higher profile for women in sports so a lot more publicity for female attracts more female to certain sports or sport in general. However, many reports show little change in sport dominance. As recent as 2003 a UK Sport strategy document (2003: 5) reiterated the findings of the Brighton Conference which stated that ‘Women are under-represented in the leadership and decision-making of all sport and sport-related organisations’ (1994: Principle 6). Yet the importance of having women in positions of influence has been highlighted for over two decades by organisations such as the Women’s Sports Foundation, formed in 1984 to improve and promote opportunities for women and girls in sport at all levels, and by government ministers, most recently Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Daily Telegraph, 7 March 2005). Several arguments have been advanced to support this view. The essential issue of equality and fairness was raised at the Council of Europe in 1981 and in the Brighton Declaration. The importance of female role models is seen as vital in providing examples to younger women and girls while their continued absence from positions of power only serves to reinforce gender stereotypes. Furthermore, a female perspective in management and decision-making is not only more democratic but allows different skills and experience to be brought to the process of sport (UK Sport, 2003: 5). Although efforts have been made to promote female involvement, research has always suggested that the power structures of many sports are heavily weighted in favour of men (for example, Hall et al, 1989; Cohen, 1993; Hargreaves, 1994;) and that most educational and amateur sport systems continue to exclude women from positions of power and influence (Birrell & Theberge, 1994: 338). It has been argued that attitudes in some areas have changed reasonably little in the past century - the International Olympic Committee appointed its first women members in 1981, 85 years after the opening modern Olympic Games - (Shaw and Slack, 2002: 86; IOC, 2004) and reports continue to state that women are grossly under-represented as paid executives, board members and elected chairs at the higher levels of sports management (Ferris, 2000: 31).

Female Sports

There is no single organisation for the governance of British hockey or netball: all the home nations have separate governing bodies. As traditionally ‘female’ sports, it might be expected that women would find fewer problems obtaining positions of authority and this is borne out by the present findings. In hockey, between 45% and 50% of committees, on average, and over 30% of boards are currently made up of women. Netball is the most widely played ‘female’ sport in Britain. Whereas traditionally ‘male’ sports have seen greater involvement of women in recent years, netball has remained a predominantly female ...

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Female Sports

Neutral Sports

Tennis in Britain is controlled by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). In 1985 White and Brackenridge found the LTA to have female representation of only 10% on the Council and 5% on the Committee. By 2004 these figures had more than doubled to 20% of Council and 13% of Committee members while women currently form 50% of LTA staff. In swimming, White and Brackenridge elected to look solely at the control of the Amateur Swimming Association and found that in 1982 only 8% of officers and 5% of officials were female. From a decision-making perspective, only 12% of committee members were women, a significant contrast to the findings of this study. In 2004 each of the swimming associations of England, Scotland and Wales have staff levels which are over 50% female and women make up 39% of committees and councils in England and 67% in Scotland.

Male Sports

Football and rugby in Britain are each governed by separate organisations in Scotland, England and Wales. In 1985, White and Brackenridge found these two sports to have negligible female participation and did not investigate them further. In the area of governance this position has hardly changed. While female staff members of the national Football Associations number around 40%, representation on the committees of the Scottish, English and Welsh Football Associations is still minimal (4%, 2% and zero respectively) at a time when female supporters and participants is growing. The same is true of female membership of national rugby boards and committees in both rugby union and rugby league. However the numbers of women in influential positions within commercial football and rugby clubs around the country tell a different story.

The percentage of female employees in the football club sample averages over 50% although most of these are predictably in junior administrative and supporting roles. But while media attention has focused on the appointment of Karren Brady as Managing Director of Birmingham City in 1993 and the role of Delia Smith as a Director at Norwich City, little heed has been paid to other influential posts held by women. A selection of these include Chairperson at Tranmere Rovers, Chief Executive at Colchester United, Club President at Bristol City and an Executive Director at Birmingham City. Within the current Championship (previously Division 1) are two female Directors, a Chief Executive and a Director of Operations. At League 1 clubs (formerly Division 2) women fill posts as Club President, Vice President, Chairperson, Chief Executive, General Manager and two Associate Directors. In Scotland, the Chief Executive at Greenock Morton and the General Manager at Livingston are women. In rugby league, a quintessentially male sport, Hull currently boasts a female Chairperson, Managing Director and three board members while Wigan has both a female Chief Executive and Chief Administrator.

