School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)
La Salle women's basketball team
Abstract:
History of female basketball is old. The female athletes have always faced prejudice on the basis of gender biasness. Women athletes are often compared to male athletes on the basis of gender biasness. The resources that are spend on male athletes are higher than the female athletes. This research paper explores the factors that have contributed to the achievements of the La Salle women’s basketball team and opportunities that are given to them by the Institution. This institute provides equal opportunities to the female employees due to which the basketball team is excelling in the fields of supports. Despite showing brilliant performance in the matches, the team faces gender biasness from the audience. Female teams have to work harder in order to get acceptance from society. Aim of this paper is to draw attention towards the issue of discrimination that is still faced by female athletes. They are not given the same amount of coverage on media as male athletes. Issues like gender inequality, opportunities and resources allocation are discussed in the research paper. Results of the survey reveal that the La Salle female basketball team gets the same opportunities from the Athletic department like the La Salle make basketball team, despite the discriminatory behaviours of the general public.
Introduction:
La Salle is a private Roman Catholic institution located in Philadelphia. It was founded by the Institute of Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1863. This is a traditional institution with modern values. IT is the first institution of higher education the bears that name of St. John Baptist de La Salle. Despite its full commitment to the traditional values regarding God and this world the institution is the centre of all the modern disciplines. By staying true to its values of empowerment, it is empowering its female basket players into professional athletes. Initially, this institute didn't have a female basketball team. It's female basketball team, explorers joined A 10 in 1996 after leaving Metro Atlantic athletic conference that took place in the year 1992. It is common that female basketball teams in the educational institutions receive the appreciation and the required resources to excel in the sports. In the past female have faced different hurdles in their sports careers. And it is not easy to be a female basketball player, even at this time. This paper will take into account all the factors that ensure women's success and failure in the basketball career.
Research Methodology:
In order to analyse the factors that ensure that female basketball players excel in the sports, the research the La Salle female basket ballplayers were asked to participate in the survey. The primary and secondary scholarly resources are used in this research paper. It was essential to take into account all the factors that contribute to the success of the female basketball team from the perspective of the players and from the perspective of lay-man. The survey was designed to explore the answer of the three questions 1: Do female basketball player get the required training that is given to their male counterpart player? 2: Do they face gender discrimination in sports from their institution and from the audience that visits the matches? 3: Do female players get the same level of appreciation from the coaches and staff as the male basketball players? All the female basketball players participated in the survey. In order to find out if the opinion of the female players from of the alumni is similar about the institution and opportunities provided to the team by the institute, 5 of the alumni female players also participated in the survey. In order to see the general perception in the institution about the La Salle female basketball team, a survey was conducted in which 10 female and eight male students participated. These participants were not part of any sports team.
Impact of diversity and gender equality on the female basketball team
Diversity and equality are the concepts that ensure that all individuals get equal opportunity in all fields and aspects of life. In this time when so many female sports teams exist, still, these concepts have failed to fully embed in the culture and society. Female players and their teams encounter prejudice regarding their gender and abilities. Female athletes face prejudice not only from society but also from the media institutes. Media plays a hypercritical role in providing media coverage to the female players. When men players achieve in the match, the attention is solely given to his skills, strengths and weaknesses. It is highly focused on their performance instead of their looks and moustache. But in cases of females athlete’s media attention is not focused on the skillset and performance instead the attention of media is diverted towards their attractiveness of the female players. Famous female athlete Maria Sharapova is a famous example of the media biasness towards females. Media always praises her looks on television after her performance instead of her talent and compatibility. On the other hand, the same media preaches diversity and equality among gender. The coverage given to the female sports teams is always less than the men's sports team. And it can be attributed to the lower interests of the public in female sports ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ZCdHn2su","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(King)","plainCitation":"(King)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1985,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/JAACSL9X"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/JAACSL9X"],"itemData":{"id":1985,"type":"article-journal","title":"Media Portrayals of Male and Female Athletes: A Text and Picture Analysis of British National Newspaper Coverage of the Olympic Games since 1948","container-title":"International Review for the Sociology of Sport","page":"187-199","volume":"42","issue":"2","source":"SAGE Journals","abstract":"The purpose of this study was to examine British national newspaper coverage of male and female athletes competing at the Olympic Games since 1948. A content analysis was utilized to compare all articles and photographs of male and female track and field athletes in two British national newspapers. This study highlighted that within both newspapers, The Times and the Daily Mail, coverage dedicated to track and field events has increased dramatically since 1948. Although differences were found, generally the results showed that, compared with men, female athletes were underrepresented until the 2004 Athens Games. Although this study highlights that participating female track and field athletes have received greater newspaper equality in recent years, the profession of sports journalism is still dominated by men. Reasons for the findings are discussed.","DOI":"10.1177/1012690207084751","ISSN":"1012-6902","shortTitle":"Media Portrayals of Male and Female Athletes","journalAbbreviation":"International Review for the Sociology of Sport","language":"en","author":[{"family":"King","given":"Christopher"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2007",6,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (King).
