Gender inequality still around in Airport High athletics; changes needed in the name of fairness

by Belle O.

This year, Shane Fidler, is the new Athletic Director. He is head coach for the football team. Will he change the sexism in Airport High athletics? Or will he contribute to it?

Airport is home to many different athletics for both genders. Some of these sports include soccer, football, volleyball, basketball, and more. Most of these sports have teams for each gender. The same sport is played by both genders yet the boys athletic teams are shown more favor.

All Airport High sports deserve equal opportunities and financing; several examples point to gender inequities in male versus female sports, thus establishing that something needs to be done to fix the problem.

First of all, more fans choose to attend male athletics. A conservative estimate from NFHS about how many people attend high school football games per week is 1,000 fans. The estimate of how many people attend a high school girl’s tennis match is 13 fans from an article by SportsEngine. The football team is talked the most about, which gives them publicity. More people attend their games because they love the sport or they want to know why the football team is talked so much about.

Secondly, gender inequality is shown at AHS in the way pre-game meals are provided; certain boys’ sports get meals provided by the school, while most girl teams have to have parents provide the meal. This method of feeding can get expensive especially if one parent has to pitch in all the time whereas other parents do not. If one sport gets a pre-game meal, all sports should get a pre-game meal.

A third example of sexism in Airport High athletics is funding. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in a school environment. However, according to an NCAA study, women's sports receive 40% or less college athletic funding. Our Volleyball team hasn’t received new equipment this year, for instance, but Football has gotten practice jerseys. Maybe Title IX isn’t really working?

My argument is right because the opposite argument is inferior to mine. Some might say “The football team has more people”, “It's a popular sport which is why it gets more funding,” “Football makes more money so it makes sense it takes more money,” and “ Every sport has funding.” My response is that High School sports aren’t a popularity contest and that funding a sport based on participant numbers or revenue it makes for the school is still discriminatory to the student athletes.

Some may be wandering: How do other students feel about this issue? I didn’t want to be unfair, so I asked both a female athlete and a male athlete. Each gender deserves to have their voice heard.

First up, I asked a female softball player who has played at Airport for three years and also served as a manager. I asked her what her opinion on boy versus girl sports, to which she replied, “I think that boys sports are definitely treated better. They get better fields, equipment, jerseys, etc. They prioritize boys. I feel like we are treated unfairly and we don’t matter,” Annagale P. said.

I asked one of the male cross country runners his opinion on boy versus girl sports, which reminded him of the issue of gender in sports on a larger scale. He said, “Most boys are effortlessly more athletic than most girls. So to put a girl in a boys sport or a boy in a girls sport, it’s going to make the girl look bad and not fit in. It will also make the boy look good at the sport.” He is a junior at Airport and this is his second year on the cross country team. I followed up and asked him how well he thinks he is treated by Airport Athletics, to which he replied, “I think I am fairly treated by Airport.”

To summarize, the female and male athlete both had very different opinions on how they feel about Airport sports.

All things considered, Airport High sports deserve equal opportunities and financing with regard to gender. Male athletes get bigger audiences than the female teams. A pregame meal must be provided before any sporting event. Female sport teams face unequal funding. Reader, it's your time to rise and change this. If you have solutions to the problem of gender inequity in sports, reach out to the AD!