=ITY4ALL

As March Madness approaches and as the NBA (National Basketball Association) teams start working on securing play-off positions, media coverage is all over this sport. Colleges and Universities at all levels are preparing for championship tournaments. The excitement is here and the consumer wants more. The viewing demand goes up, the money starts to role in, the sponsorships are put in place, and the networks are ready to provide the waiting fan as much coverage of basketball as we can handle, at a price. 

This is the month that we tackle one of the most over exposed sports in North America, basketball. Through our research, we will provide the proof that every aspect of basketball has some form of inequality.  

We will also offer thought provoking questions from which to suggest future research to invoke change and bring better equality to sports. 

This month our topics are on:

Sports Player Salaries 

Amendment to the Civil Rights Act

Silencing, Trivializing and Sexualizing Women

Framing Race IN=ITY 

Surviving Managing in Sport Culture

The Politics of Sports

We must plant the seeds equally to have equal growth

How do we make a change for female athletes in professional sports?

We need to make a change in professional sports for pay inequality to support the increase in women sports and fan bases. There has always been a case in the sports industry in the areas of marketing and financial to keep pay unequal for men  and women in sports .  Sports are based on how much money they can make and the distribution based on revenue driven outcomes.   In the article by professor Lough from University of Nevada, "The case for boosting WNBA player salaries", states, "Last year (2017), total attendance for the WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) 12 teams reached 1,574,078, with average attendance of 7,716 fans - a new high for the 21-year-old-league.  Three teams experienced double - digit growth:  Attendance was up 17.8 percent for the Los Angelas Sparks, 15.3 for the Connecticut Sun and 12.3 percent for the Minnesota Lyne.  As a point of comparison, the". (Lough, 2017).  This data is showing the constant increase in crowd attendance in female professional basketball.  

As sports emerge they continue to be mentored and cultivated and the right resources need to be directed to allow and support the growth.  This leads us to ask the questions such as: Did the NBA (National Basketball League) have its' first day?  How did it become so big and have so much influence? As a point of comparison, the NBA didn't draw crowds of this size until its 26th season, when the league averaged 8,061 fans per game.  (Lough, 2018)

Reference

Lough, Nancy, August 9, 2018. The case for boosting WNBA player salaries. The Conversation ,

https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-boosting-wnba-player-salaries-100805

Rights should be equal for all

 Is it even possible to enforce an Act such as the Civil Rights Restoration Act?

In the year 2020, we are still advocating for access to sports for females.  Since the inception of organized sports, this has been an area of focus and social advocacy.   

In the USA, the congress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988.  This Act applied Title iX to indirect recipients of federal funding.   One section of the regulations pertains to athletics, and requires institutions to effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of members of both sexes. The regulations also require that athletic facilities and support service e provided on an equal basis for men and women. (Pickett et al, 2012)

The reality of changing the act and then enforcing it, are two different things.  To go further when discussing this inequality, Picket,Dawkins and Braddock came to the stark realization that a "greater emphasis must, therefore,  be given to racial considerations in Title IX mandate of achieving equality of access,  because school sport participation is especially important for young women of colour as they are more likely to participate through schools than through private organizations.before school sport participation. (Pickett et all, 2011)

As a society, we need more leaders, role models and more support for women's sports at a younger age and through environments that make them feel accepted and valued for their contribution. 

Reference:

Pickett, M. W., Dawkins, M. P., & Braddock, J. H. (2012). Race and Gender Equity in Sports: Have White and African American Females Benefited Equally From Title IX? American Behavioral Scientist, 56(11), 1581–1603. https://0-doi-org.orca.douglascollege.ca/10.1177/0002764212458282

Media needs to step up to the plate and change their content

Who has the most power to make change?

They way in which we think from the moment we open our eyes and brains until the moment we close the, and what information we fill them with drives our motivation.  We need to get motivated to make the change from inequality to equality in sports.  To get motivated, we need the correct influences, and the most influence in today's society is media, in every form imaginable.

How mainstream media deal with this issue in their programming moving forward will be the ultimate game changer to seeing action in the actual world. Missing from the media frames was critical self-reflexivity on the media's log-standing tradition of silence, trivialization, and sexualization of female athletes. Only a few articles actually dealt with issues pertaining to women's sport, such as gender discrimination in sport or the sexualization of female athletes in media, or African-American female athletes in sport.Moreover, the national newspapers in the sample included between two to three times the coverage of Imus/Rutgers University controversy than on the entire 2007b NCAA women's basketball tournament (which spans 2-3 weeks). (Cooky et al, 2010)

It will be our responsibility as the media consumers  to stand up and hold all media sources responsible for their content and message.  How many viewers they receive is their outcome measure for value.  Our job is to ensure that we don't take part in readership  that does not communicate with inclusive content.