Methodology for investigation

To gain efficient and effective information on female participation rates in sport when looking for secondary information various places i.e. internet, books, journals etc would have to be investigated. Looking for as many sources as possible in order to decrease the chances of bias. The primary source will be more hands on getting into sessions and getting hard evidence. First, surveys where done in a basketball session class for kids and they were asked to name male and female players of 5 sports ranging from basketball to gymnastics. An example of this is in appendix 1. Secondly, questionnaires where done on participants who take part in a recreational basketball team and they were asked their opinion on what gender would be linked to each sport given. An example of this is in appendix 2. Thirdly, e-mails and phone calls were made and interviews where set up with people who ran the clubs in order to determine participation rates and sports which encouraged females to play and participate.

Findings

The findings of the survey were that everyone in the kids’ basketball session could only name male footballers and male basketball players. Therefore this does not surprise me as footballers are always on the television and they are who young kids aspire to be like. Whereas with basketball all they see is the likes of Kobe Bryant slam dunking the ball and that is what they want to do. Additionally, none of the children could name male or female players of badminton, hockey or a gymnast as children usually follow one sport regularly a sport which a member of the family plays generally the dad. The findings of the second test completed are showed in appendix 3. Overall the results show that women are up there with men in the world of sport as the females seem to win the close matched sports. The participation rates of the sports looked at is in appendix 4. This graph shows the differences in gender who take part in these certain sports. When doing this part of the investigation it was found that running, hockey, and basketball all try to encourage young females to get into these sports. And the cheerleading squad tries to encourage many boys to take part as possible.

