In the article “Creating and Sustaining Gender Diversity in Sport Organizations” by George H. Cunningham, he describes why men’s sports are more popular and male athletes receive higher pay than female athletes. Cunningham makes connections between today’s societal norms and societal norms throughout history, because the norms from before still have an effect on people’s ideas today. He gives different examples from today’s society on how women are discriminated against sports organization. After describing the issues with discrimination in sports organizations, Cunningham gave solutions for how sports organzations can become more diverse which will lead to equal pay. By using the political, functional, and social pressures, Cunningham argues that women were not given the same opportunities and resources as men, so they were unable to have the same success as men.
Cummingham’s arguments about why women’s sports aren’t as popular as men’s fits best into conflict theory. The societal norms hold women back come from traditions and history that caused people to accept things should stay the way they are. Cunningham describes how the issues exist in the sports atmosphere by describing how they can be approached. He says “organizations are, by their very nature, multilevel systems; thus, activities that take place at one level (e.g., an employee’s personal prejudices) are likely to influence outcomes at other (or the same) levels of the organization (e.g., the success of a diversity initiative).” All levels have an effect on each other, so if there is prejudice in one level, it will become prevalent in other levels. To solve these problems, they can’t be viewed as just macro or micro, which is how people have been trying to fix it. The discrimination in one level has come from the traditions that society has held on to from earlier times. Sports organizations have kept these discriminatory attitudes in their systems, because they keep gender inequality as an institutionalized practice. The example Cunningham uses is about Title IX in college sports. Title IX is supposed to give men and women equal resources and opportunities in school, however, Cunningham says that “women and women’s teams receive only a fraction of the operating expenses that men and men’s teams receive.” Most of the funding that colleges get goes to men’s sports teams, especially at the big football schools. The lack of funding caused women’s sports to lag behind men’s sports. Women did not receive the same workout equipment, coaching, and training that men did. Men got more intense training which allowed them to have more opportunities to get better and attract a bigger audience. The delay justified that things should stay the way they are, because women were not able to show society the potential they have, so society assumed that women are not as good at sports as men. In these quotes, Cunningham is arguing that women were not allowed to meet their potential, because of society which is what conflict theory argues. Women were not given the same tangible resources that men were given so they could not succeed in sports like men did.
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After explaining why there is discrimination within the sports organizations, Cunningham gives solutions in the political, functional, and social aspects of society. Conflict theorists believe that change is necessary for society to grow and become better. Cunningham wanted political pressure to be applied so would be less discrimination against women. He believes that changes should start with the “sexist language in the sport context.” Examples of this would be “Lady Tigers” and “Women’s Final Four”. Cunningham argues that this language treats women like children, is not appealing audiences, and makes women sports unwanted in the traditionally masculine environment. Changing the names into less childish names would normalize women playing sports and encourage more women to join. To combat the lack of women interested in sports, Cunningham believes that there should be an increased amount of women in management positions. When women see other women in higher positions, it motivates them to want to work in one of the departments run by the women. Also, it gives other women role models, and people they can strive to be like. In addition, studies have shown that more diverse groups in sports marketing and promotions have better results than groups that are dominated by men. Athletic departments would be better with more women in it. The change wanted by Cunningham is similar to the change that a conflict theorist would want. Conflict theorists believe that changing society would make it more equal and give more opportunities to minorities such as women.
On the other hand, order theorists would argue that women can not compete at the same level as men, because of their biological traits. Women should stick with the roles they have in society, because it keeps society together and working. Order theorists would most disagree with the change that Cunningham wants. Cunningham describes how creating a more diverse workplace in sports can be helpful to different areas in sports, especially marketing. Order theorists would argue that women should be in more “feminine” jobs like nursing or teaching, because women biologically do not have similar interests in sports like men do. Order theorists would agree with the saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” so society should stay the way it is, because it has been working for so long. Order theorists would believe that women are too expressive to be in sports and their feelings would get in the way of playing a sport.
In today’s society, there is a huge wage gap between men and women, especially in sports. While male athletes are getting paid billions, female athletes barely get paid a hundred thousand. There are many different explanations for why this is, and Cunningham chooses to argue the conflict theorists side. If society were to implement the ideas Cunningham shares, the norms would change slowly and female athletes would get the resources and pay they deserve.
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