Which Top 50 Do You Know?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1260438-olympic-beach-volleyball-2012-top-threats-to-kerri-walsh-misty-may-treanor

Are you familiar with the names Tina Charles, Natalie Coughlin, Candace Parker, Aly Raisman, Kerri Walsh, or Misty May-Treanor? You should be!They are in the top 50 female athletes. What about the names LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Brett Farve, Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods, or Barry onds? Chances are you know more of the male athletes than you do female ones. That’s all because women’s sports have been repressed. They are not talked about nearly as much. They are not shown on television as much. They aren’t even put in papers as much. All should be changed; there should be equal coverage and equal knowledge given of both sports. No favoritism to men’s sports should be given.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/392201-the-best-ever-the-50-greatest-male-athletes-of-all-time

http://www.totalprosports.com/2012/12/19/the-50-most-googled-female-athletes-of-2012/

The Opression Continues

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/usa/story/us-soccer-announces-national-women-soccer-league-121612

http://www.thegolfaffect.com/links.html

When is the last time you heard someone say “Did you catch that professional women’s game on TV”? To most people the answer to that question would be never. Women’s sports are oppressed in so many ways. They are not shown on television nearly as much as men’s sports if shown at all. Women’s sports receive less recognition than all men’s sports. The only women’s professional league that is known to most Americans is the NBA, which wasn’t even created until after the NBA was already created for men. If asked what the names of other women’s professional leagues, many would not be able to answer. http://www.sswhl.com/DWomensp.htm http://www.chicitysports.com/forum/showthread.php/14533-Complete-List-of-Professional-Sports-Leagues-in-the-US-and-Canada

Title IX

http://women.nasa.gov/titleixanniversary/

In 1972 Title IX was passed. This made a law stating that the same number of athletic programs needed to be available for women as there was for men in colleges. In professional and Olympic sports, there is no law stating that this needs to be done, but it is taken in consideration. The accessibility of professional and Olympic sports has increased tremendously. But even with this law and the idea of equal athletics in place, differences in men’s and women’s sports are still in existence. Women’s sports still get the shorter of the two straws and it may always stay that way. http://www.livestrong.com/article/151020-athletic-women-vs-men/

Muscle Mass Affecting Recognition

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1517-86922005000500002&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en

Many people believe that because women have smaller muscle mass and carry more fat than males that there athletics aren’t as good, but that’s not the case. It’s true that women have less muscle strength than males and that’s because women have less testosterone. Less testosterone means less strength and smaller muscle mass but even with that, women still have made more improvements in world record times in running from 1975 to 2003. This just proves that women sports are just as good as men sports even with the less muscle strength and smaller muscle mass and that it doesn’t matter how big you are. http://www.livestrong.com/article/151020-athletic-women-vs-men/

Body Composition Playing A Role

Muscle structure isn’t the only thing that makes people believe that male athletes are better than female athletes. Body composition, cardiorespiratory endurance, and nutrition and energy use play a big role as well. Women carry more fat than men. This comes as an advantage in sports such as swimming but in running and other sports it comes as a huge disadvantage. People believe that since women have more fat that they are slower and aren’t as fun to watch as men are but that’s not the case. Women compete against other women so the competition stays the same as it would if men would compete against other men. Men also have the advantage of being able to take in more oxygen which helps their performance. Women face all kinds of disadvantages during sports and activity but that doesn’t mean their sports are any less than male sports. http://www.livestrong.com/article/151020-athletic-women-vs-men/

Did You Catch The Girl’s Game On TV LAst Night?

http://titleixproject.blogspot.com/p/title-ix-in-media.html

The coverage of men’s sports whether it be television, radio, or newspaper is much greater than that of women’s sports. In 1996, statistics were taken of the coverage of women, men and mixed sports in Australia to see which was covered more. Men’s sports were covered at over 70% in newspapers, radio, and television, while women’s were less than 11% in all basic types of coverage. Mixed sports are covered more than women’s sports as well, but men’s still is covered the most by a huge amount. The coverage of women’s sports is one way that women’s sports are oppressed but not the only way. http://mcofs.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/australian-statistics/

Money’s Not An Issue? Yeah Right!

http://matlabgeeks.com/sports-analysis/ncaa-expenses-and-revenue-across-gender-and-sport/

The amount women in sports get paid is not nearly as much as men do. In 2001, Venus Williams won Wimbledon. She was paid $52,923 for her winning but when Goran Ivanisevic won, he received $705,109. The same thing happened to Jennifer Capriati when she won the French Open. She received $29,306 less than the male winner, Gustavo Kuerten did. This is a great example of women’s sports facing social repression. Male athletes are getting paid more than female athletes are by huge amounts. It has become better in recent years but women are still not getting paid as much as men are! http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1022979/index.htm

Failure To Reach The Top Ten

When someone turns the channel to ESPN, how often is a women’s sporting play on the Top 10? Chances are not very often. Almost all plays in the Top 10 are always men’s sports. Men’s sports get all the recognition on television. If scrolling through your channel listings, you will be lucky to see a few women’s games. But if you look for some kind of men’s game, you will find plenty. You will also have an option between which men’s sport to watch. This is all because women’s sports only receive 5% of all the air time on television while men’s sports are receiving 92%. And the 3% that’s left is designated for the gender neutral sports broadcasting. http://www.la84foundation.org/9arr/ResearchReports/ResearchReport2.htm

Olympic Medals Proving Points

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-31/germany-wins-first-olympic-gold-phelps-aims-for-medal-record.html

There is no reason for the lack of recognition female sports receive. In the 2012 Summer Olympics the United States women were the second highest gold medal winners. They brought home a total of 29 gold medals. The United States women Olympians were also were the ones to receive the fourth most medals in general. They received 58 medals total only falling behind China, Russia, and Great Britain. To me, winning 58 medals at an Olympic games is a huge accomplishment and should be better recognized. Many of those female athletes that won medals are now well known across the United States, but women still fail to receive as much recognition as men.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1294747-olympic-medal-count-2012-us-women-stole-the-show-in-london

The WNBA Will Always Fall Second

http://findlogo.net/show/detail/W/wnba-114-logo

One of the few professional divisions of sports for women that is actually well known is the WNBA. The WNBA was created for women to have the chance to play professionally just like the men got to do without going overseas to play. The WNBA was started many years after the NBA was showing repression to women’s sports before it was even started. Although the WNBA is a good thing for women it’s not all that it cracked up to be. The NBA players receive far more money than the WNBA players. A NBA player of the name Gilbert Arenas hasn’t been able to play since 2007 but still makes $45 million dollars over the next two years, while Tina Charles, one of the best WNBA players out there is only allowed to receive $105,000 a year, as it is the league’s maximum. The average WNBA star is receiving less money than the worst NBA star out there, now that’s ridiculous.

http://www.blackenterprise.com/money/wnba-player-salaries-vs-nba-salaries/