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Gender in Sporting Viewership across Europe

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Until the 19th century, feminism was subjugated to an inferior position in all public entities. In most cases, women were not allowed to own anything including their bodies. This meant that their actions were entirely a prerogative of the men. Sports are especially a field where women were not allowed to engage. This is because the area was associated with masculinity, force, and rowdiness. Women, particularly in Europe during the Victorian age we supposed to be cultured, mild and ladies. Furthermore, participation is sports in most cases demanded adornment in regalia that was unthinkable.
The 19th century brought about the onset of the struggle for gender equality in suffrage. Soon, this struggle went to equality in employment, education and other aspects of life. The slow pace that the trend was achieving results restrained it to issues considered of prime relevance to equalizing the quality of life between men and women. (Husu 222) However, recently, gender equality in sports has been a heated debate. In dominant cultures, sports are still associated with masculinity. There are therefore numerous challenges that affect women in sports. (Coulomb-Cabagno and Rascle 1981) One is the fact that media coverage is heavily biased on men. Commercialization of sports is heavily reliant on media. This is because media focus helps in generating a fan base. This is the real source of sports funding through ticketing. For this reason, media alignment towards male sports makes them more profitable, and in return, male athletes are paid much more than women counterparts.

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Due to the profitability of masculine sports, there are more willing stakeholders who contribute towards the development of the infrastructure. On the other hand, there are still very few infrastructures for the rapidly growing number of sportswomen. Sports are affected by culture. This is because sport gathers individuals of different backgrounds and beliefs towards a common objective. The pace at which gender equality is taking place is thus considerably slower than would have been expected. Although there are rapid measures to ensure that there are equal opportunities between sporting the genders, there is still a significant gap between the current situation and real actualization of the phenomenon. Furthermore, it is noted that majority of the inhibiting factors are issues within the society. Although global culture tends towards gender equality, there seems to be strong social resistance in this field. This paper, therefore, investigates the nature of this resistance especially in forming solid fan base and thus little commerciality of feminine sports and why masculine sports continues to be preferable culturally acceptable.
Nature of Major Sports In Europe
Association football is the most widely followed sport in Europe. Every country has a well extensively elaborate football league with the best being the Barclays Premier League in England, Serie A in Italy, Ligue 1 in France, Bundesliga in Germany, and La Liga in Spain. Each of these leagues is lucrative in its respect, and any match attracts a substantial number of fans. These leagues have even combined to form various inter-participatory leagues such as the FA and the UEFA Champions’ League competition. Top matches in these leagues attract global viewership, and the level of commercialization is intense. Professional footballers in these leagues earn millions of pounds weekly. The male footballers are celebrities who are idolized in the society and models of success in the community. In contrast, there is little if any attention of women soccer in European football. The first women league in England was recorded in 1895. The match generated quite a lot of attention, and the fan base was wide enough to threaten the popularity of male football. It is believed that a ban was placed on women football to secure the integrity of the masculine sport. (Coulomb-Cabagno and Rascle 1982) Since then, the sports collapsed across Europe. In the modern Europe, UEFA which is the most continentally representative tournament in football and it acutely displays the variation between feminine and masculine football association. While the masculine UEFA competitions are held annually, the feminine competitions are held once every four years.
While there are many structural reasons for this phenomenon, a lot of it is cultural. Athletic body officials are only too glad to organize matches where commercial viability is substantial to generate considerable profits. The male league, therefore, is played with such frequency because the fan base generates enough profits in ticketing to allow for frequent preparations. The last year that the women UEFA Cup was held was 2013. (Gender Equality In Sport: Proposal For Strategic Actions 2014 – 2020, 7) In the final match, the participation of spectator was at 19, 278. On the other hand, in the same year, the final match in the male UEFA championship league received a participation of 86298 spectators. The male league perceived more than four times attendance than the female league. A substantial number of these fans are women. It is, therefore, obvious that the societal culture is more closely aligned to male in sports that female spot.
Apart from soccer, most of the other prominent sports in Europe are masculine in nature. The second rated game is rugby while the third is cricket. The phenomena in these sporting arenas are much similar to football. The leagues indicate a higher preference to the male matches when compared to female games.
There are various theories that are developed to explain such phenomena. The most common aspects are the speed and adrenaline in the games. It is a scientific reality that men are more muscular than women. They are therefore agiler compared to women in the pitch. The male tournaments ate thus faster and more engaging to the spectator. This makes them more preferable to watch. However, this point is debatable. It is difficult to determine whether the popularity of the masculine tournaments make them more competitive and thus increase the agility of the games or the ability increases the popularity.