Diversity and gender equality have failed to translate the general perception regarding female athletes in public. This inequality can be observed during the FIBA season. The difference in the attitude of the media and the public can be observed easily. The achievements of the men basketball received higher coverage in the media then the female team. The female teams that competed in the finals didn't receive the same amount of media coverage than the men's teams that didn't even reached the finals. All the news regarding the achievements of female athletes gets buried under the news bulletins and unimportant news. According to the Tucker research female athletes receive only 4 % of the total media coverage and this coverage is usually biased and more focused towards the female athletes’ sexuality ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"A6SGb9a8","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}Media Coverage & Female Athletes: Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport})","plainCitation":"(Media Coverage & Female Athletes: Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1972,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/DUTN298E"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/DUTN298E"],"itemData":{"id":1972,"type":"webpage","title":"Media Coverage & Female Athletes: Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport","URL":"https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/projects/mediacoverage.html","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",4,24]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Media Coverage & Female Athletes: Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport).
This trend can be observed in the stadiums and courts as well. The seating area in the basketball courts is usually empty in comparison to the seating area in the men’s basketball court. The number of audiences that attend the female basketball matches is lower in number then the audients that appear to see the men's basketball match.
Many critics compare female athletes to the men athletes in terms of physical power and performance. Female basketball matches are considered as boring and less entertaining than the male basketball matches. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"WNgYJMgF","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}THE GENDER GAP IN THE ENJOYMENT OF TELEVISED SPORTS - Stephanie Lee Sargent, Dolf Zillmann, James B. Weaver, 1998})","plainCitation":"(THE GENDER GAP IN THE ENJOYMENT OF TELEVISED SPORTS - Stephanie Lee Sargent, Dolf Zillmann, James B. Weaver, 1998)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1992,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/EVNMXRYL"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/EVNMXRYL"],"itemData":{"id":1992,"type":"webpage","title":"THE GENDER GAP IN THE ENJOYMENT OF TELEVISED SPORTS - Stephanie Lee Sargent, Dolf Zillmann, James B. Weaver, 1998","URL":"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/019372398022001005","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",4,24]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (THE GENDER GAP IN THE ENJOYMENT OF TELEVISED SPORTS - Stephanie Lee Sargent, Dolf Zillmann, James B. Weaver, 1998)In the study, it was found that participants had minimal experience of watching females sports matches and they only watched female sports if it is shown on the screen. But they have never seen any female match by physically attending any match. The similar study also revealed that the female sports coverage on regular media is just 10% and on sports channels, this representation is only 2% in comparison to male athlete representation ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"JOaCtJXR","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Academy)","plainCitation":"(Academy)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1976,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/64T35Z96"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/64T35Z96"],"itemData":{"id":1976,"type":"post-weblog","title":"Exposure to Women’s Sports: Changing Attitudes Toward Female Athletes","container-title":"The Sport Journal","abstract":"Authors: Travis Scheadler, Audrey Wagstaff, Ph.D., MJE\n\nCorresponding Authors:\nTravis Scheadler \ntscheadler@wilmington.edu\n(937) 751-5799\n6811 Oakland Rd\nLoveland, OH 45140\nWilmington College\n\nAudrey Wagstaff, Ph.D., MJE\naudrey_wagstaff@wilmington.edu\n(937) 481-2253\n1870 Quaker Way\nPyle Box 1221\nWilmington, OH 45177\nWilmington College\n\n\nExposure to Women’s Sports: Changing Attitudes Toward Female Athletes\n\n\nABSTRACT\nMany sports fans argue that women’s sports are boring compared to men’s sports. Simultaneously, women’s sports, compared to men’s sports, are","URL":"http://thesportjournal.org/article/exposure-to-womens-sports-changing-attitudes-toward-female-athletes/","shortTitle":"Exposure to Women’s Sports","language":"en-US","author":[{"family":"Academy","given":"U. S. Sports"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018",6,5]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",4,24]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Academy).
