Leadership 20st Century
The Role of Women in Sports
Management 491: Sports Business
The sports industry has long been viewed as nothing more than a glorified boys club, and for most of its existence this has been true. However, this perception and reality began to shift in the late twentieth century, particularly after the passage of the Education Amendments Act, Title IX. Increasingly, women have become an integral part of the sports industry, both on the playing field and in the team and league offices. This has become possible for the following reasons: women are becoming educated in higher numbers; there are limited employment opportunities in certain industries and the desire to work in untraditional industries has increased; female viewership and participation in sports have increased; and the numbers of females that occupy executive and C-suite positions has risen dramatically. It is my belief that in the not so distant future women will be largely responsible for most, if not all, of the executive decisions and operations that occur off the playing field. Though this belief is universal across all the popular league sports, the examples used in this paper will primarily focus on the National Football League.
Education
Within the past 60 years, two significant events have contributed to the increased enrollment and matriculation of women in colleges and universities across the United States: 1) a shift in mindset that women must forgo the pursuit of education in order to marry and perform familial duties; and 2) the passage of the Education Amendments Act, Title IX. The act states “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”1 Though it was specifically created to address the inclusion of females in the participation of sports, the
Management 491: Sports Business
The sports industry has long been viewed as nothing more than a glorified boys club, and for most of its existence this has been true. However, this perception and reality began to shift in the late twentieth century, particularly after the passage of the Education Amendments Act, Title IX. Increasingly, women have become an integral part of the sports industry, both on the playing field and in the team and league offices. This has become possible for the following reasons: women are becoming educated in higher numbers; there are limited employment opportunities in certain industries and the desire to work in untraditional industries has increased; female viewership and participation in sports have increased; and the numbers of females that occupy executive and C-suite positions has risen dramatically. It is my belief that in the not so distant future women will be largely responsible for most, if not all, of the executive decisions and operations that occur off the playing field. Though this belief is universal across all the popular league sports, the examples used in this paper will primarily focus on the National Football League.
Education
Within the past 60 years, two significant events have contributed to the increased enrollment and matriculation of women in colleges and universities across the United States: 1) a shift in mindset that women must forgo the pursuit of education in order to marry and perform familial duties; and 2) the passage of the Education Amendments Act, Title IX. The act states “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”1 Though it was specifically created to address the inclusion of females in the participation of sports, the