1900 - Women Compete
Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Summer_Olympics
In 1894, Baron Pierre de Coubertin formed the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and started planning the first olympics. In 1896 the modern olympic games were born in Athens, Greece. His goal was to create a sporting event that could go hand in hand with education. In theory the olympics would encourage people to develop their mind, body, and spirit as one. In addition, he believed the olympics would be a great method to combat the commercializations of sports which he saw as a terrible trend for humanity. As progressive as the olympic games sounded, the first olympic games only featured male athletes. However, in 1900 women competed in their first olympic games. This was crucial to the olympic spirit, but still only less than 10% of participants in the olympics were comprised of women.
"It is incredible how far women have come and women in sports have come"
-Jennie Finch, Professional Softball Player
Jennie Finch's quotation is powerful, but can be easily misunderstood. Jennie Finch is proud of how far women have come, but not content with where they are at in society and in sports. it is important to understand that I am proud and amazed that women competed in the second Olympics in 1900, but I am certainly not satisfied with where women were at the time in terms of sports or society. Women were not content either as the suffrage movement started to begin in the early twentieth century and by 1920 the nineteenth amendment to the United States constitution gave women the right to vote. Much like the suffrage movement, women at this time made up less than 10% of the participants in the Olympics. If they had been content then, than women would still be marginalized in sports.
Billy Jean king was a professional tennis player. Her quotation is very clear that women's sports is still underdeveloped and not as promising as men's. Title nine, despite its negative media coverage was an incredible social leap for the United States toward equal opportunities for men and women. It is vital that we as citizens support acts such as title nine which encourage equal opportunity for men and women and prevent the marginalization of any group in sports.
Sources:
- http://www.azquotes.com