An issue of gender inequality in sport

In the past, women had as their professional activity, in most cases, being housewives and mothers. At present, they managed to integrate into the labour market at times, with great differences with the male gender. Sport is one of the sectors in which women are more vetoed, not because they cannot practice it normally, but because for a woman to be able to dedicate herself professionally to the sport she would need good financing – both from private and public organizations and this is practically non-existent. She would also need family support which I personally think it is very important. In many sports women had and has to face disqualifying adjectives for practicing sports that are considered only suitable for men because of their strength such as football and rugby. The situation of inequality in sport is currently changing progressively, although the same importance has not yet been given to a success achieved by a female team than by a male one.

From childhood, a woman who wants to devote to professional sport at a glance has the same possibilities as a man, but it is not like that. A woman has to accept the criticism of the society in which she lives to practice a sport that is mainly practiced by men, this does not mean that it does not happen with men but with women these cases are more numerous.

The first time a female athlete had a real and visible representation was in Amsterdam 1928. It is impossible not to wonder what would have happened if women had participated in sport from the very beginning. Television and other media give low coverage to women’s events. Looking at it from this perspective, we could say that the media can also have a certain responsibility in the inequality of gender in sport. In America 40% of sportspeople are women, however only 6-8% of the total sports media coverage is devoted to them. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, male athletes get $179 million more in athletic scholarships each year than females do. Additionally, collegiate institutions spend just 24% of their athletic operating budgets on female sports, as well as just 16% of recruiting budgets and 33% of scholarship budgets on female athletes. Some people have the argument that “ women’s sport isn’t interesting enough”. And even though over the years the popularity of women’s sports is growing, unfortunately the media coverage and sponsorship dollars haven’t necessarily followed through and gender equality remains an issue.