Page 7 - Gender Inequality in Sports: From Title IX to World Titles

see why those disparities exist and why
they’re perpetuated. Title IX has helped us
get closer to equity and equality. But we still
have a long way to go before sports equality
applies to children in elementary school
sports and world champion athletes alike.
Equality is, of course, the goal for
men’s and women’s sports. This book uses
the word inequality in its title because it’s
the word most people think of first when
they search for the imbalance of power
During her tenure on the US
Olympic and Paralympic between men and women. But more than
Committee, Hirshland equality is at stake. Men and women need
oversaw reforms focused on equitable sports opportunities, so this book
athlete wellness, including is also about inequity. Equality means
safety measures and
increased access to medical “all individuals receive the same things.”
and mental health treatment. Equity means “meeting people’s needs in
the pursuit of making sure individuals are
equal.” We need both equity and equality in women’s sports in the US.
Despite these equity and equality fights, a general disregard for women
in sports still exists. Here are a couple of examples, but there are many more:

• Former Louisiana State University head football coach Les Miles
was banned from having one-on-one contact with female student
employees, after he was accused of kissing one and texting her and
another student from his personal phone. He also requested that
student employees be “attractive, blonde, and fit.” The ban happened
in 2013, and Miles left LSU in 2016. He received no other sanction
for his harassment, though the athletic director recommended he
be fired. When this news broke in March 2021, he was placed on
administrative leave and then fired from Kansas University, where
he’d been hired as the head football coach in 2018.

WHy NOT EqUAlITy? 7