Here's a quick homework assignment. Google your local newspaper and click on the sports section. Count the number of articles profiling female athletes. Count the number of articles profiling male athletes. Take out your calculator and do the math.

The answers are not in the back of the book; they're right in front of you.

Thirty-six years after Title IX brought national attention to gender discrimination in school sports, "the mass media still spend a grossly disproportionate amount of time covering men's sports while ignoring, marginalizing, or trivializing women's sports," says Michael A. Messner, author of Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports. This is not so different from 1970, when "gender inequity [in sports] appeared so natural [to Messner], it was invisible." At that time, our mothers and grandmothers could participate in intramurals, cheerleading, and a few other loosely organized athletic activities. But they lacked uniforms, funding, official teams, favorable press coverage, and most importantly—respect on the playing field.

Since then, women have worked hard and played hard to gain widespread recognition for their athletic talents. Still, women's sports achievements often appear invisible to the mainstream media.

Here's your next homework assignment: analyze this trend in a broader context.

Does the shortage of women's sports coverage reflect that fewer women care about pro sports? That fewer women play sports? That there are fewer paid positions in pro sports for women? That the press doesn't care as much about women's sports? That their target audience doesn't care as much about women's sports?

Short answer: yes.

Next question: why?

Old habits and expectations are difficult to change. Girls need female sports role models. They need to see their heroines on television and in the news. They need to see professional opportunities for female athletes. They need to see that others actually care about women's sports.

Parents need to see this, too. If our culture doesn't demonstrate that women can gain respect through athletic prowess, then why would responsible parents encourage their daughters to pursue sports?

Fortunately, we've got lots of young girls and women willing to challenge archaic belief systems about femininity and athleticism. Not all of these women approach sports from a feminist perspective. They might not care about social history or gender politics. Some girls just like the feeling of sweat pouring down their mud-stained faces, muscles driving forward across the field. Some girls do it to win, training months or years for that moment when they cross the line first. Some girls just want to play, and they won't listen to any excuses about why they shouldn't.

Lack of prominent female role models in sports? Perhaps. Lack of girls and women muscling their way past social disparities and kicking butt on the field? I think not.

I was watching snowboarding videos from our local terrain park yesterday afternoon when my friend Alex told me that he never feels comfortable in the lineup for jumps and rails. "There are a lot of snowboard-jocks who just aren't trying to welcome me" he said. He's right, to a certain degree. Whether you're at a mountain, a skate park, or a basketball court, the regulars are usually pretty good, they usually all know each other, and they can seem intimidating when they get together. It makes getting started in a new sport hard sometimes, especially if you stick out from the regulars-- if you're older, younger, or another gender, it can feel like people are staring at you with lasers for eyes.

That was the experience of Sally Smith, who began surfing at the age of 32. In an interview with Nina Wu of CoastNews, Smith talked about her experiences kick starting the sport and encountering less-than-friendly attitudes from younger, male surfers. Surfing, in theory, is a sport that everyone should be welcome in-- if you've ever seen Johnny Tsunami, you remember the mantra: "waves are for everyone". So why do so many athletes have such a hard time welcoming newcomers, especially women?

The media plays a major role in it. When surfing was invented by the Polynesian peoples of modern-day Hawaii, it was a sport that women and men participated in alongside each other. Today, however, surfing is a mega-industry with clothes, videos, magazines and sunglasses marketed to the surfing population. One thread that seems to run through all of the product tie-ins is a dubious depiction of women. I used to subscribe to a few surf magazines, and the amount of women-surfing coverage paled against the omnipresence of women-in-bikinis and women-dropping-water-on-their-t-shirts. Women have always had a place in surfing, but sex sells. Women have always been surfing, but surf mags seem to suggest that a picture of a brawny man shredding waves will sell more copies than a woman surfing, and a female bikini-shot will sell more than a men-with-oily-pecs swimsuit shot. It's marketing, plain and simple. It's unfortunate that it gives so many impressionable kids a skewed perspective on women's contributions to the sport, but there are a number of women and organizations that are holding it down for girls in the lineup. There are magazines, surf shops, and surf schools all dedicated to getting more women on the waves and building a community for those already surfing. There's also the photography of Elizabeth Pepin, which I found to be really awesome. Check it all out!

Girls On The Run is an organization dedicated to using athletics to improve elementary-school aged girls' athletic abilities along with their self-confidence.  From the GOTR website, the organization's objective is to "provide a safe environment where girls can express themselves, build confidence, and learn from each other. We believe it is critical to reach girls at an early age in order to teach them these important life lessons and to prevent at-risk behavior such as eating disorders, substance abuse, depression, obesity, and adolescent pregnancies."

GOTR runs after-school programs twice a week in various towns and cities, led by dedicated athletes.  A number of GOTR's instructors also run for "Team Tiara", a fund-raising branch of the organization that uses mentors' love for running in marathons and triathlons as a way to finance the after school programs.  It's great to see mentors 'putting their money where their mouth is', so to speak, participating in the same activities that they're trying to get kids excited about.

