Sport plays a vital societal role in promoting intercultural dialogue, health, education, and individual development irrespective of a person's ability, religion, gender, political affiliation, race, and socioeconomic background. However, it was not until the Summer Olympic Games in 2012 that every nation's delegation included a female competitor. Women represented 44.3 percent of all athletes 9in the London Summer Olympic Games in 2012. In recent years women have dramatic breakthroughs in sports, including the first full-time feminine referee in the National Football League and the first-time feminine coach in the National Basketball Association. However, a greater availability of women in sport does not lead to greater recognition or correspondence, and the positioning of women in sport remains challenging and contested. This is partly due to biological differences, as well as societal and cultural influences. Therefore, this research's primary objective is to reflect on the challenges that continue to plague female athletes' performance globally and how equality can be promoted in sports.
Gender impartiality has been contentious in society ever since the beginning of time. In history, one can find numerous instances where women experienced equity in relationships, careers, education, and athletic opportunities (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p.36) . Traditionally, the world of sport has been dominated by men in terms of governance and participation. Although their presence and involvement have gradually progressed, women and girls worldwide still experience fewer opportunities, corporate attention, investment, and training when they play sport. Although gender equality is a worldwide endeavor for all women, the sports industry suffers to great lengths with this problem as female sportspersons are engaged in a continuous fight for their rights, a fight that makes some of them give up on their dreams. Firstly, females are objectified by coaches, fans, and commentators for people look at women's sports to showcase their enjoyment. Female athletes encounter sexist comments from men who believe that they are not talented and robust enough to perform well (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 780) .
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However, the biggest dissatisfaction for women is the inequality of pay amongst genders. Although the pay gap between genders has been narrowing over the years, it is still prevalent. Today, 83 percent of sports award male and female athletes equal prize money, with football, golf, and cricket displaying the most significant pay gaps. There are also discrepancies in media coverage of men's and women's sports events (Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé & Antunovic, 2016, p.772) . Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé & Antunovic (2016) asserts that sports journalism in print media is dominated by men, with more than 90 percent of the content being written by male journalists (p. 772). More than 85 percent of the content and coverage are dedicated to male athletes. Despite widely publicized sporting events, women and girls receive little attentiveness from mainstream sports media. In the U.S., women's sports reporting accounts for 2 percent of broadcast sports programming and 6 percent of print media sports articles (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019) . Equally, in other countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, fewer than 10 percent of tv sports reports and print media sports articles focus on women's sports (Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé & Antunovic, 2016, p.782) .
Even with the creation of more prospects for women in sports, little has been done to decrease the stereotypical image of females in sports. Furthermore, little has been done to demonstrate equal opportunities for women in sport management and the difficulties women face in a highly masculinized sports organization. This is because most individuals continue to refute that women athletes are more than competent of performing at a higher level and create a spectacle for their audience (Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé & Antunovic, 2016, p. 785) . Therefore it is necessary to reduce and eliminate the stereotype that women are not the same as men in sports and sports management. Even though women are given equal opportunities, they are less likely to be offered equal opportunities or participate in sports (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 50) .
Annotated Bibliography
Billings, A., Angelini, J., MacArthur, P., Bissell, K., & Smith, L. (2014). (Re)Calling London: The gender frame agenda within NBC’s Primetime Broadcast of the 2012 Olympiad. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , 91 (1), 38-58. doi: 10.1177/1077699013514416.
