Changes in Gender Inequality in Canada in Sports Essay

Society expects males and pistillates to fulfill specific shake roles attitudes and activities that society links to each sex. Males are expected to be ambitious, strong, independent and warlike, which encour seasons males to seek out positions of leadership and play squad cavorts. And females are expected to be deferential, emotional, attractive, quiet and obedient, supportive helpers and quick to show their feelings (Macionis and Gerber, 2011300). These handed-down stereotypes deport been challenged and confronted by many wo hands and feminists, and in this paper we are exhalation to look specifically in capers and physical activities. My thesis statement allow for be that sex activity inequality has been decreasing over the last coke years. Women were slowly starting to embark in all sports which were considered to be masculine, and were just available for men to enjoy.One of the first particularors which could be linked to the liberty of women in sport in late 1 800 early 1900s is the safety bicycle. It non only caused a revolution in womens fashions womens acrobatic wear was finally being designed to accommodate more vigorous activity, notwithstanding was also a vehicle through which women broke with traditions and asserted their independence (Hall and Richardson, 1982 32-33). Slowly more organizations, sports clubs and tournaments were opening up for women. In the early 1900s, women started to participate in to the highest degree forms of sport, plainly were unflustered prohibited from activities in that location automobile trunk contact was possible.Period after the World War I and end-to-end the 1920s was really exciting for sportswomen in Canada and their fans. This often called the golden age of womens sports, it was time when popular team sports wish basketball, ice hockey, and softball game became sufficiently organized to hold provincial and Dominion championships when the best athletes, oddly in track in field, bega n to complete internationally and eventually at the exceptional Games and when women leaders and administrators took control of womens sports, claiming they knew what was the best for girls and women, although the advice of the man was tranquilize needed (Hall, 2002 42). In the 1928 Canadian women have joined Olympics in capital of The Netherlands for the first time for the track and field competition.In the mid thirties depression tightened its grip on Canada and the were signs that the Golden Age was over. Reactionary attitudes towards athletic competition for females was taking hold commercialized professed(prenominal) sport for men was on the rise, meaning that mens sports were given priority of approach to public facilities. Spectators were drawn away from the womens games to the exclusively male professional sports like ice hockey, football, baseball it became increasingly difficult to find sponsors for womens amateur sport (Hall and Richardson, 1982 36).World War II took its toll on both mens and womens sports. Although many of leagues continued to exist, goose egg took athletics seriously. Olympic Games did not start again till 1948. support war conservatism has been described by Betty Friedan women should desire no vast destiny than to glory in their own womanhood. Careers or commitments out of doors of their home were unnecessary for their personal fulfillment and undesirable for the satisfactory surgical procedure of the housewife role (Lenskyj, 1986 83)For the duration of war women were occupying mens jobs and were determined off as soon as men returned home to suck the rightful place. It was still alright for women to participate in beauty producing sports like figure skating, synchronized swimming, or gymnastics and as long as they looked pretty and feminine on the tennis, badminton courts, golf courses, and ski hills, they were not criticized. nevertheless women athletes which were sweating on the basketball courts, softball pitches , ice hockey rinks, and the clinker brick tracks were suspect, their femininity continually questioned (Hall, 2002 109).Participation in school, university and community neat programs however, was but likely to pose a threat to femininity. Basketball continued for the most part to be played by girls rules. Softball, an already simplified version of baseball, was in some cases was modified further for girls and women.In the 1960s not only womens femininity was being questions but also their sexuality. In the 1966 the first official sex tests were introduced, with three gynecologists optical examination to confirm that athletes genital sex was, in fact female. The inlet of sex tests coincided with significant advances for women in terms of their participation at the Olympic Games, with number of them increasing dramatically throughout the 1960s and mid-seventies. For example at the summer Olympics, the 800 grand running was reintroduced in the 1960s. Womens volleyball, the first team event for women was introduced in1964, along with pentathlon and 400 meter individual medley, swimming event.The 1968 Olympics in Mexico City six more swimming events were introduced and in the 1972 at Munich, the 1500 meter run, 4400 meter track relay, and kayak slalom were introduced. So the number of women on Canadas Olympic