Performance of the La Salle basketball team
The female basketball explorers started to play in the year 1972-73 season. This team has 5 times participated in the NCAA Division Women’s Basketball tournament. In the 2015-2016 season, this female basketball team made a record of 655-553. This team as an ordinary seasonal champion of the MAAC in the year 1987, 1988 and 1992. This team won the tournament in the year 1986, this is also their only conference championship. La Salle team participated in the NCAA tournament in the year 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989. This team had various coaches in different years, but they were always men. This team is never coached by any female coach. In the basketball usually, all the basketball teams get coached by the male coaches, which raises a question that despite providing all the facilities to the female basketball players in the La Salle, does the athletic department doesn't believe that female team can be coached by the female coaches? The La Salle team’s current coach is Jeff Williams. He is a former basket player with an exceptional record in his seven-year tenure. After playing for two seasons in the University City HS, he joined the Panthers. He also reached WNIT in the year 2010. He has five years of experience in coaching Howard and recruited a class that was #12 nationally. This record is proof of his abilities and skill set. This shows that the Athletic Department is serious about the future of its female basketball team explorers. Despite the fact that Explorer never had any female head coach, it has female assistant coach Mora Gill and recruiting assistant coach Dalia Eshe. So it can be considered a coincidence that this team never had a female head coach in its history. Or maybe it is a pure case of gender biases on behalf of the athletic team. It is common phenomena that women's representation in the role of coaches is very less in sports then the male representation. In the majority of the cases in the female teams, coaches are men but no female coach exists that coaches a men’s team. A study reveals that men et more coaching opportunities than female coaches. ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ycGrXxVR","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Walker and Bopp)","plainCitation":"(Walker and Bopp)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1997,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/UC5GVNWK"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KZl8ZL3A/items/UC5GVNWK"],"itemData":{"id":1997,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Underrepresentation of Women in the Male-Dominated Sport Workplace: Perspectives of Female Coaches","container-title":"Journal of Workplace Rights","page":"47-64","volume":"15","issue":"1","source":"DOI.org (Crossref)","abstract":"Previous literature has researched the underrepresentation of women as coaches and in other leadership positions in women’s sports. This article adds to the literature by examining the nearly nonexistent role of women in the male-dominated workplace of men’s sports. Currently, women represent 42.6% of the head coaches in women’s sports while men represent 57.4% of the head coaches in women’s sports. In contrast, women represent less than 3% of the head coaches in men’s sports. This creates a double standard in which men are afforded greater coaching opportunities in both men’s and women’s sports. Conversely, coaching opportunities for women are limited in women’s sports and are mostly absent in men’s sports. Through in-depth, semistructured interviews, we explored how and why this phenomenon (i.e., the lack of women coaching in men’s college basketball) is occurring. The results suggest that the perception of gendered opportunities, maleexclusive social networks, and pressures to overcompensate for being female were all strong, negative influences on the perceived opportunity of women to sustain and pursue careers in male-dominated workplaces such as that of men’s college basketball.","DOI":"10.2190/WR.15.1.d","ISSN":"19384998, 19385005","shortTitle":"The Underrepresentation of Women in the Male-Dominated Sport Workplace","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Walker","given":"Nefertiti A."},{"family":"Bopp","given":"Trevor"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2010",1,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Walker and Bopp) In order to explore the factors that are behind the success of the team, the survey was conducted.
