Cultural influences on equity and sports participation

1. Cultural influences on equity and sports participation

2. Chapter overview • A brief history of sport in Australia page 307 • Australia’s sporting identity page 313 • Socialisation page 313 • Gender roles and stereotypes page 314 • Ethnic identity page 324 Now that you’ve finished … answers

3. Back to chapter overview A brief history of sport in Australia Page 307

4. A brief history of sport in Australia • Heavily influenced by our history as a British colony. • Popular sports included cricket • Sport viewed as a manly pursuit

5. Building manliness and character • Belief that sport was for developing attributes of the upper class. These included: • Leadership • Courage • Discipline • Belief in encouraging working-class boys to play sport – a “muscular Christianity” to develop Christian values • Participation by women was for health reasons only

6. Colonial sportsmanship • Success at sport was seen to be important to the new colony • First international cricket match in 1877 • International victories fostered national pride • Cricket • Football • Rowing • Athletics (foot racing)

7. Amateurs and professionals • British social class system reflected in Australia • Sporting opportunities and access based on wealth and social status • Athletes divided by social status • Amateurs • Wealthy with spare time to engage in sports • Were considered morally superior • Professionals • Working class, could only afford to take time from work if their sport offered a prize or payment • Media reinforced class divide. Example in cricket: • Amateurs were referred to as ‘gentlemen’ • Professionals were referred to as ‘players’

8. Women’s sporting history • In 19th century, participation based on social class — mainly upper class women who had time for sport • Late 19th century, opportunity to participate in organised sport: • Golf (with restrictions on club memberships and access) • Archery • Rowing • Croquet • Sailing • Tennis • Focus was on social contact, recreation and graceful movement

9. Bathing seen as an acceptable pastime as sexes were segregated. • Bathing machines at beaches ensured privacy from onlookers • In 1912, Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie won medals in freestyle swimming—at the first Olympics with female competitors • Working-class women more likely to participate in athletics, as there were no associated costs. • Other acceptable physical activities for women: drills, calisthenics, dancing • Competitive women in sport were trivialised by the media

10. Back to chapter overview Australia’s sporting identity Page 313

11. Australia’s sporting identity • Sport is a central feature of Australian culture • Public recognises and supports winners • International success generates national pride • Sporting success reinforces culturally dominant sports • Swimming • Cricket • Rugby League • AFL • Netball

12. Back to chapter overview Socialisation Page 313

13. Socialisation • Process by which individual beliefs, opinions and values are shaped by society • Factors influencing socialisation are known as social determinants:

14. Gender roles and stereotypes • Stereotypes are oversimplified characteristics of groups of people. • Stereotypes are often used to foster discrimination. Ballet dancers are some of the fittest athletes in the world, as can be seen from this photograph of Shane Weatherby as Puck in the Queensland Ballet’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

15. Gender stereotypes in sport • Qualities associated with male athletes • Qualities associated with female athletes

16. Gender stereotypes are reinforced in all levels of society • Offered different sports • Teachers coach gender-based teams • Stereotypical attitudes are changing • Slow process • Societal beliefs and attitudes relating to “gender-appropriate” sports still exist • Women discouraged from playing sports requiring aggression • Boxing • Rugby league • Men discouraged from participating in aesthetic activities (e.g. dance) • Media continue to reinforce these social stigmas

17. Personal reflection Does your school offer you an opportunity to play sports that have traditionally been considered appropriate for the opposite sex? If so, have you taken up the opportunity? Why?

18. Hegemonic masculinity • Hegemonic: ruling • Hegemony: leadership • Hegemonic masculinity: • Men have held the power and authority to influence society and set the rules that govern behaviour

19. Sport reinforces hegemonic masculinity: • Cultural level: • Celebrating masculine activities • Reinforcing masculine attributes • Structural level: • Less government funding for women’s sports • Less media coverage for women’s sports • Less prize money for women’s sports • Identifying women’s competitions by their gender (compare WNBL and NBL) • Majority of Chief Executive Officers for sporting organisations are men • Restricting women’s membership of sporting organisations, such as golf clubs.