Before the 2012 London Olympic Games, most televised sports before it was considered a "boys club." According to Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Bissell & Smith (2014), the London Olympic Games in 2012 represented 44 percent of women in the overall athletic population (p. 39). This study analyzes the representation of women in the 2012 London Olympic Games mainly because of the increased population of female participants and the attention female athletes were given by mainstream media irrespective of their sex as long as their country was competitive. The article discusses the progress women have made since the Olympic Games were instituted in 1896. Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Bissell & Smith (2014) states that the London Olympic Games broadcasted female athletes at an elevated rate than the Winter Olympics in the history of female sports. However, men athletes were broadcasted higher than women athletes (p. 40). The research by Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Bissell & Smith (2014) is based on the hypothesis that women sportspersons received less clock time than male sportspersons in the 2012 London Olympics that were broadcasted on NBC (p. 41). According to the results of the research, this hypothesis was not supported by the broadcast. From the research, women obtained 54.5 percent of the primetime reportage contrasted to 45.2 percent coverage was dedicated to men (p.41). Hypothesis two of the research predicted that the top-twenty most-mentioned athletes would be men, but the opposite occurred (p. 41). Instead, fourteen of the top-twenty mentioned participants were female. Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Bissell & Smith (2014) asserts that 2012 NBC's Olympic Games broadcast marked the first time that women athletes gathered more clock-time than male athletes, female athletes constituted more appearances than males in the most-mentioned categories, and it was also the first time that women gathered more mentions than their male counterparts (p. 48). Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Bissell & Smith (2014) attributes the success of women's athletes to the increased focus that NBC placed on women's sports. As a result, the women's Olympic team in the U.S. secured more gold medals than men (49). Besides, the U.S. females' Olympians acquired more medals than the combined total of men and female athlete medals in any other country (p. 49).
This article is essential to the research on giving women athletes equal opportunities in sports. This article employs a different approach in presenting key facts and information that support the presentation of female sportspersons in women's sports and the televising of female sporting events on mainstream media. The key takeaway from this article is that irrespective of society's gendered perceptions, female athletes can perform better than men. The televising of women's sports increased their self-esteem, patriotism, and abilities in striving for the best. This article also reinforces the consistent gender biases on the parts of sports reporters and commentators who aired comments about the attractiveness of women instead of their athletic ability. The reliability of the article's information is that for the first time in the record of women's sports, female contestants earned more clock-time and mentions than men in a highly broadcasted sporting event. However, the article falls shorts because it does not indicate whether female athletes received mentions because of their athletic abilities or their attractiveness.
This article is important because it provided a comprehensive analysis of the progress made by female athletes in women's sports. This article reinforces the notion that Title X not only increased women's participation in sports but also resulted in one of the largest televised shows on television. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge the development of women's sports participation in the last 50 years. This article also calls for further research to be conducted on how televised sporting events can be used to support women by proving compelling stories of women's athletic abilities and not their sexual attractiveness or appeal.
Source Questions
This article was retrieved and accessed through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database provided by the Sac State Library website using the terms "women," "athletes," and "equality."
This research article is reliable because the information provided is verifiable across other articles found in this annotated bibliography. The information provided by the article is consistent with the other articles that showcase the plight of women in fighting for representation in sports.
Used Quotes
"Forty years after the passage of Title IX—the 1972 education amendment that prohibits educational institutions that receive federal financial assistance from discriminating based on gender—the seventeen-night NBC network primetime Olympic broadcast proved to be a historic chapter in televised sports (Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Bissell & Smith, 2014, p. 48) ."
"Over the past forty years, women's sports participation has grown exponentially in the United States. Popular women's sports like the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women's World Cup made athletes like Brandi Chastain mainstream celebrities, while an increased focus on women's college sports such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) March Madness did the same for players like Baylor's Brittney Griner (Billings, Angelini, MacArthur, Bissell & Smith, 2014, p. 53) ."
Laucella, P., Hardin, M., Bien-Aimé, S., & Antunovic, D. (2016). Diversifying the sports department and covering women’s sports: A survey of sports editors. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , 94 (3), 772-792. doi: 10.1177/1077699016654443.
