Opinion : Women in sports

I am amused by the current Nike ads for the women's soccer team. The commercials make an interesting point, but don't make a lot of sense. They are amusing but they don't make me want to watch women's soccer or buy Nike's products. The issue that is the punchline of the commercials is that nobody cares about women's sports, however the commercial makes no serious argument as to why we should; it only makes fun of other efforts to get people to pay attention. The reality of the women's World Cup, is that the US has very little competition as most countries simply have very little female participation in sports. I was discussing this fact the other day with my girlfriend, who for some reason wants to play club hockey this semester. We were debating the reasons why women don't play many sports and one reason struck me that seemed worth exploring.

When a boy plays sports such as baseball or basketball at a young age, his social standing is not really that important. If his friends don't already play, he either makes friends on the team (as team sports are a great way to bond and meet people), or gains status by out playing his peers. Females on the other hand are often discouraged from sports by their peers. It is not however simply the attitude in society that women don't play sports. It is a more insidious effect that young women seem to have on each other. When my sister was in her early teens, she was a promising competitive swimmer. She gave this up at random one day not because she lacked in skill, or because it was too much. She gave up because her only friend in the program had an argument with her. The other girls that she hung around with didn't swim competitively so she simply give it up. My girlfriend had similar experiences with soccer. This would simply not happen with the guy, as several of my friends played different sports and we didn't seem to care less about what other people thought of us. We often enjoy bragging about our acomplishments. It seems to me that young women play sports more for a social aspect then for the love of sport or for a competitive sense.

The problem with all this is that many very talented women leave sports that they might be good at, and for silly reasons. Imagine if Michael Jordan had given up basketball in high school because the kids he sat with at lunch didn't play it, or if Tiger Woods gave up golf because the kids down the street preferred to play basketball. It seems to me that if more girls ignored what other people thought of them and continued their athletic development into high school and college, all of women's sports would be improved. This also suggests a much better way than title VI to improve female participation in sports. Simply making more spots available without increasing the demand will only watered-down the competition, and further drive away fans. Campaigns that educate parents and coaches as to the social pressures facing girls might dramatically increase competition in lower levels of women's sports. Over time this would likely filter and to the professional levels of competition and make the sports more exciting. I have little doubt that my sister would've been a fantastic high school swimmer and probably could've gone to a mid-level college for it as well. Instead she took up cheerleading and smoking.