Gender Roles In Women's Sports

Introduction
In today’s society, media has a major influence on everyday life and plays a key role on social awareness. In other words, media dictates what is socially acceptable from a person and how that person should behave. Consequently, modernisation has converted media into an indispensable feature of human activity (Paul, Singh and John, 2013). This influence has also further constructed divisions in gender roles which has impacted the sporting environment. Some researchers stress the importance of mass media in maintaining sport as a masculine environment (Pirinen, 1997). This depiction of gender roles within society has resulted in women athletes to become underrepresented, stereotyped, sexualised and trivialised (Messner, 1988; Jones,
However, it can be used today for understanding and opposing all forms of domination. It supports the acknowledgement of oppressions in society that devalue women’s knowledge and instead objectifies females (Harstock, 1983). In this case, the media depicts how a female should behave in society and specifically sport. Symbolising women as inferior gender and should not effects man’s domination. Consequently, this treatment and trivialisation may potentially effect both the participation levels of women’s sports and the confidence of the
Therefore, insinuating that this perspective of oppressed media could create a more objective society for women to live in, not just in sport. Additionally, signifying women should feel apologetic for trying to insult male’s dominance. However, a study conducted by Hardy (2015), who researched how female apologetic behaviour relates to the medias surrounding female athletes and more specifically female rugby players. It was found that the participants did not engage in apologetic behaviour despite being surrounded by media images that endorse this behaviour. Thus, suggesting the sense of male dominance and what is accepted by society is changing. However, in the bigger picture, this still doesn’t affect the theory that women are underrepresented and trivialised. All this suggests is that some women view themselves differently and are not afraid to go against the perceptions of society created by the media. But unfortunately, as long as sport remains a predominately male dominated environment, the media will continue to display it this