This article explains the inequalities visible in female athletes' representation in sports and management positions in mainstream sports media. In the sports journalism industry, women are unrepresented as news directors, sports directors, or general managers, indicating that women do not make up any of the key leadership roles in sports media. This article states that sports journalism departments continue to reinforce and promote prejudice in preference to men and male sports. The article explains that the legislation of Title X in 1972, a law that prohibited women's bias based on sex in educational organizations, resulting in women's involvement in sports growing more than 900 percent, but the change in sports coverage is yet to materialize. Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé, and Antunovic (2016), in their literature review, posit that even with the improved participation of women in sports, the perception of sports reporters, directors, and editors have not progressed beyond the lens of identity and equal participation (p. 775). From the literature review, Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé, and Antunovic (2016) assert that mainstream media with increased female sports reporters and editors may result in more coverage of female athletes (p. 775). The literature review conducted by Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé, and Antunovic (2016) reveals that sports directors and editors make selection decisions based on individual attitudes, organizational requirements, routines, organizational requirements, institutional norms, and individual attitudes about women's sports (p. 780). Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé & Antunovic (2016) also claim that the representation of women athletes even after enacting Title X does little to encourage the global cultural acknowledgment of women in the sports industry. Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé & Antunovic (2016) conducted a quantitative study based on the recent developments surrounding gender and sport from 200 mainstream newspapers in the United States in terms of circulation size (p. 785). The study found that an increase in the number of female sports editors increases the coverage of female athletes in mainstream media.
This article is important because it provided a thorough analysis of the role of mainstream media editors in the covering of women's sports, hiring or female sports reporter, their perceptions around promoting female reports in their departments, and the beliefs around Title X in the coverage of women's sports. The reliability of the research in the article is reinforced by the sample size of 200 mainstream newspapers in the United States in terms of sales to provide a more comprehensive analysis. This article is important in the discourse of gender equality in the sports industry because it considers the beliefs of sports editors who are predominantly male in creating more opportunities for sportswomen reporters in journalism who can take up more managerial roles in newsrooms. The research conducted by the authors indicates that female representations in mainstream sports media and women's athletes can be increased to new thresholds if societal norms are to be broken. In the limitations of the research, the authors state that the availability of only six female editors could have made it impossible to determine how gender differences influence the issues around coverage and hiring.
This journal is key to gender parities in the sports industry because it does not only look at the negative experiences of women but also the progress that has been made in order to achieve equality in sports. The article goes further to interview sports editors and directors on mainstream media to find out what their thoughts are on increasing the participation of female athletes in sports and how they can promote women empowerment in their organizations to facilitate more women's sports coverage. This article helps shape the perception that incorporating more females in the sports mass media industry could lead to a better analysis of women's sports.
Source Questions
This article was retrieved and accessed through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database provided by the Sac State Library website using the terms "women" and "athletes."
This source is appropriate because it addresses the subject matter of gender equality in sports. It provides in-depth information on the issues echoed by other sources in this literature review.
Usable Quotes
"Even though "greater numbers of women invaded the temples of male supremacy" and challenged some sexist norms in the newsroom, the add-women-and-stir approach did not completely remove institutional barriers and, as the literature suggests, certainly did not result in a drastic change in the coverage of women's sports (Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé & Antunovic, 2016, p. 775) "
"A diverse workplace exhibits inclusion and equal opportunity in hiring, treatment, opportunities, and advancement at all levels. Discussions in academia and industry have focused on gender discrimination and inequities in U.S. newsrooms (Laucella, Hardin, Bien-Aimé & Antunovic, 2016, p. 780) ."
McClearen, J. (2017). “We Are All Fighters”: The transmedia marketing of difference in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). International Journal of Communication (19328036), 11, 3224–3241.
