Sex Segregation in Sports by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub

Figure 6.1 High School Context and Male’s and Female’s Support for Coed The Elimination of Sex Categories in Sport 115

where contact sports are not available to girls agree with the statement: “For most sports, girls should have the opportunity to be on the same team with boys.” In contrast, among students attending high schools where one con-tact sport is available to girls, 56 percent of boys and 70 percent of girls agree with the statement. In high schools where two contact sports are avail-able to girls, 63 percent of boys and 72 percent of girls agree with the statement; where three contact sports are available to girls, 69 percent of boys and 80 percent of girls agree with the statement.

Although it is not surprising that girls are more supportive of coed sports than boys, the relatively high level of support among both groups is encour-aging. While these are not causal analyses, the patterns shown here strongly suggest that students’ exposure to females’ participation in contact sports is associated with increased ac cep tance of coed sports. This should encour-age a broad range of interest groups— educators, administrators, parents, and the courts—to rethink the Title IX contact sports exclusion. Other researchers have also noted that exposure plays a role in promoting ac cep-tance of sex equity in sports. Male athletes are signifcantly more likely to support sex equality and Title IX than male nonathletes. 105

Ultimately, however, it is impor tant for both Title IX supporters and opponents to recognize that because the contact exclusion clause excludes individual female athletes from participating in male contact sports based on, either objective or ste reo typical, average traits of females—as a group— this policy ignores the abilities and interests of individual female athletes . Thus, the contact exclusion clause operates as a form of “sex profling,” which

like “racial profling” creates an uneven playing feld. And like racial pro-fling, sex profling in any truly demo cratic society should be viewed as problematic, if not illegal. Criminal justice researchers have begun to doc-ument the deleterious effects of racial profling, on Black and Latino males in par tic u lar, resulting from “stop and frisk” policies. 106 In research on gen-der and race discrimination in employment, economists and sociologists often examine the exclusion of either female or minority employees or job applicants based on their groups’ attributes as evidence of statistical dis-crimination. Whether it is deemed legal, or not, statistical discrimination in any context is harmful to par tic u lar members of any group who are denied opportunities without having their individual merits taken into account because their groups’ traits are used as proxies to judge their wor-thiness. This is more than an abstract legal or scientifc argument. To illus-trate what this means in practice, consider the following scenario. Among males and females, the distribution of athletic abilities (size, strength, speed, and the like) falls under a bell- shaped curve. On average, males would rank higher on each of these abilities than females. However, half of

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