On the one hand, due to the popularity of the games, the culture idolizes sports stars that can perform exceptionally well. This creates the urge in men to perform better and thus causes extra exertion in these games. As in any other activity, increased practice results in increased performance. This need to create the Alfa male specter in the realm causes increased competitiveness. Sportsmen do not have to worry just about the performance but also about how the spectator looks at them. Additionally, the commercial viability also increases the need to scout for talent across the globe. In a majority of the European teams, there is a combination of talent throughout the world. There are teams which have almost every player originating from Africa. Some of the prominent players like Didier Drogba from Africa have been essential in the performance of their European team. The talent stretches as far as China with players such as Shinji Kagawa impacting immensely on European football.
The presence of world class players on one front leads to increased competitiveness and agility in games. On the other hand, the feminine games draw less audience and thus less need to compete. The performance is only relevance to the competitor and the game officials. It is, therefore, uneconomical to invest too much money on international talent and even local talent is not as lucratively paid as the male players. This reduces the morale in the game and thus the agility of the games. In areas where same appreciation exists, it is easy to determine that women sport can be just as engaging as male sports. Basketball in the US is an example of such sport where the female league developed in tandem with the masculine league. In both leagues, there is approximately equal appreciation. However, this trend still does not hold in Europe. The majority of Euro league basketball tournaments are dominated by Russian teams. It is, therefore, evident that Western Europe does not emphasize effectively on the importance of female sports. (Gender Equality In Power And Decision-Making 1)
The gender bias does not extend solely to the tournaments but also in professions engaging football. Europe has an important vote when determining the leadership of the large athletic bodies such as FIFA. Up to today, the firm remains biased to male leadership. Similarly, it is highly unlikely to have women qualify for a role of officiating important matches across the globe and much lesser in Europe.
Discussion
The general phenomenon indicates that European culture is moving towards gender equality, the same trend does not extend to sports. In the recent past, there has been significant activism to ensure that women in sports are accorded equal significance as men. So far, the activism has yielded structural progress. There has been development in infrastructure for women to sue in sporting. Traditionally, there were also bias rewards awarded in similar competitions depending on gender. The campaign on gender equality in sports has managed to improve similarity in remuneration when participants participate in same sports. However, these efforts have to generate many results in enhancing appreciation of gender equality in sports across the globe.
The reason why campaigns are not adequate in changing the outlook in game viewership is that the issue is intrinsic to the society. The perception of men in the field versus women in the field depends on the culture of the people. (Gender Equality In Power And Decision-Making 5) While politically correct procedures may force organizations to give precedence to female sporting to encourage participation, it can do almost nothing to ensure that people tune into women tournaments with equal enthusiasm as they do with masculine sports. People still believe that men play better than women and are therefore willing to invest more time and emotions in supporting male talent.
On the other hand, the events influence each other mutually. The male athletes are affected by the hype created around their tournament which propels them to exert themselves more. As a result, there is increased competitiveness with games. In many cases, a sportsman legacy is more important than the relationship with the club. This is because the amount of money paid to athletes who are endorsed for advertising in big brands in more vital and sometimes more durable that that paid by the league. When the male players play, they, therefore, pay for the team, the audience, and the commercial world.
The commercial nature of sports also means that media is biased on the representation of the sports. The masculine games continue to receive more broadcasting time compared to female games. In reality, few people know when the women’s teams are playing in comparison to the men’s teams which are regularly broadcasted. The effect of this is that the society continuous to embrace the disparity more and more. The general public appreciates male sport because that is what is more available on screens.
It is useful to ask whether the emphasizing of equality is a misplaced activism. In a world where political correctness influences major trends in every arena, it is surprising, not surprising that structural organization has been directed towards supporting gender equality in sports. However, it is also obvious that in a natural setting, both men and women prefer to engage in viewing masculine games. This insinuated that despite equality in games, the women are unable to match to some extend the energy of their male counterparts. Future research should investigate the viability of encouraging games that are traditionally feminine such as netball for the women and improving versions of soccer and other games that allow women to play with agility without being worn out. This way, women sporting can be as engaging as male sporting and alluring to viewers.
Conclusion
Despite the immense insistence on gender equality in games, there is still a significant gap in support for male and female sporting. While structural support has been improved to almost coherence, public participation regarding fan viewing and affiliation to club continues to be biased to men teams. This means that despite the cultural changes towards equality, people still believe that male teams perform better and therefore are better to watch. These beliefs affect how the athletes interact with the sport and also the enthusiasm that men and women have towards joining professional sports.
Works Cited
Coulomb-Cabagno, Geneviève and Olivier Rascle. “Team Sports Players’ Observed Aggresion As A Function Of Gender, Competitive Level, And Sport Type”. Journal of Applied Social Psychology36.8 (2006): 1980-2000. Web.
Gender Equality In Power And Decision-Making. 1st ed. Brusseld: European Institute of Gender Equity, 2015. Print.
Gender Equality In Sport: Proposal For Strategic Actions 2014 – 2020. 1st ed. Brussels: European Commision, 2014. Print.
Husu, Liisa. “Gender Discrimination In The Promised Land Of Gender Equality”. Higher Education in Europe 25.2 (2000): 221-228. Web.

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