Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women's Sport
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Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women's Sport

Nancy Lough, Andrea N. Geurin, Nancy Lough, Andrea N. Geurin

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eBook - ePub

Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women's Sport

Nancy Lough, Andrea N. Geurin, Nancy Lough, Andrea N. Geurin

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About This Book

Combining knowledge from sport management, marketing, media, leadership, governance, and consumer behavior in innovative ways, this book goes further than any other in surveying current theory and research on the business of women's sport around the world, making it an unparalleled resource for all those who aspire to work in, or understand, women's sport.

Featuring international perspectives, with authors from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, and insightful, in-depth profiles of real leaders within different sectors of women's sport in the global sport industry, the Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women's Sport offers an integrated understanding of the ways traditional media and social media impact both the understanding and advancement of women's sport properties, businesses, teams, and athletes. Innovative case studies show how societal issues such as gender, power, and framing impact the business of women's sports and those who work in women's sport.

An essential reference for any researcher or advanced student with an interest in women's sport or women in business, and useful supplementary reading for researchers and advanced students working in sport business, sport management, mainstream business and management, or women's studies.

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Publisher
Routledge
Year
2019
ISBN
9781351333948
Part I
History and evolution of women’s sport business
1
History and evolution of women’s sport
Elizabeth A. Gregg and Elizabeth Taylor
Philosophical foundations of women’s sport
Numerous variables shaped the involvement of women in sport historically. Arguably, the most significant were medical myths regarding the limited capacity of women to sustain the demands of intense physical activity (Vertinsky, 1987). Victorian ideals defining gender norms also supported the notion that women should not engage in physical activity. Yet these notions hearkened back as far as Aristotle and other ancient philosophers who first positioned women as the weaker sex due to menstruation (Lawlor & Suzuki, 2000; Vertinsky, 1987). Scientists, physicians, and other theorists believed that the “eternal wound” of menstruation was a form of sickness that impaired women from engaging in a variety of activities considered to be taxing (Gregg & Gregg, 2017; Vertinsky, 1987).
The underlying thought process was predicated on the notion that each person was born with a certain level of “vital force” that drained during one’s lifetime. Every vigorous physical or mental activity in which one engaged drained the overall lifetime capacity of the individual. Women were believed to be inherently prone to draining their vital force at a more rapid rate than men because of menstruation and, later in life, childbearing (Gregg & Gregg, 2017; Smith-Rosenberg & Rosenberg, 1973). Vertinsky (1987) stated that because medical beliefs were so pervasive, they had “a strong effect upon the medical professional’s attitude and consequently the public’s attitude toward female exercise and participation in sport” (p. 7). Women in both the United States of America and Europe were impacted by the vital force doctrine.
Any girl or woman who ignored medical advice and participated in intense physical activity was at risk not only of draining her vital force but was also of a range of undesirable physical outcomes. Often referred to as the “female frailty myth,” this belief system taught girls and women that they would become masculine, sterile, and their uterus could fall out if they participated in vigorous activity, including but not limited to sport (McCrone, 2014). Because a wide variety of religious doctrines positioned women in the home, appropriate forms of physical activity were often completed in the process of cleaning the house and other domestic chores (Vertinsky, 1987, 1990). This belief system regarding appropriate types of physical activity shaped both late nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought and has even impacted more modern women’s sport.
The twentieth century
The twentieth century brought both progress and setbacks for women’s sport. In America, one of the most popular forms of physical activity at the turn of the century was basketball, which proved to be a favorite sport for women. Basketball was invented by James Naismith at Springfield College (SC) during the 1891–1892 academic year. Naismith, then a graduate student, was charged by his professor with creating an indoor game that would be complex, exciting, physically demanding, and devoid of the roughness of sports such as football or soccer. The sport, which was an adaptation of rugby, lacrosse, and other established games, proved to be instantaneously successful nationwide (Grasso, 2010; Hult & Trekell, 2010). The game spread nationally once the men left SC, returned to their hometowns, and shared the rules of the game at their local gyms. The rules of the game of basketball were distributed via postal mail as well, which quickly helped the sport become a nationally adopted form of physical activity for both women and men (Hult & Trekell, 1991; Vertinsky, 1994).
The sport of basketball was one of the few team sports that women could participate in on college campuses during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One notable pioneer in the adoption of basketball for women was Senda Berenson, who introduced an adapted version of the game of basketball at Smith College. Berenson wisely recognized that the one downfall of the men’s version of basketball was that it could get rough at times, so she changed the rules to make the sport fit more in line with appropriate Victorian ideals for women. The adapted version was a great success; the game thrived at many institutions of higher education during the early 1900s (Melnick, 2007).
As women gained access to systems of higher education in the late 1870s, new norms regarding socially acceptable behavior for women emerged within American society (Hult & Trekell, 1991). The movement was driven in part by contemporary magazines such as Godey’s Lady’s Book, which outlined appropriate etiquette for women interested in participating in sport and leisure activities. Women’s attire was looser, which allowed for freedom of movement and enhanced performance. Often referred to as “bloomers,” the new form of acceptable sporting attire allowed women to enjoy sports such as tennis, croquet, and archery, as well as basketball and bicycling (Hogdon, 1973; Hult, 1989).