Discussion

By looking at the positions held by women in British sports today, it can clearly be seen that considerable change has taken place in the past twenty years. All of the national organisations that were investigated demonstrated respectable levels of female representation with some even having women in the majority, such as Sports Coach UK, SportsScotland and the CCPR. At the level of individual sports governing bodies there were mixed findings. Present findings indicate, perhaps predictably, that women still feature strongly in the governance of the ‘female’ sports of hockey and netball; that, in the main, women have a significant representation on the boards and committees of neutral sports, particularly swimming; and that they continue to play little part within football and rugby authorities. Although it is not surprising that women play a small part in the governance of British football, their token presence, itself a direct result of the unprecedented recent growth in the girls’ and women’s game, suggests that their influence here will continue to be marginal. One of the most important findings of the present study is an apparent correlation between women in power and the age of the establishment. Where the organisation is under 10 years old, there is a greater likelihood of equal representation of men and women in positions of leadership and influence. In the area of commercial sport, the cases of Airdrie United and MK Dons football clubs appear to underline this hypothesis. Airdrie United arose from the ashes of Airdrieonians FC – formed in 1878 – which went into liquidation in 2002. The re-constituted club has three female directors out of eight including the company secretary and the fans representative, in itself welcomes innovation. MK Dons is the former Wimbledon FC whose financial plight caused them to relocate to Milton Keynes in 2002. Three out of six management positions are held by women including the football operations manager. Further examples can also be found of more modern attitudes to female participation. Contact with Norwich City FC revealed that a former Chairman aspired to turn the club from a “cottage industry” to a more dynamic force in British football. As such, the club has spent a season in the English Premier League, and now has an estimated 50% female workforce and a well-known female director in Delia Smith. However, although the presence of women in influential roles within football has increased, they are still a very small minority. There is therefore a tendency towards repeated reference to the same successful individuals as role models, perhaps giving the impression that these are unique and largely unattainable positions. (Williams, 2003: 79) The relative isolation of women in a predominantly male environment may do little to attract more women to careers in the top echelons of football administration. Another finding from the present study relates to the increasing professionalisation of sports bodies. Despite predictions that this would be detrimental to women obtaining positions of influence in sports governance, it seems that the opposite may be true. The growth of professional sport has meant the introduction of written job specifications and criteria which should enable women to compete on a more level playing field and eliminate the worst excesses of masculine hegemony (Hovden, 2000: 80). The professionalisation of many sports has also meant the development of new departments and the expansion of existing areas of employment within sports organisations. At Arsenal Football Club, for example, the positions of Head of Education Welfare, Head of Communications, Junior Gunners Manager, and Arsenal Ladies Development Officer, which may not have existed twenty years ago, are all currently held by women, as are posts in the medical service, the press office and in physiotherapy.Professionalism has also led to the need for formal qualifications in many areas of sports governance. The growing number of sports management, sports science and leisure related courses at British universities, together with the overall increase in female graduates, is likely to result in higher numbers of suitably qualified women entering sports employment. (UCAS, 2003; HESA, 2004) All of this points to a situation where the professionalisation of sport in Britain may well enable women to achieve positions of influence within organizations. As sport increasingly becomes a business, women are to be found taking up positions as commercial directors and managers, marketing executives and company secretaries. As accountants appear increasingly to define the parameters of club ambitions on the field and commercial considerations override purely sporting decisions, women may find themselves better placed to exert an influence at football grounds the length and breadth of Britain. (Morrow, 2003). Perhaps it should also be acknowledged that sport is not the only male-dominated area of employment. White and Brackenridge noted in 1985 that gender stratification was apparent throughout the labour market and the Equal Opportunities Commission has consistently found that women are under-represented in the most senior positions of influence in business, the police, the media and the judiciary, with less than 10% in each of these fields (EOC, 2005). Sport, therefore, is not a unique case. The most heartening statistics for women may come from the annual survey by the Chartered Management Institute which showed that the proportion of female managers had risen from under 2% in 1975 to 22% in 2000, and to 31% in 2004. Although this indicates that 7 out of 10 managers are male, there would seem to be acceleration in the pace of change.

Further avenues of research

The research that was gathered could be taken lots of different places. As the research investigation was specific a certain avenue was effective to follow tasks and objectives. Further research that could be looked into is what could be done to get more females participating in a certain sports or how you could get more females interested in sports or even how to get away from stereotypes of women who play sports.

References

UK Sport strategy document (2003: 5) Brighton Declaration. (1994) The Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport. British Sports Council.

(Daily Telegraph, 7 March 2005)

Hall et al, 1989; Cohen, 1993; Hargreaves, 1994; Hall, M.A., Cullen, D and Slack, T. (1989) ‘Organizational Elites Recreating Themselves: The Gender Structure of National Sport Organizations, P28-45.

Birrell & Theberge, 1994: 338 Birrell, S and Theberge, N. (1994) ‘Ideological Control of Women in Sport’ in Costa Human Kinetics.

Shaw and Slack, 2002: 86; IOC, 2004) Shaw, S. and Slack, T. (2002) ‘“It’s Been Like That for Donkey’s Years”: The Construction of Gender Relations and the Cultures of Sports Organisations’, Culture, Sport, Society 5 (1): 86-106.

(Ferris, 2000: 31). Ferris, E. (2000) ‘Promoting Women Sports Leaders: Are Quotas the Way Forward?’, P 31-34.

(Williams, 2003: 79) Williams, J. (2003) A Game for Rough Girls? A History of Women’s Football in Britain. London: Routledge.

(Hovden, 2000: 80). Hovden, J. (2000) ‘Gender and Leadership Selection Processes in Norwegian Sporting Organisations’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport 35 P75-82.

(Morrow, 2003). Morrow, S. (2003) The People’s Game? Football, Finance and Society. London: Palgrave

(EOC, 2005). Equal Opportunities Commission (2005) Sex and Power: Who Runs Britain

Appendix 3

Appendix 4