Survey results
When the current female basketball players were asked if they get the same type of quality and support from the Athletic department like the male basketball team, their answers were satisfactory. Around 80% of these female participants stated that they are satisfied with the level of support and training that is provided to the female basketball in comparison to the male basketball team. The 20 % was not sure if the female team gets equal opportunities to play in comparison to boys team as boys' team gets more chances to play with other teams then the female team but this can be attributed to the less existence of an opportunity for female teams. As not all the colleges provide such opportunities to their female teams, this can be the reason for the explorers to get fewer chances to play with the other teams in comparison to the male basketball team.
When players were asked, if they personally have ever received gender discrimination in sports from the coach, or the Athletic Department, the answer of the current female team players was no. They all said that they never faced any discrimination from their coach or the institution. But when they were asked about the discriminative experience from the community, fellow students or the audience, 90% of the players said that they have faced some sort of discrimination from the different sources. When they were asked to elaborate about their experience, around 80 % of the participants said that they have faced discrimination from the general public that includes the fellow students regarding their sports skills. They further said that female athletes are not taken as seriously as male athletes. When they were asked about the audience that visits to see the match, the answers were similar. All the explorer athletes said that half of the basketball court is usually empty. The fewer audiences show to see the match in comparison to the audience that appears to see the men's basketball match. This depicts the societal prejudice towards female players.
When the players were asked about the levels of appreciation that they receive from the coaches and athletic the response was satisfactory. 99% of the participants said they receive all the appreciation of the Athletic Department and the coaches.
All the results show the satisfactory response of the players for the institution's sports policies for females. When 5 female alumni basketball players were asked the same questions, their responses were similar to the current female players. When the 10 female and 8 male students from the La Salle institution were asked about their perception regarding the female basketball that if they enjoy watching their matches, around 40% of the participants showed their interest in watching the matches of the female explorer. About half of this group reveals that they enjoy the matches of the female basketball players but not like they enjoy watching the men’s team matches. When the participants were asked, if they think that female athletes get the same media attention on the basis of their performance like the men athletes, their answer of all participants was no. None of them was of the view that females get the same attention regarding their performance on media.
Conclusion:
We can say that despite the fact that women are breaking the glass walls and are excelling in the different fields and careers, prejudice and discriminatory behaviours are encountered by the females. The female athletes in the La Salle Institute are getting equal opportunities for training and support from the athletic department like the men's basketball team receives. This can be attributed as the reason for the success of the team. The results of the survey revealed that female athletes do feel that they receive discrimination from the public and their matches are not perceived as entertaining the matches that are played by the men. However, the majority of the female participants have never faced discrimination from university management or coaches. Also, lower levels of appreciation are received by the female athletes by the general people and audience.
It can be concluded that females receive lower levels of appreciation from the general public that includes the students from the university. A larger number of the audience appears in the male basketball matches than on the female basketball matches. The female's performance also gets under the weight of their gender. The perception that female matches are less entertaining still exists among the public.
This aim of this research is to show that La Salle female basketball team player views their success a product of the opportunities and facilities that are given to them by the Institute’s administration. This research reveals that all the female basketball teams can excel in the matches if they are given equal opportunities by the administration and coaches. Lack of discrimination from the coaches and the department is directly linked to the team’s success.
Work Cited
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Academy, U. S. Sports. “Exposure to Women’s Sports: Changing Attitudes Toward Female Athletes.” The Sport Journal, 5 June 2018, http://thesportjournal.org/article/exposure-to-womens-sports-changing-attitudes-toward-female-athletes/.
King, Christopher. “Media Portrayals of Male and Female Athletes: A Text and Picture Analysis of British National Newspaper Coverage of the Olympic Games since 1948.” International Review for the Sociology of Sport, vol. 42, no. 2, June 2007, pp. 187–99. SAGE Journals, doi:10.1177/1012690207084751.
Media Coverage & Female Athletes: Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. https://www.cehd.umn.edu/tuckercenter/projects/mediacoverage.html. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019.
THE GENDER GAP IN THE ENJOYMENT OF TELEVISED SPORTS - Stephanie Lee Sargent, Dolf Zillmann, James B. Weaver, 1998. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/019372398022001005. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019.
Walker, Nefertiti A., and Trevor Bopp. “The Underrepresentation of Women in the Male-Dominated Sport Workplace: Perspectives of Female Coaches.” Journal of Workplace Rights, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2010, pp. 47–64. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.2190/WR.15.1.d.
