Underrepresentation In Sports

Words: 583
Pages: 3

The Underrepresentation of Girls in Sports Sports are a big deal. Professional teams are organized by associations and leagues while successful players receive fame and fortune. For most people, they think of football, basketball, and baseball, which are all predominantly men’s sports organized by men’s leagues. Women's leagues are much less common and not as popular as men’s football, basketball, and baseball. The same applies to high school sports. In the past, girls could only participate in one sport, cheerleading, but with Title IX in 1973 came a huge jump in sports participation. Title IX states that:
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Furthermore, “Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, girl’s participation in sports has increased more than 800%.” (Adams, Schmitke, Franklin 19), however, “Of the over 10,000 schools in the CRDC (Civil Rights Data Collection) sample that offer single-sex interscholastic athletics, 57% offered fewer athletic teams for girls than boys.” (“Gender Equity in
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Men’s sports are much more popular, contrasting with the lack of coverage and interest shown in women’s sports. “Indeed, if such attention were the only indicator of women's participation in sports, it would appear that women were participating at pre-Title IX rates.” (1630) Very few games are well-attended and with low attendance comes low funding, and with low funding and a small fan-base, teams can’t promote their sport. This is a cycle that sports teams and organizations fall into and it is the cause of: “Two professional women’s basketball leagues have failed in the past ten years.” (1630) and other leagues’