Reference:

Cooky, C., Wachs, F. L., Messner, M., & Dworkin, S. L. (2010). It’s Not About the Game: Don Imus, Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Media. Sociology of Sport Journal, 27(2), 139–159. https://0-doi-org.orca.douglascollege.ca/10.1123/ssj.27.2.139 

When the mindset changes, so will coaching is sports

What is a workable solution to increase diversity the coaches we are seeing lead our sports?

For equality to take place in the coaching field, the governing bodies that implement policies and procedure must recognize and implement diversity and equality at all levels of sport.   It is critical that they encourage diverse applicants and strengthen their understanding of the needs of all groups coming from all perspectives, not just one.  Fostering change is needed in National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and the politics around them.  As the governing bodies listening to all key stakeholders, they are been predominantly driven by white leadership, voice and power.  

From the inception of organized sports, there has been a set of specific ideologies that have created the landscape to where we are today. These ideologies are argued to sustain the institutional racialised processes and formations within the governing administrative structures in sport organizations and NGBs that serve to normalize and privilege White people in sport coaching, while deeming 'race' and ethnicity concerns as insignificant. (Rankin-Wright et al, 2015) 

Until we have diverse representation in these bodies and all voices are heard equally, we will continue to see inequality.

Reference

Rankin-Wright, A. J., Hylton, K., & Norman, L. (2016). Off-Color Landscape: Framing Race Equality in Sport Coaching. Sociology of Sport Journal, 33(4), 357–368. https://0-doi-org.orca.douglascollege.ca/10.1123/ssj.2015-0174

How women are surviving sport organizational culture is still a mystery top many.

How can we change surviving to thriving for women in sport management?

Organizations in general are constructed on values, beliefs and assumptions shared by the member of the organization.  These values, beliefs and assumptions are agile in and always changing.  How organization share and accept each others values will define the input into the organization and the in the end.  Through the review of an organization, you will find that following aspects give us a good perspective of the culture; work ideology, language, gender awareness, physical aspects, informal socializing and sexuality . 

Both men and women hold sexist thoughts, it is what they do with these thoughts and how they carry themselves out in the world that manifest in organizations.  there are so many examples of discrimination and harassment to women in sports. the manner in which they are spoken to, the tasks they are given at their jobs, and the reference in nature to being a "sweety", or "dear".   The signs of inequality are everywhere. In addition, the daily emotional labor that women perform in managing their reactions to such experiences may take a toll, not only in the amount of energy spent of this task versus work-related tasks but also in an eventual decision to leave the industry ( Hindman & Walker, 2020)

As athletes we need to hold our organizations accountable for their policies and procedures and ensure that we are leaders through action in making this happen.

Reference

Hindman, L. C., & Walker, N. A. (2020). Sexism in Professional Sports: How Women Managers Experience and Survive Sport Organizational Culture. Journal of Sport Management, 34(1), 64–76. https://0-doi-org.orca.douglascollege.ca/10.1123/jsm.2018-0331

Our sporting organizations are still perpetuating social racism as it suits their needs

How do we get organizations to move away from individual needs while moving towards an all stakeholders needs?

As we look around at management positions and coaches in or school systems and they are predominantly white, male and heterosexual.  These are the people with the most voice to drive change at a level that is needed so critically for our youth.   The message of diversity and inclusion is happening slowly as we see people in these positions of power feel threatened for their jobs, their way of thinking  and how they are viewed on society. 

Although alternative models (e.g., Sport for Peace [Ennis, 1990]) for delivering a physical education curriculum that is structured more equitably have been suggested for at least a decade, few schools have considered them, much less adopted them.  Why? Perhaps because discourse empowers those at the top of the social hierarchy and works to preserve their favoured status: once more, the articulation of (white, male and heterosexual) institutional power. (Duncan, 2007)

It is now up to the hiring agencies through pressure of the community to ensure that all levels of community roles need diversity and inclusion.  As tax payers it is our responsibility to voice this need to our politicians and vote based on them.

Reference

Duncan, M. C. (2007). Response to Carrington’s “Merely Identity: Cultural Identity and the Politics of Sport.” Sociology of Sport Journal, 24(1), 67–75. https://0-doi-org.orca.douglascollege.ca/10.1123/ssj.24.1.67