Women in Sport & Their Portrayal by Media

OutletsPart 1

Gender discrimination Inequality Stereotypes

What issues have women faced?

Title IX in the US Equality rising Stereotypes being proven wrong

Have these issues changed?

776 B.C – Women are excluded from the Olympics so compete in their Games of Hera

1811 – First women’s Golf tournament is held in Scotland

1900-20 – P.E educators strongly oppose competition among women, arguing that it will make them less feminine

1900 – The first 19 Women compete in the Olympics in just tennis, golf and croquet.

1956 – Dawn Fraser wins her first of 3 gold medals in the 100m freestyle at the Olympics

1958 – Women are admitted into the international cycling championships

Important moments in Women’s Sport

1964 – Larissa Latynina holds the record for the most medals in Olympic history: 9 Gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze

1968 – Enriquette Basilio is the first woman to light the Olympic flame

1971 – Billie Jean King is the first woman to win more than $100,000 during a single season in any sport

1972 – Laura Blears Ching is the first woman to compete against men in surfing

1974 – The first issue of Women’s Sports magazine is published

1975 – Junko Tabei is the first woman to reach the summit of Mt Everest

1976 – Ann Meyers is the first female recipient of a full athletic scholarship at UCLA

1982 – Debbie Brill proves that motherhood does not signal the end of athletic careers

1984 – Svetlana Savitskaya is the first woman to walk in space

1984 – The first Tour de France for women is run 1989 - Chris Evert is the first tennis player ever to

win 1,000 games 1996 – Spalding Sports markets a baseball glove

made specifically for the female hand 1998 – Venus Williams records a 204kmph serve 1998 – The IAAF announce two more sports will be

added to the Olympic line up for women meaning they will now compete in the same number of events as men at the 2000 Sydney Olympics

2004 – Women’s wrestling is included in the Athens Olympics

2012 – Saudi Arabia send women to the London Olympics, making it the first Olympics to have women in every team

2012 – America send more women than men to the London Olympics

2012 – Women outmedaled men for the US, China & Russia

Archived newspapers show nothing but praise for past athletes

What about discrimination?

John MacDonald, The Australian, Feb 2, 1998

Are women sexualised? What about men?

So what role does the media play?

1998 versus 2013 Woman’s coverage versus

men’s coverage Television broadcasts Newspaper reports Magazine sexualisation

Has this changed?

The Daily Telegraph Website, 5/4/13, Sports Page

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport

Where should we look for an article about Women’s sport?

i

And what will we find, once we find it?

Michelle Jenneke, 19 Year Old Hurdler

Lindsey Vohn

http://www.totalprosports.com/2012/05/23/15-of-the-most-influential-women-in-sports/

There are articles that further show the misrepresentation

between women and men in sports

Women struggle to receive respectful quality coverage of their sport in mainstream news media

When woman’s sports are covered, they trivialise the athleticism of the women

Stereotyped as being views as masculine when playing in team sports WNBA marketed athletes femineity

It’s Not About The Game: Don Imus, Race, Class, Gender and

Sexuality in Contemporary Media