There is an idea that believes the athlete’s skills, talent and strength are more important and any of the factors such as gender, ethnicity, race, social class and religion does not have any influence in individual participation in sport and their freedom of choice (Craig & Beedie, 2010; Kahan, 2003; Jarvie, 2006). However, after a global women’s rights movement in the mid-1960s the numbers of women’s participation in sport increased (Coakley, 2007); still most of the sport around the world is identified as a male domain (Wensing & Bruce, 2003). Gender inequality in sport has always been an interesting topic for the sports sociologists (Craig & Beedie, 2010). The power of the western media by gender stereotyping and its effect on women’s participation in sport are remarkable (Connell, 2002). Also, religion’s place in sport is a very important factor that needs to be considered as the religion and gender have a non-secular relationship and both have affected in the female participation in sport (Fasting & Walseth, 2003). Furthermore, body becomes an issue in the women’s participation in sport particularly in Islam (Fasting & Walseth, 2003).
Gender is important historically and culturally (King, 1994), gender can be defined as a social construct which is in complete opposite to sex which shows the biological differentiation between male and female (Craig & Beedie, 2010; Jarvie, 2006). How the women’s body is observed – as weak or strong, feminine or masculine – is defined by the social construction of gender (Jarvie, 2006). When the word femininity is a positive definition attributed to women, while masculinity is a negative point for women (King, 1994). In the mid-1960s, the women’s participation increased as a result of awareness about the importance of health and physical activity; based on the traditional idea about femininity, women wanted to become desirably thin and sexually attractive to men (Coakley, 2007). In contrast, boys are more likely to present themselves as tough and competitive in sport (Connell, 2002). For instance, schools and media both lead boys to participate in competitive sports. As a result, boys are more likely to participate in jobs such as police and military whilst women are more interested in social work, nursing and psychology that are less violent (Connell, 2002).
Male athlete’s photos have 73 percent of space in the analysis of NCAA news, and this percentage drops to 27 present for female (Coakley & Dunning, 2003; Shifflett & Revelle, 1994). Even the magazines present girls less interested than boys in sport (Coakley & Dunning, 2003; Dunne 1982). Furthermore, Leath and Lumpkin (1992) discovered in Women’s Sport and Fitness magazine, fewer athlete pictures of female, and those pictures that were available less presenting the female sports performance (Coakley & Dunning, 2003). In the past 20 years, media has less attention to the quality of women’s sport in comparison to men’s sport (Wensing & Bruce, 2003). This is while the western media expose the picture of women as someone that is thin, blond and pretty, someone who is doing nothing rather that just wait to become chosen by a man (Connell, 2002).
As male and female stereotypes still exist and view woman as a mother who is giving the birth to their children and taking care of them, someone who do most of the housework, supportive, cheerleader and audience (Craig & Beedie, 2010). This is in contrast to the male known as a leader, family protector, sports player and a champion. This view defines women as someone that is dependent, conversely, men are defined as someone who is powerful and independent (Craig & Beedie, 2010); as a result, of the gender stereotyping the women’s participation in sport became quite low in the nineteenth century. Consequently, women have been participating in the sport such as gymnastics and dance (Craig & Beedie, 2010). As a result, in the nineteenth century, Christian churches used the non-secular relationship between sport and religion to attract young people by building gymnasiums (Fasting & Walseth, 2003).
The supernatural forces that help the humans who struggle with ultimate problems in their life, defined as religion (Prebish, 1993). Gender and religion are related to each other, in other words they are rooted to each other (King, 1994). And religion has always been focused on gender, particularly, woman that has been identified as someone who is voiceless (King, 1994). There are different views of women based on ancient Judaism, the Essene sect and Greek culture (Turner, 1996). Aristotle’s philosophy determines the role of a woman in society based on the Judaic view of woman, as a slave, someone who is just suited for housework. The role of the man, however, is defined in two competitive places such as sport and politic (Turner, 1996). Christianity’s view of woman is not far from Judaism; as in Christian religion, a woman is identified as someone who obeys other people, someone who is less important and should be faithful to their husband. A woman also had two roles such as giving birth and doing housework (Connell, 2002; Craig & Beedie, 2010; Turner, 1996).
The history of the world shows that Islam is growing very fast (Dagkas & Benn, 2006). And Religious belief affects women’s participation in sport (Fasting & Walseth, 2003; Jarvie, 2006). Even in a secular state such as Egypt the influence of Islam has been observed, however, this influence is still less than countries such as: Iran and Saudi Arabia (Fasting & Walseth, 2003). However, gender equality is emphasised in Islam, based on different interpretation of Islam, the action of running that has been encouraged by the Muslim’s Prophet Muhammad is completely restricted for women as running identified as an excitement action for men to watch, because when women run their body shakes and that can provoke men (Fasting & Walseth, 2003). Consequently; the male participation in the sport is more than the female (Fasting & Walseth, 2003).
Men and women are placed in the different categories because of their body, emotion and mind in public. They both have different experience from the sport (Jarvie, 2006). As the men and women are different physically; woman’s body is sexually attractive for the heterosexual men (Craig & Beedie, 2010). According to the Koran and hadiths, Islam emphasizes and encourages women to do physical activities, as taking care of Muslim’s body is the Islam’s concern (Fasting & Walseth, 2003). However, practically, there are some barriers against women’s physical activities; women must cover their hair, their body, especially their chest to become less exciting and provocative for men to watch (Fasting & Walseth, 2003). Although, gender equality is emphasised in the Koran, there is gender segregation in some female physical activities such as aerobics, because lifting legs are identified as a provocative action for male to watch (Fasting & Walseth, 2003). Also, there is some prejudice idea about women in different countries such as Spain that makes the women’s participation in sport limited. For instance, accepting the female bullfighter is difficult by Spanish traditionalists, as they cannot accept the female body with breasts in the area of man’s activity (Jarvie, 2006 & Pink 1996).
As the media presents female athletes as a sex object, and stereotypes the athletes based on their body (Wensing & Bruce, 2003), the absence of someone like Cathy Freeman that is a gold medallist in the 400m race is recognizable. As her body commented on willowy shape and wood-nympyh beauty. She is not the centre of media attention because she is considered unattractive. However the silver medallist Tatiana Grigorieva becomes the centre of attention because of her attractive body (Wensing & Bruce, 2003).
Gender stereotyping has negatively influenced the numbers of females participating in sport compared to men (Connell, 2002; Craig & Beedie, 2010; Turner, 1996). It seem participating sports that has been identified as male domain is very difficult for female (Wensing & Bruce, 2003), and that those who were playing football and rugby were carrying the `tomboys` label, and they also have to constantly prove their status where the men have more power in (Craig & Beedie, 2010). Also, religious beliefs influence in woman’s participation in sport particularly in the Muslim countries such as Egypt (Jarvie, 2006). Furthermore, Media coverage has portrayed women as sexual objects and therefore developed female body stereotyping (Wensing & Bruce, 2003). As a result of this body stereotyping by media (Wensing & Bruce, 2003), Muslim women who are supposed to wear Hijab (Fasting & Walseth, 2003) will never become a media’s centre of attention because they are not sexually attractive for men to watch (Wensing & Bruce, 2003). Obviously, the factors such as gender, body, religion and media influence in the members of women participation in sport(Jarvie, 2006).