ALL ABOUT GENDER INEQUALITY IN SPORTS

To gather different perspectives and learn about experiences related to Gender Inequality. We interviewed, National Team Football Coach - Coach Naquita, National Team Football Player - Danni, Olympic Diver - Katura, and 4th Grade Students from our school to see what they knew about this topic. Firstly we spoke with Coach Naquita, who gave us her opinion on the issue, she has experienced and been in the presence of gender inequality when coaching football saying that the amounts of gender inequality displayed in football depends on the adults/coaches involved in the activity. We also discussed respect levels between genders in sports, We asked "Have you ever noticed that boys and girls have different levels of respect in sports?" and Coach Naquita answered, "Yes, girls are more respectful, but boys get more respect", which is a great way to describe the situation and what it looks like from a coaches perspective. We then talked about the differences in salaries between genders in sports and she said that she definitely thinks the salary difference is unfair because she feels boys get payed more for doing less and girls get payed less for doing more. Which we have found to be very true through extensive research we conducted. For example, in the 2010 Fifa world cup for football the prize money total for each of the mens teams combined was 348 Million Dollars whereas the combined prize money combined for the women's teams in 2011 was 10 million dollars. This shows that there is an obvious bias between genders even in international sporting events. 

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After interviewing Coach Naquita we then Interviewed National Team Football player and Football coach - Danni. We first asked her about her experiences withe the issue and she went on to tell us that she personally hasn't experienced gender inequality when playing football but has definitely recognized it as a coach and can see the differences between how each gender is treated in a sports environment. We then asked her about her observations on the ways that each gender plays football and she said that boys tend to be much more intense and physical where girls tend to be less intense physically but have better creative ideas, plans, and visions for ways to play better. After that we talked about what its like to coach girls and boys and she clearly stated that "Women/Girls take directions better than Men/Boys" And "Boys think that they know everything already". Based on our research we found that this is most likely caused by the many opportunities and high levels of respect received by boys compared to girls and can make some boys cocky, compared to girls who have to work harder to receive opportunities and tend to be more grateful when they receive praise and are more willing to take corrections to help them improve. 

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The last very athletically experienced person that we talked too was Olympic Diver - Katura. We first asked her about her opinion on Gender inequality in sports and she said that she found it very sad that society has normalized it and that people think its ok to treat people differently in the sports industry because of their gender. Next, we asked her if she found it easier to coach a specific gender and she said that her goal is to"coach the athlete, it has little to do with their gender". We then asked "What do you think is the main cause of gender inequality in sports?" she answer by saying that it was because historically it took a long time for governments to allow women to participate in sports due to stereotypes about their role in society and their ability to perform well in sports. Through our research we have learned that through hard work women are capable of being just as good or better than men, but due to the ways that their bodies develop muscle it may take more training and harder work. It's never impossible for women to reach the same. levels of physical abilities as the opposite gender in their sport, and women are fully capable of participating in the same sports as men, performing just as well and deserve to be treated equally and given the same opportunities. ​

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Finally, we decided that we wanted to gain a perspective on the younger generations idea of gender inequality in sports and what they know about the problem. When asking about who they like to pass the ball to when playing football or basketball at recess both of the boys said that they pass to the best available option which is usually a boy, the girls said that they like to pass to the other girls to give them a chance to play because they feel like the boys don't pass to them as much as they pass to the other boys. We asked them about their opinions on playing with the other gender, Daisy from P5 Hay said the she thinks "the boys can be very cocky and they think they're the best". The boys said that they think the girls are fun to play and that they like playing with both genders because it's more interesting. All of the boys said that they think the girls are equally as good as the boys when playing sports at lunch, and that the teachers are very good at making sure everyone is always included. This really showed us that the younger generations have developed and been exposed to a good environment with sports and shows that society is making progress in raising awareness on this problem to younger kid so that they can also help stop and prevent this issue in the future.