2 years, 1 month ago-
Women face more than just this, they are also were forced to be treated as second-class citizens when it comes to sports. Here the male chauvinism is evident in the difference between the kind of recognition male and female sportspersons get. This can be seen as a reflection of the deep-rooted patriarchal attitude even in our society where a boy is celebrated for simply playing while a girl is expected to be an ace of a sport. Sports and sportspersons are no different. Every single female athlete faces a huge weight of patriarchy and sexism, which is inevitably attached to her name and it becomes her identity. Yes, it is great that we have women who are professionally playing football, cricket, badminton, or wrestling but the sad fact remains, they will never be celebrated the way their male counterparts are.
The fact is that women’s participation in sport has changed drastically due to the patriarchal society ingrained in us since childhood. From an early age, women are taught to be submissive to men and confined within the boundaries set by society. They are told that sports can mature them from a young age to keep their minds from wandering into forbidden territory like politics, religion, etc. The Feminist theory to this day claims that the patriarchal society has made a concerted effort to hold women down in a series of areas. It is not only the case with sports when it comes to women’s lack of recognition. In these aspects of life, the women in question have to be accepted by society for their feat and not be punished and criticized for it.
If a woman manages to win even one Grand Slam title, she still has to work nearly forever to earn the same amount of money that her male counterpart earned for winning just one. Even today with equal prize money in Wimbledon, the Female Winners of the Grand slam get only 40% of the amount as the male winners. Several female tennis players dedicate most of their careers to the sport and end up retiring empty-handed. This is not just because women do not have as much time in their careers to practice and score points. Rather, it is because of the discrimination that women face that male sports stars get a bigger cut of the total income. Women are given lesser prize money for winning in equal prize money tournaments.
But there is one significant difference in their lives as it’s presented to us. The other biographies are written by men – for men. Rarely is there a woman treating these male cricketers as subjects of her interest, seldom from the female gaze? The point is not only that the media should report on women’s sports as it does on men’s, but also that they should report on their individual lives. We know nothing about the female cricketers – they seem to be faceless and nameless. Only once in a while does one hear their names, and that too because of some controversy or other. Until a few years ago, women sportspersons were just abstract ideas in the public domain. There was never any direct contact with them. We knew only the men who represented us and cheered for them. Or rather, we cheered only for the men and hoped that some of their luck would rub off on our women at some point.
Women have a long history in athletics. It’s a history characterized by conflict and discrimination, but also by tremendous achievements by women athletes and substantial improvements in gender equity and women’s and girls’ empowerment. The first woman to swim in a 100-yard freestyle in one minute during the Olympics of 1932 was Heleno Madison of the United States of America; the first woman to compete at a European Grand Prix car race in 1958 was Maria-Teresa de Filippis of Italy. These accomplishments have been achieved against several barriers based on discrimination against men and women. Women were often seen to be too vulnerable in sports, especially endurance sports like marathons, weightlifting, and cycling, and sports, especially reproductive health, have often been contested in the past. In 1896, the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, said: “Even if the sportswoman is tight, her organism is not cut down to support certain shocks.” These prejudices fostered discrimination against women in physical and leisure and competitive sport, sports, and sports media based on gender. Gender discrimination in all areas, in all areas of involvement in sport and in physical activity, driven by continued stereotypes of women’s physical ability and social responsibilities, restricts the beneficial results of sport for gender equality and female empowerment. Women are often unintentionally separated into various forms of sports, events, and competitions aimed especially towards women. Women are restricted from the local level to the international level in their access to leadership and decision-making positions. Women’s sport is sometimes of less value than women, which results in insufficient resources and unequal earnings and awards. We need to create an equal ground for the women athletic, sports can be a game-changer and can make our women more independent, it is time that we shed this patriarchal approach and make for the equal rights provided in our constitution.
Patriarchy means men has the power over women and they get the priorities to have opportunities than females. We all know that female sportspersons face many problems than male because it has seen that opportunities and priority are given to male sportspersons and they overruled it towards female. In family, the head is mostly male who gives importance for education and career for son than daughter due to controlling the life and career of the daughter they don’t get opportunity to follow their goals which is wrong both male and female need to get an equal opportunity to follow their career goals. It has observed that, if women are going towards success men has the ego and jealous problems that how can women has the bigger opportunity than him because of which they try to create obstacles in her opportunities instead of that their are also men in today’s generation who appreciate female sportspersons but “some of the men”. For example: If there is team of sports in that male and female both are there in that also male will get the leadership rather than female. Why? This thing need to get changed and both male and female should get equal treatment with equal pay and opportunities in sports. And men is no one to control the women’s life they should also give the equal chance from childhood to both their daughter and son in sports. In today’s world, there are many females sportspersons who are achieving great success and making india proud but behind that they has done hardwork, dedication, faced lots of challenges, faced lots of discrimination, inequality and what not. But they keep going by believing in herself and ignoring the society mindset towards women the only thing they focuses on dedication, hardwork and positive support from people due to which the success has came in their lives.
No matter how much the world has progressed, the idea that women can never be equal to men still prevails as an ivy in our society. Be it at work, home or field, women face inequality everywhere.
Somehow we have believed that women and sports do not go hand in hand. The patriarchy related to sports have been prevailing in our society since forever. A guy is encouraged to go outside and play with his friends whereas a girl is not expected to do the same because well – a girl is a GIRL. Girls do not do sports. Our sports industry for too long, has been dominated by men. And despite the efforts of our women, we still cannot say that our sports industry has changed a lot. We never watch our women’s cricket team matches with the same enthusiasm as we watch the men’s team. And somehow it is easy for us to criticize all this but for the women who have to bear this on an everyday basis, it’s not a simple case of accept, forgive, and forget. Women need to go an extra mile to reach at a position where it is just a cakewalk for men in comparison. And the discrimination does not end here. Despite their talent or work ethic the wage gap between men and women still exists. The wage gap is seen in almost every sport played by men and women. They are often body shamed and accused of being a ‘showcase’ for men. They never get the same respect as men. Their sports is often overlooked by our society.Although women are now endorsing and demanding their social rights — in both their virtual and physical realities — the truth is that even till this day, women do not receive as much respect or recognition on the professional front as their smug male counterparts.
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