Girls and women have more opportunities since Title IX, but the playing field is still far from level. Cheryl Cooky and Nicole M. Lavoi explore how major inequities remain, especially in terms of media attention, distribution of institutional resources and opportunities to coach and lead in the world of sport.
about the authors
Cheryl Cooky is in the department of health and kinesiology and the women’s studies program at Purdue University and an affiliated scholar of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota. She studies gender in sport participation and in sports media.
Nicole M. LaVoi is in the School of Kinesiology and is the Associate Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota. She studies gender in sport, particularly the lack of female coaches, underserved populations of girls, and sports media.
Feature
Playing but Losing: Women’s Sports After Title IX
about the authors
Benjamin G. Gibbs is in the sociology department at Brigham Young University. He studies the origins of social stratification.
Trends
Gladwell’s Big Kid Bias?
A closer look at Malcolm Gladwell’s “iron law of Canadian Hockey” reveals that birthday cut-offs in pee-wee leagues do not, in fact, predict eventual hockey stardom. The authors find that the Gladwell’s supposed bias levels out once players reach the major leagues.
about the author
Ronald J. Berger is in the department of sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He is the author of Hoop Dreams on Wheels: Disability and the Competitive Wheelchair Athlete.
Feature
Hoops and Wheels
Because disability sports are segregated from able-bodied sports, they’re typically relegated to second-class status, as if only “natural” bodies play natural sports and “unnatural” bodies play unnatural sports. A closer look at the sport of wheelchair basketball suggests new conceptions of sport and bodies may be in order.
about the author
Laurie Cohen is a Ph.D. student in the sociology department at Rutgers University. She conducts evaluation research there for the Center for Women and Work.
Trends
The Myth of the Over-Scheduled Child
Conventional wisdom suggests the younger generation will suffer long-term social and psychological consequences from too much structured time. But a hard look at national data reveals our children are neither over-programmed nor suffering any harmful effects from participating in organized activities. To the contrary, organized activity benefits children’s social and intellectual development.
about the author
R. Tyson Smith is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. He studies masculinity, culture and sports.
Culture Review
A Raw Export
Pro wrestling is often derided for its fake drama, and pageantry, as well as its violence, lack of subtlety, and over-the-top, macho characters. However, pro wrestling continues its sleeper hold on our culture precisely because of its compelling combination of masculinity, violence, and drama.
Update: Due to a few editing errors in the print version of this article, we’re making an updated PDF version of this Culture Review available for download here.
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