Women in Men's Sports - Should it be Allowed
Posted: Tuesday, June 26, 2007
by Nishan Wilde
Robbins Sports and Athletics
Over the past century, women have come along way in terms of equality. Ever since Women’s Suffrage (which, by the way, may be the worst name ever for women’s equality), in most apsects women have been put on a level playing field with their male counterparts. During the brunt of the 20th Century, women largely spent their time tending to the home. However, as a society we have since left those archaic times, and women currently comprise nearly 50% of the work force.
I generally feel as if I am a progressive thinker. In no way, shape or form do I believe that women are of a lesser life form than men. Women are just as intelligent, talented and capable as men, far surpassing men in some areas. However, when it comes to sports, it is a virtual certainty that men are bigger, faster and stronger than women. As a result, it is no secret that women find it rather difficult to compete with men. But, does that mean that women should be excluded from the male side of sports? Not necessarily. I feel that in sports like swimming, golf, track, and tennis, women should be allowed to compete with men if they feel up to the task. You may be wondering why women should be allowed to compete in some sports and not others. Here is why. The aforementioned sports are individual, non-contact sports. If there is no physical contact between the contestants, the outcome of the game depends less on physical prowess than on skill. Physicality still is a factor, but not nearly as much as in team or contact sports. When skill is the main deteminant, I don’t see any reason why women should not be able to play with men.
However, when it comes to contact sports like football, bsketball, soccer and hockey, I personally don’t think that women should be allowed to compete. My reasoning is two fold. First, when women and men play together, men find themselves at a distinct disadvantage. Men have been raised to treat women with respect and kindness. This notion definitely shows up on the playing field. For example, when in college I participated in co-ed intramural sports. As I found myself playing against a female opponent, I felt bad taking the ball away from her. Furthermore, even if I did decide to take the ball, I did it in a very unnatural way, trying not to be too rough. I simply did not want to be that “jerk" who was too physical with a girl. Because of experiences similar to my own, I feel that women should not be allowed to play contact sports with men.
The second reason I am against women in male team or contact sports is as follows. I have heard countless horror stories of sexist treatment of women who play male sports. The one that comes to mind occurred in 1999. At the University of Colorado, a young women by the name of Katie Hinda played on the football team as a replacement placekicker. During her tenure at Colorado, she was subjected to sexual harassment on a daily basis, eventually claiming that she had been raped by a fellow teammate. Regarding whether or not women should be allowed to play sports with men, I thing this instance speaks for itself.
In summation, I want to reiterate my belief that women are equal to men. However, when it comes to contact sports, there are just too many issues and obstacles in the way. Not only are men at a psychological disadvantage because of our society’s consensus towards gentle treatment of women, but also, women can often times find themselves in very compromising, even dangerous situations. Therefore, women in men’s sports is not a good idea.
Nishan Wilde is VP of Sales at RobbinsSports.com, an online resource for Gym Bags and Portable Scoreboards
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)this article is a true belief to some, some may beleive that women should not be allowed to play mens sports because, either women are to feminine and men and sometimes women think that women may not be as agressive as men would be. Even though some people think that women aren't agressive enough, well i am here to state that women are known for their attitude toward each other and they can also take it out on men, if women have that much anger or attitude between school mates imagine how they would become if they wre to become ccompetitive against another team or other competitors.
this was great thank you i am using some of your stuff in an essay because we arechanging the world! =) and i have a string belief about this and i am going to change this issue
I disagree with your comments on co-ed contact sports for several reasons. First, while women on average are smaller than men, women still have the same physical potential as men- differences in body types are just as great within the sexes as they are between the sexes. Men behaving differently with females in contact sports, as you have suggested, is purely a social construct and epitomizes the reason why this view needs to change. If women demand to be treated equally as men and are willing to be in a game where they can be tackled, checked, or otherwise crushed, then they have every right to participate just as men who potentially can be tackled, checked or crushed. It is currently a matter of ingrained social thought that women should be treated "respectfully" and not hit or touched and that form of thought needs to change in order for women to be given the opportunity to show that they can compete with men- until then, we will only be holding them back, thinking that we are "protecting" them. Men must be able to face a competitor without any prejudice for race, color, creed, sexual orientation or sex in order to make sports equal. It is not any inferiority of women that men cannot play against them as if they were any other opponent, and quite frankly, it demeans them. Second, I don't believe people see what the female body can achieve in terms of body type- for example, google an image of a female body builder and tell me women cannot get big enough or strong enough to compete with men. Of course a heavily muscled female form is socially off-putting, but that is a problem with social thought and not female abilities. Just because that form bothers some people, doesn't mean women shouldn't strive to reach physical comparativeness with their male counterparts and succeed in competing alongside them. Venus Williams is a fit, toned 6"1" and 178lbs. That is an athletic physique no matter the sex, and if she further trained her body, she could be bigger and stronger. Lastly, as for women being harassed for playing with men in contact sports, that is a problem that men need to deal with and should not serve as a barrier in women playing these sports. Men need to be educated on the subject of gender equality, and it needs to be understood that harassment will not be tolerated by the public. Look at someone like Jackie Robinson. Someone believed in him, that he could play baseball with Caucasians, and he suffered through severe racism until people finally saw that African Americans could play on equal footing as Caucasian Americans. I feel this to be very similar to women attempting to play alongside men. They need that chance, and they need us all to help give them that chance- to train with the best, play with the best, and get paid like the best. This, coming from a man.
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