Brining Gender Into the Picture
Briefly, referring to Item 1, the picture illustrated that 20-year-old Kathrine Switzer made history in 1967 when she definitely became the first woman to officially run in the Boston Marathon — even as race officials tried to physically cease her and the woman offered the opportunity that permits females to run the Marathon like men. In addition, Jock Semple, a race official, jumped off the press bus and grabbed the female participant. In the meantime, he tried to pull her bib numbers off but her boyfriend at the time intervened, pushing Semple away while Switzer continued doing what she was doing — running. On the positive aspects, it was all captured in an iconic photograph that galvanized the women’s movement and helped change the game for female athletes and she provided the channel to allow women to participate in the identical activities like men. As she claimed “ my message to young girls is that you can do much more than you ever can imagine, and the only way you can imagine it is to do it. To take the first step. And if you take the first step, you can then take three steps. And then you can take 10. And someday maybe you can run a marathon. And if you can run a marathon, you can do anything." and her declaration confirmed to me that women not only tackled gender mistreatment and overthrew the gender discrimination norm, but also they need to fight against the patriarchal oppression to protect their right on their own.
Next, referring to Item 2, the video displayed that women have been fighting for equality in sports basic thing and the female athletes were outraged because they have less weight room than men. Consequently, the NCAA actually apologized that women’s basketball players called out major differences in amenities at the women’s vs the men’s tournament. Positively, the women owned the identical amount of training equipment like the men.
Ultimately, referring to Item 3, according to “ the Triumphs and Challenges of Females Athletes in the U.S”, the document illuminated that “ According to a 2015 study from the National Women’s Law Center, athletic opportunities for girls still lag far behind opportunities for boys, especially for girls and young women of color. According to this report, schools are providing 1.3 million more chances for boys to play sports than girls at the high school level. However, girls’ participation in sports has improved considerably since Title IX mandated equality in 1972, when just 7.4% of high school-aged athletes were girls. From 2018-2019, nearly 3.5 million high school girls participated in a high school sport, compared to around 4.5 million boys, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. Presently, high school girls make up around 43% of all high school athletes, a vast improvement since 1972 when they were less than 10%” and Davis meant that athletic opportunities for girls are less than boys, especially for girls and young women of color. In parallel, the difference between the population of male and female athletes is nearly 1 million. As a result, the document confirmed that not only girl athletes have less rights than boys, but also female athletes aren’t paid attention even in their high schools or when they were young, and they also underwent inequality mistreatment.