Gender And Race And Ethnicity Effect Participation

â€Å"Giving definitions of each, outline how class, gender and race and ethnicity effect participation in sport.† Many ideologies in sport have caused controversy, relating to who is entitled to participate in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and class. Participation can be defined as â€Å"the action of taking part in something†, but excludes these potential barriers which can prevent an athlete from reaching their sporting potential. This essay will explore some of these barriers which effect participation in sport, with links to how those barriers have had an influence on the development of participation and opportunities. Gender in sport has been an ongoing issue, especially for women, with many factors influencing their participation in sport†¦show more content†¦Lewko and Greendorfer (1978) also indicated that boys had more opportunities and encouragement to participate in sport through gender labelling of physical activities. These disadvantages for women in sport lead to the development of Title IX – a chapter of the 1964 education amendment to stop gender barriers. Leading to today’s society, over 5% of all women in college now play intercollegiate sports, proving that gender stereotypes have decreased over time (Coakley, 2003). The media have also created a positive outlook on women as an encouragement for them to be more active and involved in sport, highlighting women in sport as being a normality. Despite these advances, there are still gender inequalities associated with sport. For example, in a report from The Guardian, they shown how previous England captain David Beckham had earned $42 million in 2008 compared to Kelly Smith who earned only $32,000 over several months’ despite being considered ‘the outstanding female player of her generation’. These kind of statistics show that, despite improvements in gender equality, there are still concerns when comparing fac tors such as wage earnings and sporting opportunities. Racial ideology in sport is a biological definition, defined as â€Å"an interrelated set of ideas which people use to give meaning to skin colour and to evaluate people in terms of racial classifications†, also used to place others into racial categories and evaluate