As the popularity of women’s sport continued to grow during the early years of the twentieth century, female physical educators recognized the need to engage in the governance of women’s athletics on high school and college campuses across the country. Women who comprised the majority of physical educators believed that the already highly competitive male model was detrimental to the well-being of women. They instead adopted a recreational model of sport. After enjoying a period of social acceptance and progress, organized athletic programs for women sustained a major impediment when the Women’s Division of the National Amateur Athletic Federation (NAAF) published the first version of rules for women’s sport (Hogdon, 1973). Based largely on aforementioned medical myths that competitive athletics were detrimental to women’s health, the official handbook curtailed the growth of intercollegiate athletics for decades (Gregg & Fielding, 2016; Gregg & Gregg, 2017; Hogdon, 1973; Hult, 1989). Non-competitive “play days” replaced competitive sport for women on college campuses across the country.
After the NAAF adopted a highly conservative position on the governance of women’s athletics, participation opportunities for women in college were limited to intramurals and non-school activities in the US. The governance structure for women’s athletics evolved gradually over the course of several decades. According to Hult (1999), the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport (NAGWS) played a significant role in shaping women’s sport during the 1930s and 1940s. Another significant governing body that emerged from the NAAF was the Division for Girls and Women’s Sports (DGWS) during the same era. As much of their leadership believed in the medical myths pervasive during the late nineteenth century, competitive women’s sport at the amateur and professional levels were limited during this time (Gregg & Fielding, 2016; Gregg & Gregg, 2017).
Women’s sport and the law
The need to amend federal laws that restricted women’s rights in the United States became apparent as society evolved in the mid-twentieth century. There were several laws passed throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s that improved the lives of women in society in general, including within the athletic realm. For example, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on national origin, color, race, religion, or gender, enhanced women’s opportunities to participate in athletic opportunities. The law also reinforced constitutional voting rights and established the Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity (Hult, 1989). The Civil Rights Act helped women gain access to a wide range of opportunities in both the private and the public sectors. It enhanced the ability of athletic women to participate in competitive sport activities.
The next piece of legislation, and the most significant regarding access to athletic opportunities for women, was Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014; Bower & Hums, 2013). Acosta and Carpenter (2014) stated, “Title IX is federal legislation that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs that receive federal money” (p. iii). Title IX applies to programs such as career education, employment, sexual harassment, education of pregnant or parenting students, and athletics (McDowell & Hoffman, 2014). Although Title IX is most frequently associated with sports participation, its original intent was to improve access to and equality of educational opportunities for women. After Title IX was passed, the NCAA and its allies made several attempts to limit the scope of the law, fearing it would compromise college football. In 1974 Senator John Tower from Texas created legislation designed to limit the scope of Title IX to non-revenue sports. The major problem with the Tower Amendment was that any sport could be deemed revenue producing by a given institution. The courts ruled against adopting the Tower Amendment (Carpenter & Acosta, 2005).
About a decade later, another effort was made to limit the scope of Title IX. In the 1984 Grove City College v Bell case, two questions were addressed. According to Carpenter and Acosta (2005), the first question asked if “the word ‘program’ which is found in the one-sentence law called Title IX, refers to the entire institution or only the subunits that receive federal financial assistance?” (p. 119). The second question addressed whether an institution had to receive federal financial assistance from the federal government to adhere to Title IX. The courts determined that only the specific program or unit receiving federal funds had to comply with Title IX. As many athletic departments did not receive direct federal financial assistance, they no longer had to comply with Title IX. The Grove City decision crippled the growth of intercollegiate athletics for women. After a decade of adding sports and scholarships, many were almost immediately eliminated (Carpenter & Acosta, 2005; Henderson, 1995). Advocates of women’s sport did not have to wait long, however, for progress to be made under Title IX. The Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, which was passed over presidential veto in 1988, reversed the Grove City decision. The Civil Rights Restoration Act required that any institution that received any federal funds had to comply with Title IX, not just the program or unit receiving monies (Carpenter & Acosta, 2005). After this landmark case, growth of women’s college sport resumed.
Within intercollegiate athletic departments, there are three main Title IX categories that departments must comply with: accommodation of interests and abilities (e.g., sport offerings), athletic financial assistance (i.e., athletic-based scholarships), and other program areas (McDowell & Hoffman, 2014). The accommodation of interests and abilities pillar requires that female students be provided with equitable opportunities for participation. Title IX does not require identical offerings (e.g., baseball and softball, men’s and women’s soccer) but rather an equal opportunity to play. One way in which athletic departments can comply with this category is by sponsoring NCAA-designated emerging sports for women (e.g., triathlon). The athletic financial assistance pillar requires athletic departments to offer athletics scholarship dollars to male and female student athletes proportional to gender enrollment at their institution. Although the number of scholarships provided does not have to be equal by gender, a 50% scholarship given to a female student athlete must equal the amount of a 50% scholarship given to a male student athlete. Finally, the “other program areas” category requires equal treatment of male and female student athletes in the provisions of scheduling of games and practices, travel, and daily, per diem, equipment and supplies, coaching, access to tutoring, publicity and promotions, locker rooms, practice, and competitive facilities, medical and training facilities/services, recruitment of student athletes, housing and dining facilities, and support services.
As women’s intercollegiate athletics began to mature, the need to develop a governing body capable of overseeing women’s sport became apparent to leaders within the women’s athletic governance, primarily the Division for Girls and Women in Sport. The Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW), a group appointed by the DGWS, was established in 1966 to fill the void in governance of women’s intercollegiate sport. The purpose of the CIAW was to provide an appropriate organizational structure to fit the needs of college women athletes, to develop and publish rules and standards of play, to encourage participation in competitive intercollegiate athletics events, and to sponsor DGWS national championships. Led by intercollegiate athletic pioneers, including Marie Sexton, Lou Magnusson, June McCain, Frances McGill, Frances Schaafsma, Betty McCue, Carol Gordon, Doris Soliday, ...

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