{"id":20649,"date":"2024-02-13T21:33:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T05:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=20649"},"modified":"2025-08-21T09:22:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T17:22:28","slug":"gender-disparity-in-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/gender-disparity-in-athletics\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender Disparity in Athletics: How Far Have We Come?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: \u00a0Jaylin Hardin | Sports Editor, Libby Thoma | Staff Writer<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender disparities are common in the world of sports. Female athletes are generally broadcasted less, paid less and pitted against others disparaged in the weight and size category. This problem is international and does seep its way into Western \u2014 although Western is better about these disparities than other schools and professional sports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One issue within the sports world is how limited professional sports teams have been for women. The first professional men\u2019s sports league was Major League Baseball, founded in 1869, after the Civil War, with its first team being the Cincinnati Red Stockings \u2014 now the Boston Red Socks. The National Football League \u2014 NFL \u2014 followed suit in 1920. The United States eventually joined the Federation Internationale de Futbol and founded the National Basketball Association, known as FIFA and the NBA respectively, in 1930 and 1946.<\/span><\/p>\n

Women\u2019s sports, on the other hand, did not have the same starts or even advantages as their male counterparts did. For a period of time during the forties and fifties, there was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was created over concerns about Major League Baseball\u2019s viewership during World War II. After this period, women\u2019s golf became popular, and is currently the longest-running women\u2019s professional sport \u2014 the first Women\u2019s Professional Golf Association Tour started in the 1950s.<\/span><\/p>\n

In June of 1972, Title IX was passed, which prohibited discrimination based on sex or gender. From this point on, women began to get a leg up in, not only education, but also athletics and other federally funded programs. Professional Tennis also became very popular among female athletes at this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was not without its faults, however. Following the passing of Title IX, women still faced misogyny in athletics, as well as the struggle to establish their leagues. The Women\u2019s NBA, Women\u2019s FIFA, Pro-Softball and Volleyball leagues were not founded until the nineties, with many struggling to stay afloat throughout their history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another issue in the professional sports world is that the women\u2019s leagues are paid less than their male counterparts. For example, NBA players receive 50% of shared revenue from their teams and leagues, while WNBA players receive only 20%. In numbers, the average NBA player’s salary is $7.5 million a year. The average WNBA player\u2019s salary? $116,000 a year. That\u2019s a $7.3 million difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further, discrimination is still strong against female athletes and their level of play and abilities. For collegiate softball, one of the most common sayings against the teams is, \u201c450, dead center.\u201d This refers to the differences in field size and pitching style in softball and how most men believe they could easily hit a home run off the softball pitchers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Western\u2019s sport disparities are minimal but still exist. Although Western seemingly handles any disparities well, they do not handle it perfectly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One thing Western excels in is its treatment of male and female athletes. Throughout interviews, female athletes report being treated well, an equal part of the athletic population and happy to be involved with the sports.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was inequity or inequality in treatment, I would know about it,\u201d said Michael Gonzalez, the Student-Athlete Success Advisor. \u201cAny problems, they come to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Western also does a phenomenal job at broadcasting and advertising female sports \u2014 equally to male sports, if not more so. This is extremely important for funding, as advertising and broadcasting boost funding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Randi Lydum, the executive director of intercollegiate athletics, funding is distributed based on schedule and number of athletes and coaches on the team. Those with a more demanding schedule will receive more funding, while those who may travel less or have fewer athletes receive less funding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Scholarships are divided based on the NCA framework that gives the maximum of scholarships that Western can offer. \u201cWe try to make sure that the number of scholarships we\u2019re giving\u2026 matches the percentage of student participation,\u201d Lydum said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The school tries to ensure that female-dominated and male-dominated sports receive the same amount of scholarships, percentage-wise. Lydum states that they take equity in funding and scholarships seriously. Lydum also states that there haven\u2019t been any actual complaints about the amount of funding from athletes or coaches to her directly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c…if there is a problem I want to get it figured out. Although Western does equality well, it is not done perfectly. An anonymous athlete states that \u201cThere should be changes in the budget according to which sports are more successful,\u201d said Lydum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Western\u2019s 2023 Budget Reports state that football received 14,282 in general admin overhead, with baseball and softball getting 6,290. Football gets 165,000 in travel with baseball and softball receiving 85,000, which is the most out of all the other sports. Football exceeds all other sports in recruiting, receiving 12,240 with the other sports getting 1,700\u20135,100 at most.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is easily seen how much of a discrepancy football funds receive in comparison to other sports. Why is that the case when football is easily not the top-performing program?<\/span><\/p>\n

Football game outcomes are highly disappointing \u2014 losing eight of eleven games, with a winning percentage of .273. This is comparatively lower when compared to women\u2019s soccer\u2019s record of 8-5-6, with a winning percentage of .579, or even men\u2019s soccer\u2019s 11-3-3, .735.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This may be a gender issue, or this may be an issue of putting money towards \u2018needed\u2019 costs rather than wins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender disparities have been found in athletics throughout history, dating back to the very beginning of these sports. It is extremely important to ensure gender equity in our athletics department to set an example for others, and although Western is more careful about equity than other colleges and professional sports, Western can continue to discuss equity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Contact the authors at <\/span>ethoma23@mail.wou.edu<\/span><\/a> or howlsports@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":20650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Gender Disparity in Athletics - Western Oregon University","_seopress_titles_desc":"Unearth the realities of gender disparity in athletics. Discover facts, insights, and why equal representation matters. Learn more in this impactful read.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2103,2105,2104,246],"class_list":["post-20649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-gender","tag-sexism","tag-sexism-in-sports","tag-sports"],"modified_by":"Jared Montgomery","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22862,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20649\/revisions\/22862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}