Oh Girls! A Look At The Inequality In Professional Sports

Here is a touchy subject that not many people think about, but it's true! Women's leagues are less known than men's leagues and if just as well known—less watched.

Why is that?

For starters, men's leagues have better marketing. Not too often do I see an advertisement for a female team, given any sport.

But I do see propaganda and advertisement for men's sports everywhere! Especially sports stores! Given I'm in hockey country, I see the faces of men like Dany Heatley and Dion Phaneuf in every marketplace, but I have yet to see the faces of Cassie Campbell (pictured above) and other great female athletes anywhere.

Another reasons is stereotypes.

In any sport, any one at all, women are dubbed as too weak to play it—that a women's game will look very much like a ballet more than a hockey, football, soccer or what have you game.

Speaking from personal experience, that's not true! Women's hockey is just as tough as men's and in some cases even better because there is no unnecessary contact. It's rough, it's tough, but it's not violent.

As well, the young existence of any women's leagues. Again, speaking of hockey because it is my forte, the men's hockey league have been around since the early 1900s, but feminine leagues have not had a plateau since the Nagano Olympics of 1998, where team USA won the Gold. Do the math, thats a century (almost) between the two.

Now I apologize for not being able to talk about other sports that this beautiful patch of dirt called earth has, so here are some quick facts:

Soccer

FIFA was formed in 1921, FIFA women's in 1991.

Football

NFL founded in 1920, the IWFL (Independent Women's Football League) in 2000.

Basketball

NBA founded in 1946, and the WNBA in 1996

Baseball

MLB founded in 1869, and I found no women's leagues in my research. (Help me out, drop me a line on my profile to fix this)

And that's it, really. The discrimination to women is everywhere. Although the world is slowly realizing that women can play sports, and that they are not, as stereotypes presume, too weak to play the toughest sports at a level that meet and even exceed the men.

Chauvinism is a reality, let's make it stop.

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