The primary objective of this article is to investigate UFC's (Ultimate Fighting Championship's) different marketing strategies across its mixed martial arts empire – including nationality, sexuality, race, and gender. McClearen (2017) states that UFC's produced the largest pay-per-view content in mixed martial arts when it headlined the first contested fight between two women (p. 3224). McClearen (2017) alleges that UFC is responsible for promoting and shaping the career of the prolific fighter, Ronda Rousey (p. 3224). The article continues to state that UFC was the first sports pay-per-view media entity to support and promoted the first self-declared LGBTQ championship belt that was won by Amanda Nunes. McClearen (2017) describes the inception of UFC and how the UFC used transmedia marketing strategies to promote the image of its distinct athletes making it the first organization to market difference in terms women's ability in sports (p. 3225). UFC made its mark in the martial arts industry by increasing pay-per-views with diverse sexualities, races, genders, and nationalities. As McClearen (2017), describes the evolution of UFC, she criticizes the UFC for the over-sexualization of UFC's female cast (p. 3235). McClearen (2017) assert that UFC's marketing team overemphasized the sex appeal and hyper-femininity of female athletes indicating that although they were established in their field, it was important for their sex appeal to remain intact. From this, it can be concluded that the UFC's marketing campaigns highly targeted a male audience and fighters had to exist both as athletes and sex objects (McClearen, 2017, p. 3235). Although UFC was successful in the marketing of women as athletes, they were unable to let women stand independently as athletes without a focus on the sexual appeal for the male gaze (McClearen, 2017, p. 3235). McClearen (2017) discusses how UFC in its pay-per-views and promotional content emphasizes on the beauty and strength of female athletes that appeal to feelings of empowerment and inspiration to promote the reality show (McClearen, 2017, p. 3236). However, there are concerns on how UFC over sexualizes female athletes which indicates that the organization still promotes the traditional treatment of women not as athletes but sex symbols (McClearen, 2017, p. 3236).
This source is important because it provides a detailed analysis of how media companies use the bodies of female athletes as sex objects rather than their ability to excel in sports. Although the UFC was successful in promoting women first as athletes through transmedia marketing strategies, the media company had to represent female fighters as objects of the male gaze in order to draw support for the promotion of female fighters. Just like any other sports organization, the UFC overemphasizes the sex appeal of female fighters in order to increase their visibility in sport. One advantage of UFC is that the company is facilitating the notion of identification and belonging which means that every fan has a fighter that represents despite the structural inequities that promote women as sex objects first and as fighters second.
This journal vital to research equality in sports because it shows the different perspectives on how beauty and strength can be used to promote female athletes. The author analyzed the UFC's marketing strategies and how they promote fan engagement and female athletes. Although the article fails to provide solutions on the over-sexualization of women in the UFC, the article adds to the available literature that despite the success and progress female athletes have made, the regular appearance of women in sports is yet to overcome the traditional linking of female sex appeal to female athletic empowerment.
Source Questions
This article was retrieved and accessed through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database provided by the Sac State Library website using the terms "women" and "athletes."
This source is pertinent to this research because it presents the gendered discourse that has prevailed in the sports domain reinforced by masculine hegemonic boundaries that continue to segregate women in sports opportunities.
Usable Quotes
"On the other hand, the explicit sexualization of female athletes and the earnest concentration on appearance reveals the UFC still retains vestiges of legacy media's treatment of female athletes and fans (McClearen, 2017, p. 3236)."
"On the one hand, female fighters can be reduced to their sexual difference and status of an object within the male gaze, and female fans can be reduced to desiring beauty. Yet, on the other hand, women can be inserted into the TUF formula like any other identity group because difference is something all individuals possess: a process that increases the visibility of women in the sport (McClearen, 2017, p. 3237)."
Zbigniew, D., Organista, N., & Mazur, Z. (2019). Still marginalized: Gender inequalities in the largest Polish daily’s sports coverage. Communications , 44 (1), 33-57. doi: 10.1515/commun-2017-0047.