Running is a great sport to get kids involved in because anybody can do it, and all you need is a pair of sneakers.  You don't need any special facilities either, so nobody is excluded.  If you want to run, you can run-- it doesn't matter if you don't have a lot of money, or if you can't get a ride to the field, or if you don't have a team to play with.  Girls on the Run organizes programs all around the U.S. and Canada, so check out their listings and see if it's something you'd like to get involved in-- if you're too old to enroll, you might be able to help out as a volunteer.  You could kickstart someone's lifetime of physical fitness and self-confidence.

Today while browsing the web and looking into women's sports, I found this Question and Answer column from a female skateboarder.  "I feel uncomfortable as a girl skater - what should I do?" the reader asked.  Being a female athlete in general is difficult, but some sports in particular are highly male-centric.  Football and skateboarding come to mind immediately, and what they have in common is the risk of injury, of bruises or scrapes or collisions.

 

Girls are socialized at a young age to be composed, perfect, and poised-- bruises and scrapes don't fit in with the typical image of femininity.  Think about how many women use make-up every morning to make their skin look more uniform and perfectly colored-- girls that are raised to think that covering up all of their blemishes is normal are not going to be interested in cultivating scabs and bumps through athletics.  Lots of men have similar ideas about how a girl should behave too, and athletes are no exception.  Female athletes are sometimes forced to face not just a lack of support from women, but bad attitudes from men as well.  It's a tough spot to be in.

The advice that the author gives applies to athletes everywhere, male or female.  Unfortunately, since girls are so outnumbered in rough sports like football or bmx, when they show up on the scene, they're often subject to more intense scrutiny than a guy would be.  About.com's Steve Cave says that respect and a good attitude are the two most important things to keep in mind.  He wrote:  "a lot of skaters out there feel something similar, not because they are girls but just because skaters in general can be looked down on. And a lot of skaters, feeling like this, get a lot of attitude. They wrap themselves up in a bad attitude and project a harsh persona so that when people insult them, they won’t feel it as much. Sometimes it’s like we expect to be treated bad, and so we ACT bad, so that it all happens on our own terms. However or why-ever this happens, it’s a bad situation, and I want to encourage you to be careful not to slip into it. You should really and truly be yourself!"  In other words, don't let yourself get negative when things are harsh and people don't seem very accepting. 

 

He continues, "With or without friends, you want to make sure that you show a lot of respect while you are there. Start out skating in an area where there aren’t many other skaters, and if you want to practice dropping in, then make sure you practice in a spot free of other skaters." Getting in people's way is a great way to make a bad first impression.  It's something that everybody should learn, male or female.  If everyone were respectful and positive, female athletes wouldn't be having a tough time in the first place.  So when you're on the field or in the park, doing whatever it is you do, be polite to the people around you!

As the end of Hispanic Heritage Month draws near, I found myself interested in the barriers faced by Latina/o athletes in the United States. A really great New York Times article written in 2002 discussed the specific cultural challenges for Latina girls in sports. Poverty, language barriers, obesity, and high dropout rates prevent many girls from joining athletic programs. (These factors are all connected, btw. They are perhaps the most visible symptoms of racial inequity as it affects Latina/o communities in the US.) Cultural traditions also frequently place Latina girls in charge of household chores more often than their brothers. In addition, competitive sports are often seen as unfeminine and therefore undesirable activities for girls. Also consider the lack of Latina athletic role models; can you name three professional Hispanic female athletes? I can’t.

The New York Times cites these reasons for the under-representation of Hispanic girls in high school sports programs.

[Side Note: When I did a Google search for “famous Latina athletes,” Google responded, “Did you mean ‘famous latino athletes?’” It reminds me of that period of time when typing “she invented” into a Google search elicited the automatic response, “Did you mean ‘he invented?’” The bloggers went wild over that one (for good reason—check out this feminist critique), and I believe that Google administrators went in and manually changed the auto response. Ah, the evidence of a sexist society shall appear in the form of Google’s best attempt to make helpful suggestions for search term typos.]

USA Today also discusses how traditional household roles for Latina girls often prevent them from playing. Who’s going to take care of the baby sister while Mom’s at work? Who’s going to cook dinner when parents need to make money for the family? These domestic responsibilities often fall upon the teenage girls, and limit girls’ time to engage in after school activities, sports, etc. In Mexico, for example, most schools don’t offer after school activities. The afternoon is for helping the family, not for playing sports. That custom carries over across the border for many first generation families moving to the United States from Mexico.

"The racial/ethnic sub-group to benefit the most from sports participation is Latina girls," Women's Sports Foundation executive director Donna Lopiano says. "There's no question that if we can solve the problem of parental support ... and create a more nurturing, motivating environment ... that we can make some great contributions to Hispanic girls in terms of their future health and well-being." (USA Today)

While I can’t blame struggling families for asking their daughters to help, I do hope that Hispanic American girls will be able to overcome social barriers that make athletic participation difficult. It would be great to see more Latina girls and women playing sports.