Sexism in Sport

Recently sexism in the sporting world has been a hot topic on the press, with many people arguing either side about whether sport really is sexist. I will intend to argue both sides of the discussion, and hope to draw some conclusions about the sporting world and what we could realistically expect in the next few years.

Sexism is like a cold. It'll always be there because it exists in so many forms, in different degrees of seriousness. There isn't a friendship group alive that doesn't make some sexist jokes, be that male to female or vice versa, even if they are tongue in cheek. So to expect a traditionally male dominated area like sport to not be sexist overnight is ridiculous. That said, it doesn't make it right. Judging someone as worse before you have had a chance to see what they can do is unfair, whatever you base that opinion on. This is what happened to one Lionel Messi as a boy, he was too small, so judged to be not good enough. As we have seen, that was a ridiculous judgement to make. So should women be allowed to play in the same leagues as men in sport? And does the argument that women should get paid the same amount stand up?

The answer to the second question, in my opinion, is largely no. If the male form of the game attracts the most interest/investment/viewers, as is largely the case, then the men should get paid more due to basic economics. The average man is stronger and faster than the average woman, and the same holds at the top of the sports, which would give men an advantage if sports were unisex, so the sports are split according to gender. If a woman wanted to swap to the male side of the sport, she would have to be prepared to be at a disadvantage physically, if not technically. So my answer to the first question would be yes, but on the same conditions as the men. Sport is reaching a tipping point in regards to sexism, but it should not start making it easier for women to play in male sports, as this would risk lowering the viewership of the sport, and making sexism even more of an issue. If the sports governing body are saying that women aren't good enough to play under the same conditions, what are the general public going to think?

I would love to think that in the modern world we live in that we are getting close to a point where women are going to begin playing in male sports, but i don't see it happening for a while. Football is not the sport I think is going to make the breakthrough, because although you may be able to punish the players that behave in a sexist way towards a female player, your average season ticket holder is not going to be worried about sparing the feelings of this first player. Especially the first time this female player gives the ball away. If the breakthrough for women is going to be made, it's not going to be a contact sport, at least not on the pitch.

The fact that there are no women in coaching roles in male sport shows how sexist the game, as well as the players, can be. To have a female manager would have no bearing surely, as it is the technical mind that matters. The only reason I can imagine this not happening is that the players would not respect the female manager, and you can see from people like Ashley Cole and John Terry that they don't respect women anyway, god help it if that woman tried to tell them to do something. Sexism in sport exists because sexism exists, it's never going to completely go away, which is a real shame.

I really hope that sports can become more inclusive, even if its not football. Surely we should look at more purely technical sports to make the first step? Snooker, darts or Olympic sports like Archery? These give no benefit to being stronger/taller/faster, so there should be a much smaller gender gap, if any at all. I would never force sports to be unisex, I would just offer women the chance to try if they wanted to. Tennis is one of the only sports I can think of where the genders are seemingly on equal standing. They have the same prize money, and at times they even play together. There are no rules to favour the women in Mixed doubles either, and there can be no bias if the governing body of the sport wants to eradicate sexism.

So yes, sport is sexist, but that's not sports fault, most of the world is sexist. But that doesn't mean sport shouldn't try harder. F1 has just got its first female test driver, and Bernie Ecclestone has already hit on her. People like him need to be kicked out of sport, and I would love to see more women in technical positions amongst sport, because some of the female coaches I have encountered over my time in sport have been just as good as their male counterparts. If football can make the first move, brilliant, but I think it has to come from other sports for football to take the sexism row seriously.

Someone be brave, please.