This article is about the inadequate representation of women's sports in media reporting. Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur (2019, p. 34) claim that that the inadequate representation of women's sports in mass media is connected to the societal belief of sport as a male construct and with women as the "other (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 34) ." The article also claims that most of the studies on gender inequality in sports media coverage has been focused on practices in the United States and Western Europe (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 35) . Due to different cultural and historical backgrounds, the underrepresentation of women in sports needed to be researched from a new perspective. Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur (2019, p. 34) reconstruct gender inequality in sports media coverage based on Polish society's structure. The article achieves this by conducting a qualitative and quantitative study of the articles offered in the leading Polish daily newspaper – Gazeta Wyborcza, in terms of the articles dedicated to men and women and how male and female sport was described by the newspaper. Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur (2019, p. 36) quantitatively analyzed 2,997 articles between 2010 and 2013, and they found that only 387 from the Polish daily newspaper were dedicated to women's sports. During this period, the article states that the percentage of articles during this period that were related to women's sports did not surpass 15.3 percent (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 36). From the quantitative analysis, the article stresses that women's sports in the articles of the Gazeta Wyborcza was underrepresented, and media coverage was also different (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 38). Women were only covered for individual sports, and the coverage on team sports only occurred when these teams were representing their nation. From the results of the qualitative assessment, the articles largely objectified women based on their appearance solidifying the claim that women's most valuable resource is their appearance and not their prowess in sports (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 42).
Most of the information on gender inequality in sport is focused on English speaking countries. This study on the largest newspaper site in Poland solidifies the claim that female athletes lack the attention and recognition in sports media. The information provided by this source is important because it shows that female athletes are marginalized in mainstream sports media. The article also solidifies the allegation that female athletes, sportswriters, and sportscasters experience objectification and scrutiny and serve little more than "ornamental roles." However, the article falls short because it only examined a single newspaper source in Poland when more insight could have been gathered by analyzing articles in the five most prominent newspapers in Poland on women's representation in mainstream media.
This article is essential because it highlights the persistent inadequacy of mainstream media on the reporting of women's sports and female athletes. The qualitative and quantitative analysis conducted in the article further indicates that the underrepresentation of women in mainstream media has been consistent throughout the years, even after the proliferation of women's sporting events during and after the 2012 London Olympic Games. This revelation hurts both female athletes and reports as they continue to face skepticism of their knowledge and abilities, as well as the pressure to conform to societal norms. This article helps shape the argument that the increased participation of women in sports does not suggest that access has improved. However, the nature of their participation and inclusion continues to be challenging. Besides focusing on English-speaking countries, this article shows that other countries face similar problems in women achieving the same status as men in mainstream media coverage, which is primarily defined by historical and cultural underpinnings.
Source Questions
This article was retrieved and accessed through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database provided by the Sac State Library website using the terms "female" and "sport."
The source is thought to be reliable based on the accuracy of information found in the source. The information on the underrepresentation of women in mainstream media builds upon the information already known from the subject.
Usable Quotes
"The descriptions of and comments on women and men's sports are also fundamentally different. The descriptions of female athleticism are often balanced by descriptions of their roles outside the sports world, as well as by their emphasis on physical attractiveness (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 45) ."
“Information on female team sports occurred almost exclusively in the context of the performances of national teams, which indicates that gender was not a decisive reason for publishing a given material, but the fact that these teams were representing their country. The performances of Polish female athletes in the disciplines believed to be masculine ones were not covered as well (Zbigniew, Organista & Mazur, 2019, p. 52).”
Zolides, A. (2020). Gender moderation and moderating gender: Sexual content policies in Twitch’s community guidelines. New Media & Society. doi: 10.1177/1461444820942483.
In the last decade, the videogame industry has expanded rapidly, especially in the United States, with the games market exceeding $43 billion in revenues in 2018 (Zolides, 2020, p. 5) . Despite this growth, the industry is facing an increasingly apparent disparity among audiences. This article focuses on the misrepresentation of gender on the largest live-streaming video game platform, Twitch – belonging to Amazon. In recent times, women are complaining of being sexually and racially harassed on the platform, which resulted in Twitch updating their Community Policies, which centered on harassment and sexual content on the platform. Zolides (2020, p. 8) asserts that the community guidelines' policy update resulted from public pressure. Instead of the policy update responding to the claim of women being sexually harassed on the streaming platform, it exacerbates the issue further by promoting gendered interactions. According to the article, Twitch primarily focuses on live videogame streaming, with more than 15 million daily active users watching gaming content. Zolides (2020) analyzes Twitch's user policy and how it promotes gendered performances and interaction on the platform (p. 12). Zolides (2020) also argues that video-streaming and live-streaming platforms that encourage platform defined "sexual content" encourage structural forms of gendered dominance and segmentation by supporting hegemonic and disempowering patterns of femininity in an already male-dominated environment (p. 14). Issues surrounding gender, femininity, and masculinity are problematic within the video gaming industry. Thus, the article argues that Twitch's moderation policies promote the imagined differences between men and women, thus impacting the gaming culture and industry negatively. The article asserts that Twitch's dress code and other forms of image management are always gendered and racialized, considering that the platform is predominantly male and White (Zolides, 2020, p. 15) . The article discusses how the moderation policies on video-streaming platforms like Twitch influence particular identities and ideologies that result in the harassment of certain groups that impact the gendering performance on the platform (Zolides, 2020, p. 18) .
