Sports and women

The world champion US women’s soccer team is suing the United States Soccer Federation over gender discrimination, including pay equity and dealing conditions. In 2017, The U.S. women’s hockey team decided to sit out the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Michigan in protest of the unfair discrimination starting from pay to equipment to publicity between the sexes in the sport. These protests brought up the issue of gender inequality, bias-ness in all professional sports, questioning everything from the gender wage gap between sports teams to whether or not sports should be gender-segregated at all.
The list below is three reasons why women should be allowed to compete against men.
The physicality argument is not valid for all sports-games. Sports is not only about physicality. Some sports highlight physical aspects, whereas others highlight skills and talent. For instance, sportspersons who are stronger and more physically adept hold an advantage in some areas of the game, but on the other hand, sportspeople who are more talented skill-wise are better overall. For instance, Roger Federer isn’t the most physical tennis player, but he is probably the highly skilled player out there. Besides, anyone who has ever watched Serena Williams playing tennis could understand that her skill is what has won her 23 Grand Slam titles. Her skills are the result that she has earned her the no. 1 ranking. Although men and women may differ in physical-strength, they do not differ in their skills capacity. The former tennis star John McEnroe, faced backlash while dismissing Williams as the sport’s greatest tennis player and, instead, clarifying that she may be the sport’s best female player. In professional sports, the importance of skills outweighs the importance of physicality everyone should be treated equally and must compete equally. Women should be allowed to compete against men in professional sports rules and norms should be made, like in men’s sports, only women who are good enough will be drafted to a particular team and will get an opportunity to play. It’s the “natural selection” mechanism of sports that leaves the most skilled players out, regardless of their gender, physicality, race, or religion. It’s the responsibility of our citizens to stop segregation in sports:
The socialization of men and females with regards to sports differs in various ways, they are often pushing into different directions, and their different abilities heightened before biology makes its first mark. That is due to historical prejudice, stereotypes, and centuries of discrimination, which shouldn’t be part of modern society. Sports are a cultural institution that is known to be catalysts of social trends and movements.

By Kanika Vij