team has increased from 11.30 to 22.6 per cent for the Summer Olympic between 1960 and 1972, and from 21.4 to 38.3 per cent for the Winter Olympic Games during the equivalent period. Sex testing at the Olympics originally was called femininity control and was seek to determine who was genetically female, because prior to that where has been a lot of men who were laborious to pose as women, which was only found out after the fact and also women athletes were be advent more masculine, therefore it had to be turn up that they were actually females (Hall, 2002 153 -159).The sex testing did not stop until the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano.By the mid-197 0 all across Canada parents started noticing that their daughters were not being treated the uniform way as their sons when it came to recreational and sporting opportunities by the late 1970s there has been a lot of sports related complaints of sex discrimination. The majority of these cases were involving green girls who wished to play on all male sports teams. The main value of these human being rights cases was to bring public interest, concern and pressure to bear on eliminating unequal, sex discriminatory sport and recreation programs (Hall, 2002 163)In March 1981 Canadian affiliation for the Advancement of Women and Sport(CAAWS) was established. It started providing women athletes with funding and support. And finally in 1982 women were granted equal guard and equal benefit of the law in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Macionis and Gerber, 2011 305). outset of the 1990s in the most areas of organizational life including sports, has been a pernicious shift fr om equality to equity. Gender equity is the principle and manage of fair and equitable allocation of resources and opportunities for both females and males. This eliminates discriminatory practices that prevent the climb participation of either gender (Larkin and Baxter, 1993 4)In the past decade Canadian women are participating almost in all sports on competitive levels. In 1998, in Nagano, Japan, womens hockey was an official Olympic sport for the first time, and world of Canadian womens hockey changed forever.The game that originated in Canada had become part of our collective identity, continues to be our most popular sport and it is now played by women legitimately (Macionis and Gerber, 2011320) Canadian women Hockey team has won Olympic gold medal 3 times in a row 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, 2006 Olympics in Turin, and 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Their achievements have been absolutely amazing. They have showed that they force to be reckoned with. They actually h ave done better than Canadian male Olympic team.In this 2012 Olympics Games in London, England for the first time womens boxing is going to be introduced. And there has been controversy of women should wear shorts or skirts. The Amateur International backpacking Association (AIBA) requested that female boxers wear skirts so that would excite them more elegant on the trial basis at the European Championships and for permanent use in the Olympics. One of Canadian boxers Elizabeth Plank, told geological fault Katz of CBC radio sports news this January Forcing women to wear skirts, I think, its sexism. lastly AIBA have decided to have optional for female athletes to decide if they indispensability to wear skirts or shorts. (CBC Sports)As we are able to see gender stereotypes and discrimination in sports still exists. Women still do not trounce as much Media coverage as men do. They are still making smaller salaries than their male counterparts. Women athletes still have to look ravishing and attractive or they might be stereotyped as being lesbian, butch or masculine, if there are not.What about the in store(predicate)? It seems that future for Canadian women athletes seems bright. There are much more opportunities that are coming up for women in sports, for example in the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, Russia the addition of womens ski jumping has been approved. Women are going to support fighting for the equal rights to participate in sports events without being criticized to be unfeminine. Daniels (2009) argues that femininity masculinity divide still prevents women athletes to be taken seriously in their sports. And the best would be to embrace the polygendered way of being, which emphasizes the similarities between women and men, and that way female athletes will be given the chance to achieve their full sporting potential and be judged for performance, rather than their appearance.References1. Baxter, Betty and Larkin, Jackie.1993. Towards Gende r Equity for Women in Sport. ON CAAWS.2. CBC Sports, Feb 19, 2002 (http//www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2012/02/19/sp-aiba-boxing-skirts.html)3. Daniels, Dayna B. 2009. Polygendered and Ponytailed. Toronto Womens Press.4. Hall, Ann M. 2002. The Girl and the Game. ON Broadview Press Ltd.5. Hall, Ann M and Richardson, Dorothy A. 1982. Fair Ball. Ottawa The Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.6. Lenskyj, Helen.1986. Women, Sport and Sexuality. Toronto Womens Press.7. Macionis, John J and Gerber, Linda, M. 2011. Sociology.7th ed. Toronto Pearson Canada Inc.