Electronic sports are commonly known as e-sports in competition based on organized video gaming. Competitors as individuals or teams face off in the same games, such as Call of Duty and Fortnite. In recent years, the world of sports has been diversified with the emergence of video games, with players of traditional sports leagues such as the NBA functioning similarly. This source is vital to this research because it provides critical information on how women in electronic sports are treated virtually behind computer screens. The primary purpose of this article was to provide a comparison of gender inequalities between traditional sports and esports. Although the article's focus was on policies, it was evident that women are constrained in the ability to express themselves, and they are not given similar opportunities as men. Gender equality and representation has been a challenge in the gaming industry with overly sexualized female players and the underrepresentation of women in both traditional and electronic sports.
This article is essential because it provides an analysis of how women are not only disadvantaged in traditional sports but also electronic sports. The article also reinforces organizational policies that promote gendered interactions in the world of sports and are biased, especially on women. In a male-dominated world, this source contends that policymakers in the sports industry claim to be impartial and supportive of women. However, instead, they implicitly reinforce dominant gendered ideologies that impair the development of women. The information in this source is reliable because it expounds further on how organizational policies promote a particular structure of control when it comes to not only to issues of gender but sexuality, class, and race.
Source Questions
This article was retrieved and accessed through the Communication and Mass Media Complete database provided by the Sac State Library website using the terms "gender" and "sport."
The source is deemed trustworthy because it analyzes how policies influence the perception of women in sports. The source explores the gender, ethics, and inclusivity problem that is affecting the electronic sports gaming industry.
Usable Quotes
"The belief that when one enters the "public," they are subject to dominant ideological standards is presumed, and thus Twitch's assertation that at-home streams still constitute publicness can be seen as a way to insert those standards into the home (Zolides, 2020, p. 15) ."
"The purpose of this article is to understand precisely how the moderation policies and public-facing community guidelines of social media companies like Twitch influence and interact with the community in the privileging of certain identities and ideologies and, more directly, in the harassment of particular groups of people (Zolides, 2020, p. 7) .
References
Billings, A., Angelini, J., MacArthur, P., Bissell, K., & Smith, L. (2014). (Re)Calling London: The gender frame agenda within NBC’s Primetime Broadcast of the 2012 Olympiad. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , 91 (1), 38-58. doi: 10.1177/1077699013514416
Laucella, P., Hardin, M., Bien-Aimé, S., & Antunovic, D. (2016). Diversifying the sports department and covering women’s sports: A survey of sports editors. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , 94 (3), 772-792. doi: 10.1177/1077699016654443Z.
McClearen, J. (2017). “We Are All Fighters”: The transmedia marketing of difference in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). International Journal of Communication (19328036), 11, 3224–3241.
Zbigniew, D., Organista, N., & Mazur, Z. (2019). Still marginalized: Gender inequalities in the largest Polish daily’s sports coverage. Communications , 44 (1), 33-57. doi: 10.1515/commun-2017-0047
Zolides, A. (2020). Gender moderation and moderating gender: Sexual content policies in Twitch’s community guidelines. New Media & Society , 146144482094248. doi: 10.1177/1461444820942483
