The study of gender in sport isn’t theoretical for me.
It’s not a chapter in a sociology of sport textbook that I study in order to an exam; it’s personal. I come from a family of athletic girls who’ve competed in numerous sports and who’ve watched as our mom ionately tried to keep WTSN, a network devoted to women’s sports, alive as senior vice-president. Needless to say, I’m intensely aware of the inequalities that present challenges for female athletes.
As a varsity athlete at Queen’s, I have never experienced any direct, gender-based discrimination from the istration or coaching staff. That said, there are definitely prevailing stereotypes about women’s sports that exist here, just as they exist throughout North America.
As both a competitor and a spectator at Queen’s, I’ve noticed a sharp increase in attendance at male sporting events. Although I’ve never done any formal analysis regarding the issue, my guess is that the average spectator’s argument would go something like this: men’s sports are faster and, as a result, more enjoyable to watch.
I agree, men’s sports are faster. But this doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of watching a women’s game. The game may be played differently due to biological differences, but the components that make sport so enjoyable—the skill, the ion, the game’s ebbs and flows, the behind-the-scenes rivalries—remain.
The general perception regarding women’s athletics also seems to suggest women can only legitimately compete in some sports. When I tell people I play soccer, the response is positive. After all, Mia Hamm and the American squad, dubbed the “girls of summer,” popularized the sport in the 1999 women’s World Cup.
When I tell people I play football with a group of other female Queen’s athletes, the response is strikingly different. It usually consists of some awkward chuckling (I guess they think I’m kidding) and some questions designed to confirm their inner suspicions that I don’t actually play football. Yes, I tell them, there is tackling, there are offensive and defensive playbooks and there is as much ion and intensity as you would expect in any football game.
Perhaps it’s the intense aggression required in order to excel at football that throws people off. After all, girls are assumed to be ive.
I would encourage anyone who maintains that assumption to attend one of our women’s varsity team or competitive club practices. I can assure you from my experience the athletes are anything but ive.
The challenge lies in how to fight the mainstream perceptions that deem women’s sport to be lacklustre. Although there’s no single solution, increasing public exposure of women’s sports is one way for them to gain more respect. The media must idolize female athletes just as they do male athletes. Every young, female sports fan should be able to name a female as their favourite athlete. In Canada, we have more than enough female athletes who embody success in a far healthier manner than some of the female celebrities whose faces bombard media outlets.
With this in mind, Queen’s female athletes should be encouraged to get out of the Queen’s bubble and into the community, particularly in schools. Encouraging Kingston girls to lead active lives and providing them with healthy role models are just some of the ways this type of outreach would be beneficial.
Sport is just one sector of society in which women face inequalities, but because of the public exposure it receives it can lead the way in promoting gender equality. This would take a conscious effort by advertising agencies, media networks and athletic organizations to and make the exposure of women’s sports a priority.
I’m not naively suggesting women’s sports should take prime time television spots—television networks naturally want to earn the most revenue and male sporting events bring in that cash. But not airing female sports at all is hardly the answer. We see women’s golf televised, but for every one women’s game shown there are countless more hours devoted to men’s sports. Yes, there are probably significantly more men than women who would identify as sports fans, which seems to justify the differences in television hours devoted to each gender’s sports. But how can there be any progress made in the appreciation of female athletes and their sports unless they’re made visible?
I was at a football game this year that was tied at its conclusion and went into double overtime. The field was lined with spectators and the coaches painstakingly considered every play call. After numerous changes in possession and drives up field, the game was decided by a 28-yard field goal.
Sound exciting? It was, and my twenty-five female teammates and I celebrated because we had just won a hard-fought game.
Kate McKenna, ConEd ’08, is the goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team. She’s also a Journal staff writer and delivered the graduating athlete speech at the 72nd annual colour awards March 25.
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