Note: Today you are blessed with a stay of sorts, a guest blogger. Enjoy!—Rob

In the past decade, women in sports jobs have increased their prominence in the sports world, slowly overtaking various obstacles to get where they are at today. Many sports teams have opened up to allow women’s teams to join national arenas, which has in turn led to a spotlight on women in sports. Establishing themselves in a male-dominated industry has taken years to accomplish, and even now, they are still not at the same level as men in the industry, but have made wide strides to achieve success.

Some sports arenas refuse to have women on their management team because they believe that unless you have played the sport, you cannot help to direct it. This normally only applies to a sport like football, in which few women have ever played for a team (other than a college intramural). Additionally, many teams do not feel comfortable hiring a woman in a high sports position, which has resulted in many discriminatory practices by many teams throughout the sports world. It has become ever more obvious that in order to reach a high spot in the sports world, women need to prove their capabilities much more so than men ever do. The International Olympic Committee has been one group which has taken great strides over the past years to overcome the discrimination against women in sports, accounting for increased women’s sports competitions and more jobs within the company itself that are available for women. These jobs allow women to participate in an international arena, wherein they can dispel myths that women are not suited for these types of jobs. The IOC in general is striving to equal the playing field for men and women within its games and administration to prove to the rest of the world that women and men can be equal within sports; according to March estimates, women now comprise 42 percent of their participants, which is a closer percentage than many sports teams around the country. Their administration also is closing in on equality, and they hope to portray this equality to the rest of the world.

Women’s sports teams (professional and college) were once almost solely run by women, but after the gender equality act, many men stepped into the field which has resulted in an off-balance even within women’s sports. It is up to women to pursue these career opportunities in order to bring the balance back into the sports world; by denying women to participate in football administrative jobs, sports teams are being hypocritical by allowing men to take higher positions in women’s volleyball teams (teams in which they have little experience overall). Women need to gain control over their own sports, and infiltrate into men’s sports teams as well. American sports are the hardest to break into because in order to get to a high career within the sports world, women have to overcome years of obstacles and menial jobs that men would not have had to do. By presenting more and more women to the sports stage, the playing field will have to become leveled, thus allowing more women to get into management positions for any type of sporting event.

This post was contributed by Heidi Taylor, who writes about sports management degree schools. She welcomes your feedback at HeidiLTaylor006 at gmail.com.

View Original Post at blog.athleticwomen.com

• Filed Under:  
• SportsPLUS, OpEd, Discrimination/Title IX, Career, Media/Marketing

• Tags:
• General
• female athletes
• womens sports