Women have struggled for years to gain equality with their male counterparts. In the 1960’s, women were expected to marry in their early 20’s and devote all of their time to domestic chores in the home. She was expected to watch after her children and have dinner ready for her husband he arrived home from work. Because of this, women had fewer opportunities in sports and were seen as inferior to men. It wasn’t until a famous tennis match in 1973 between a woman, Billie Jean King, and a man, Bobby Riggs, titled the “Battle of the Sexes,” that the nation started to realize women should be viewed on an equal playing field in not just sports but, in life.
Billie Jean King is a six-time Wimbledon singles champion, four-time U.S. Open title winner, and was ranked number one in the world for five years. She used the sport of tennis to change the way women are perceived among society. Ironically, King only started playing tennis because her parents pressured her into playing a more “ladylike” sport instead of baseball and football. King squared off against Bobby Riggs in a battle for the ages. The match was televised to an audience of over 50 million people and Riggs had already faced a woman earlier in the year, which he won with little resistance. King was extremely nervous to face Riggs, but not because she didn’t believe she had the ability to beat him. King was sweating over the fact that if she lost the match, it would allow the world to continue seeing women as the second rate gender. King, won the match 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Neil Amdur wrote in the New York Times that King “convinced skeptics that a female athlete can survive pressure-filled situations and that men are as susceptible to nerves as women.” While this was a huge step in women’s equality, somewhere along the line women were still being perceived as bush-league athletes to men on the playing fields. “You throw like a girl.” We’ve all heard it. We know what it’s implying. But have you seen Mo’ne Davis throw a fastball? Davis is a five foot four inch 8th grader that throws some mad heat. In the 2014 Little League baseball world series, she was throwing 70mph fastballs and was mowing down batter after batter. Mo'ne became the first girl to throw a shutout in the Little League World Series (LLWS) and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Mo’ne 2014 LLWS run completely destroyed stereotypes of the famous phrase “you throw like a girl.” She showed the world that ‘throwing like a girl’ might not be such a bad thing after all. Although it is a common notion that girls are physically weaker than boys, we tend to forget that girls work just as hard as any guy does. Robin Marshall helped coach the Mexico …show more content…
That means that there are 27,886 seats unfilled during the breakers average game, which is less than 10% of the stadium's maximum capacity. But why is it that these numbers are so low? It could be that the Breaker games overlap with the pro Boston men teams like the New England Patriots and Boston Celtics. It might also be that men sports have been around for a heck of a lot longer than women sports. But the biggest reason is because women are still viewed as lesser compared to the men teams. According to CNN, the average salary for a WNBA player is $72,000, while the average NBA player salary is $5 million dollars. These numbers are also uneven at the college level. Men get $190 million dollars more per year in athletic scholarships compared to women. An unequal treatment of women comes from the women’s professional hockey league. The Boston Blades represent some of the world's best women hockey players but are completely undermined. They players don’t get paid an annual salary. Instead, they have the benefit of a place to play, teammates to train with, provided transportation, ice time, coaches, etc. all provided by the league. Most of the players pick up regular full-time jobs just to earn a living. There is one professional team however, that is taking a stand against this inequality. That is the United States Women’s National (Soccer) Team
Billie Jean King is a six-time Wimbledon singles champion, four-time U.S. Open title winner, and was ranked number one in the world for five years. She used the sport of tennis to change the way women are perceived among society. Ironically, King only started playing tennis because her parents pressured her into playing a more “ladylike” sport instead of baseball and football. King squared off against Bobby Riggs in a battle for the ages. The match was televised to an audience of over 50 million people and Riggs had already faced a woman earlier in the year, which he won with little resistance. King was extremely nervous to face Riggs, but not because she didn’t believe she had the ability to beat him. King was sweating over the fact that if she lost the match, it would allow the world to continue seeing women as the second rate gender. King, won the match 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Neil Amdur wrote in the New York Times that King “convinced skeptics that a female athlete can survive pressure-filled situations and that men are as susceptible to nerves as women.” While this was a huge step in women’s equality, somewhere along the line women were still being perceived as bush-league athletes to men on the playing fields. “You throw like a girl.” We’ve all heard it. We know what it’s implying. But have you seen Mo’ne Davis throw a fastball? Davis is a five foot four inch 8th grader that throws some mad heat. In the 2014 Little League baseball world series, she was throwing 70mph fastballs and was mowing down batter after batter. Mo'ne became the first girl to throw a shutout in the Little League World Series (LLWS) and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Mo’ne 2014 LLWS run completely destroyed stereotypes of the famous phrase “you throw like a girl.” She showed the world that ‘throwing like a girl’ might not be such a bad thing after all. Although it is a common notion that girls are physically weaker than boys, we tend to forget that girls work just as hard as any guy does. Robin Marshall helped coach the Mexico …show more content…
That means that there are 27,886 seats unfilled during the breakers average game, which is less than 10% of the stadium's maximum capacity. But why is it that these numbers are so low? It could be that the Breaker games overlap with the pro Boston men teams like the New England Patriots and Boston Celtics. It might also be that men sports have been around for a heck of a lot longer than women sports. But the biggest reason is because women are still viewed as lesser compared to the men teams. According to CNN, the average salary for a WNBA player is $72,000, while the average NBA player salary is $5 million dollars. These numbers are also uneven at the college level. Men get $190 million dollars more per year in athletic scholarships compared to women. An unequal treatment of women comes from the women’s professional hockey league. The Boston Blades represent some of the world's best women hockey players but are completely undermined. They players don’t get paid an annual salary. Instead, they have the benefit of a place to play, teammates to train with, provided transportation, ice time, coaches, etc. all provided by the league. Most of the players pick up regular full-time jobs just to earn a living. There is one professional team however, that is taking a stand against this inequality. That is the United States Women’s National (Soccer) Team