This Is Everyone`s Game

 What is it like, to watch your brother play from the window of your kitchen with your hands pressed against its bars (like a prisoner) and those dreamy eyes eagerly capturing every moment, and the heart beating eagerly to get out there and kick some balls? What is the struggle like when, even if you go out to play, the chains of society pull you down from the top of The Everest back to your prison- which you are forced to call home? That's what it is like to be a girl who is in love with Sports. 

In this article we look to analyze the problem of gender inequality in sports and the solutions to level the playing field for the same.

1.     Grass Root Problems

Sports is predominantly associated with masculinity- that huge physical dominance or towering presence. Meanwhile, the societal conception of a girl is that she is physically inferior to a boy, and isn't mentally tough enough to cope up with the challenges in sports. These sexist ideas and beliefs are often cloaked in words spoken with genuine love and affection by people who we just can’t fight against.

It’s this kind of annoying, care-about-you sexism that extends to sports. This is seen when a lot of parents send their boys out to play with bats and balls, while their girls get dolls and the odd skipping rope. And who can question them when they do so under the pretext of ‘protecting’ their kids? The way children are brought up has a huge influence on their interest in sports.

Many boys are mocked right from a young age for playing with girls or “getting beaten by a girl” and it is seen as a sign of weakness by them. A lot of girls, meanwhile, grow up without even the presentation of sports as an option in their lives. 

You'd probably notice this even in your schools, where “boys’” sports and games are very often prioritized over that of “girls'". It is either because the management simply doesn't care enough to spend adequate time and resources needed to bring together a girls’ cricket team, or it's that parents aren't willing to let their girl children go out there and join such teams.

The story of Shafali Verma, who had to disguise herself as a boy to play the sport she loved, highlights how deep-rooted the gender inequality across all fields, and sports, in particular, is, and how surface-level ideas and programs won’t work unless these toxic beliefs change right from the grassroots.

This is the foundation for a couple of problems we hear about day to day in sports:

1.   Gender Pay Gap

 Why does this gap exist?

1.     Lower Rates of Participation

When there are limited women in a workforce, their ability to collectivize and demand things such as higher pay and better sporting foundations is significantly less. And less people in a workforce signals that the demand for them is low, and therefore, the cost of paying a woman becomes less.

2.     Lack Of Media Coverage

Since women's sports is less popular in society, it consequently receives less coverage from various broadcasting houses because their primary motive is to reap more profits and they don't, if less number of people watch a particular event. This directly affects the income which female athletes receive as their income is often based on their boards selling such broadcasting rights and, them receiving huge endorsement deals. This is a vicious cycle as YOU NEED MORE COVERAGE TO ENGAGE MORE PEOPLE!

3.     Motherhood

The very fact that women need to take maternity leave and spend some time away from the sport, or could potentially retire to spend time with their kids is the basis for this inequality to exist. The idea is that a mother would miss significant phases of her career due to motherhood, usually at the same age at which a male athlete peaks, so the latter is seen as a better investment.  This is particularly true in a competitive field like sports where motherhood could force you to retire, or injuries mean that you're forced back into motherhood because that is the only alternative society is giving you.

2.     No “PRIDE” in sports

 

1.     Daily Discrimination

Imagine the trauma gay athletes go through when they have to hide who they are in order to get into sports, or their parents not even letting them pursue their passion because their sexual orientation is something to be “ashamed of”. So they are excluded from sports on so many different levels just like women are, and for similar reasons as well.

2.     Sex-Testing

Organizations like the IAAF, that don't have much regard for who you are, mandate really uncomfortable procedures like sex testing. For athletes like Caster Semeya and Duttee Chand, the level of testosterone in their body is a hurdle they've to cross to compete in the women's category- the one they identify with, just because the IAAF believes (without concrete scientific evidence) that it provides them an edge over other athletes. They are forced to take hormone therapy, which could have harmful side effects to their body, if they want to compete as a woman. Michael Phelps, however, wasn't asked to pop pills just because he naturally had a tall, wide frame which assisted in his swimming.

This kind of homophobic and transphobic mindset has persisted for decades and has left the LGBTQIA+ community far behind the finish line. 

How do we solve it then? 

1.     Get people interested in sports

There is something for everyone to do:

●        Husbands: take paternity leave and make sure your wife gets the maternity leave benefits as well.

●        If you are a parent, encourage your daughters to dive deep into sports, get them the necessary equipment and let them play with the boys in your colony, no harm done.

●         Students: if schools won't have a girls’ football team, no worries; YOU take the initiative to form one by convincing and gathering other girls in your schools and locality and have little girls league matches every Sunday. There are plenty of role models out there like Megan Rapinoe and Serena Williams and if you take the initiative, it could be you next!

●        Sports enthusiasts: watch and engage with women's sports as well. Get behind them and give them the support they deserve cause at the end of the day it is the SPORT which is growing, your COUNTRY which is winning. 

This would automatically incentivize schools to set up teams and organizations and invest in women's sports because they notice widespread demand for the same. Our backing would equip women athletes to demand better facilities and pay.

2.     Institutionalize Reforms

Abolish practices like sex testing and bring in more inclusive methods and standards. Make grants to schools conditional on them having a girls' sports team, set up scouting networks across the country to unearth young talent. Push your representatives to pass laws and introduce bills that makes sports a safer and fair field through proper conduct and procedure to report and deal with cases of sexual assault, and shorten gender wage gap. 

Not being ALLOWED to succeed in something you are passionate about despite dribbling past tackles, jumping over hurdles, swimming through oceans and climbing mountains just because you are who you are, is utterly ridiculous and shouldn't be the case. For those who think otherwise, mind you, this is everyone's game!

 

An Article By,

S. Sri Ganesh Prasad

And my wonderful guest writer,

G. Shreyas