Issues with Gender in Sport
Charlie Pryce
50,000 plus in attendance at a football match on boxing day. A norm in the beautiful game these days. However, this wasn’t a Premier League grudge match, no. It was the Women’s game. In 1920, 53,000 were in attendance to witness Dick Kerr Ladies take on St Helens ladies at Everton’s Goodison park. (The Independent,2014) So how did the Women’s game go from getting attendances higher than most top flight Male Premier league go averaging attendances of only 1,047 in 2017. (The Guardian,2018) Multiple barriers prevent Women from participating in all sports, fitting into three categories: Social, Economic and Cultural. One key social barrier In 2017, statistics published by the British Heart Foundation showed that 11.8 million Women in Britain were insufficiently inactive, compared to around 8.3 million men, clearly showing the gender inequality in Sport.(The British Heart Foundation,2017) Figures released by the Football Association (2017) showed that their own pay gap stood at 23.2%, clearly showing the economic barriers Women face, even out of competing. This investigation will go on to discuss the gender-based issues that are prevalent in Sport and how they prevent women from participating, by using different sociological perspectives and theories to explain different viewpoints.
The first topic for discussion is the amount of media coverage female sports get compared to the male equivalent. In the period of the 23rd of July to the 23rd of August in 2017, a study was conducted into the gender imbalance in the UK’s media. This showed that of the 10,055 pieces of media collected (through analysing the listings of TV channels, key sports media websites and publications) only 10% of the media covered Women’s Sport, compared to 79% for male sport (Women in Sport,2018) One sociological theory, Functionalist theory, implies that society is held together due to underlying values that everyone believes in, and these values are reinforced through rituals that people practice in their everyday lives. (Karen and Washington,2015) In terms of gender, functionalist see the gender roles exist to help society run effectively and efficiently. Males have Instrumental roles, which are to be goal orientated, in comparison to females who are taught to react off the emotions of others, in an expressive role. Due to the lack of viewers that the Women’s game generates compared to the males, TV broadcasters are more likely to show male sports as it brings in a significantly larger amount of money through sponsors and gate receipts. A functionalist would see the main function of sport as a business, and that the reason that the show more of the male sports is that it brings in a larger amount of money, compared to the Women’s game. This viewpoint also suggests that this imbalance is needed for society to function correctly and that without this imbalance society wouldn’t function correctly; its implying that women shouldn’t be in sport but rather they should have the primary responsibility of childcare. This has a knock-on effect, with the lack of media coverage women’s sport receives, there are less female role models to encourage and motivate younger girls to get into sport. Yet the functionalist viewpoint misses out on the fact that most women work outside of the home nowadays and that men don’t always have to work, but can stay at home and help with childcare, as opposed to when the theory was created back in the 1950’s. Looking at it from a different sociologist viewpoint, Symbolic Interactionism. Introduced in the 1920’s, it implies that we as human’s develop symbolic meanings towards objects and behaviours, and we rely on these in social interaction. (Carter and Muller,2015) This theory focuses on meaning, and a social interactionist would be interested in the actual experiences of players. They may want to look into why female professionals continue to play despite receiving minimal media coverage and attendances in comparison to the male game. Yet, this viewpoint ignores factors psychologically such as the motives and emotions of the athlete, meaning that both those factors may be different for two athletes, but they may have the same experience. (Meltzer, Petras, and Reynolds,1975)
To compare these theories: functionalism is a macro perspective, focusing on the way society interlocks together, whereas the symbolic interactionist theory is a micro perspective, as it focuses on the meaning of experiences and the behaviour towards these. They are incompatible theories.
Another barrier that females face to participation is the lack of free and available leisure time that they have. A study into the amount of housework completed by each gender in 1994 found that males spent in-between the range of 6-14 hours a week completing housework, opposed to the 20-30 spent by their female counterparts.(Hersch and Stratton,1994) Since then, the gender imbalance in housework has closed, with men now doing on average 16 hours a week, compared to the 26 hours a week done by women. (ONS Report,2016) However there is still a significant difference between the genders, rather than participating in sporting practices or keeping active, females are more likely to spend their free time caring for children or elderly/less abled family members or completing domestic labour. (ONS Report,2016) Feminism, a sociological perspective, is the belief in Social, Political and economic equality. (Brunell and Burkett,2018) If we were looking at the barrier of lack of leisure time through a feminist perspective, it would focus on making the time spent completing housework equal for both males and females. (Crossman,2018). If equal and shared housework became a norm in society, more free leisure time would be opened up for women to participate in sport, helping them to keep healthy, but also helping to displace the gender imbalance present in Sport. Yet, it is not the same for all women. Intersectionality is the overlapping of various social differences such as race, sexuality, religion and class, that lead to different forms of exclusion faced by women. (Davis,2008) Tennis is highly ranked in the women’s sport industry, yet for decades it has been considered a sport for the white upper class, making it a struggle for women of black and ethnic minority groups, and those of lower class to access the sport. (Tredway,2018). However, women who face this intersectionality and oppose the discrimination they face, with two prime examples being Venus and Serena Williams. The twins have faced racial and sexist abuse on multiple occasions yet still continue to play, succeed but also stand up for women and lower represented groups on the sporting stage.
A further reason for women not participating in sport is due to the gender pay gap that is apparent in professional sport. In 2017, the highest annual wage slip in the Women’s Super League was £35,000, whilst in the Premier League, Manchester United’s Alexis Sanchez took the largest salary at a staggering £25.5 million, clearly highlighting the significant difference in economic value of male and female football in the UK.(The Guardian,2018) The idea of Capitalism, a financial system which removes control of trade and industrial developments from the state to private businesses, creates a battleground between private businesses as they try to gain profit and expand. Since its beginning in 1992, the Premier League has seen a vast influx of money to help it grow and expand from the original Saturday afternoon football league experienced for hundreds of years, into the worldwide corporate brand that is known for today. A main feature of this commercialisation has been the renaming of stadiums to coincide with sponsorship. Of the 20 Premier League stadium’s being used this season, 8 of these are named after businesses, the most notable being the title holders Manchester City, with their stadium “The Etihad”. This profit minded commercialisation has led to the sizeable increase in player wages over in the male game, yet due to the lack of interest and demand for sponsors in the female game, it does not receive the equal amount of cash injections that is seen in the male game, thus generating a gender pay gap. Marxism also takes into account money, seeing capitalism as a particular kind of class society (Burawoy and Wright,2001) Due to the larger wages and viewing figures the male game turns over compared to the women’s game; a Marxist view point would focus on how a male player could be seen as upper class due to the bigger income they receive, in comparison to the average female footballer that wouldn’t be in the same class. In 2018, a staggering 26.6 million people watched England lose to Croatia in the World Cup Semi-final, (The Independent,2018) compared to only 4 million who tuned in to watch England’s women lose 3-0 to the Netherlands in the Semi Final of Euro 2017. (The Guardian,2017). Yet despite the imbalance, women continue to play the sport they love for the pure enjoyment of it rather than seeing it as a money-making opportunity.
Capitalism and feminism are incompatible with each other. Feminism wishes to eradicate inequality; however, capitalism is highly dependent on inequality for it too function. (Amit Singh,2014)
To draw a conclusion, the different sociological viewpoints help to provide key aspects as to why there are gender issues in sport, and how these issues could be eradicated. Functionalists see the imbalance as necessary for a functioning society, whereas feminists are trying to remove the inequality present in sport, to help gain equality for men and women. Yet , there is not one specific definitive reason as to why women face inequality in sport, however in the face of adversity, they continue to play the games they love.