20. Back to chapter overview Ethnic identity Page 324

21. Ethnic identity • Indigenous sporting culture traditionally very strong • Promoted interaction amongst tribes • Encouraged participation • Solved intertribal disputes

22. Elders organised competitions that mirrored their daily activities: • Throwing spears and boomerangs • Running • Jumping • Wrestling • Fighting • Dancing

23. Sport and Indigenous cultural identity • 1962 saw the formation of the Yuendumu Games for indigenous Australian communities • Sports which have provided an avenue for indigenous Australians to excel are:

24. Multicultural influences • Almost 25% of Australians are born overseas • Sport is an effective vehicle to break down cultural barriers • Examples: • Football • Bocce • Table tennis • Badminton • Martial arts

25. Participation rates of children ages 5–14 years

26. Back to chapter overview Now that you have finished ... Answers

27. 1 Explain why Australia has been identified and identifies itself as a sporting nation. • Sport has long been a central feature of Australian culture. • Sport was used as a means of establishing an identity through victories against international teams. • Australian working class sportsmen were admired for their physical strength, toughness and resilience. • These qualities were highly valued in an emerging nation. • Australia has a smaller population than many other “sporting powers”.

28. 2 Describe how sport has been used to establish Australian pride. Australians take pride in continued international success across many sports. • International sporting successes (past and present) • Davis Cup • America’s Cup: Australian II • Olympic success (especially in the 1950s – 60s) • Various swimming competitions • Sporting identities • Don Bradman • Phar Lap (even though the horse was born in New Zealand) • World champions in various sports • Hockey • Netball • Rugby League and Union

29. 3 Outline the types of sports that were deemed suitable for women during the late nineteenth century and explain why women’s sporting choices were limited. • Sports available: • Golf • Archery • Croquet • Tennis • Athletics (running) • Rowing • Sailing • Reason why sport was limited: • Sport seen as a “manly pursuit”. • Sports that gained early acceptance involved little physical strain. • Access mostly available to upper-class women. • Restricted membership (associate members only).

30. 4 a Define socialisation b List the factors that influence the socialisation process. • Socialisation can be defined as “the process by which individual beliefs, opinions and values are shaped by society”. • Factors which affect socialisation or social determinants are: • Family • Peers • Schools • Government • Media • Religion • Ethnic background • Gender • Socio-economic status • Age

31. 5 a List qualities that are associated with stereotypically male and female gender roles in Australian society.

32. 5 b Explain how these gender roles and stereotypes are reinforced, using at least one example from each of the five levels of Figueroa’s framework.

33. 5 bContinued • The selection of physical activities within physical education classes at school can contribute to traditional notions of masculinity and femininity and is an excellent example of how different levels from Figueroa’s framework can be linked to personal experiences in senior physical education. The cultural level can analyse to what extent the range of sports offered to the class. Are the four selected physical activities biased towards a particular sex or are they gender neutral? The link to the personal level is shown by discussing the relationship between stereotypical choices and preferred choices for males and females. The interpersonal level can focus on how physical education teachers might reinforce typical stereotypical roles; for example, a woman teaches dance but a man teaches rugby league. These experiences can reinforce social stereotypes. • At a school level and beyond there has been an increase in the variety of sports offered to both girls and boys that would normally have been reserved for one gender. It is becoming more common, for example for girls to participate in rugby league and AFL or for boys to play netball. In doing so, however, they challenge the notions of what it means to be masculine and feminine and subsequently, a new set of stereotypes has emerged.

34. 5 c Briefly describe how society’s perceptions of gender affect individuals’ sporting and physical activity choices. • Aggressive sports involving contact are seen as predominantly male • Boxing • Rugby League / Union • AFL • Aggressive sports with less contact are acceptable for both sexes • Football (soccer) • Waterpolo • Basketball • Martial Arts (judo) • Non-contact sports acceptable to both sexes • Tennis • Swimming • Athletics • Non-contact sport mainly acceptable to females • Dance

35. 6 a Define hegemonic masculinity. • Hegemonic masculinity can be defined as males holding the power and authority to influence society and set the rules that govern behaviour.

36. 6 b Briefly explain how the cultural, structural and institutional levels of Figueroa’s framework reinforce hegemonic masculinity in Australian sport.

37. 6 b Continued • In the cultural chapter, we discussed the need for Australian men’s success in sport being of paramount importance, leading to increased national pride, recognition and status. This train of thought has survived the past century and can still be seen today. • As women were latecomers to competitive and representative sport, their success today is often considered to be a bonus on top of men’s achievements. The media perpetuates this and a good example of this can be seen with the reporting around the swimming achievements from the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. These events should have cemented Australia’s female swim team as a superpower in the pool; instead, their achievement was devalued by the focus by the media on the men’s performance. Initially their success was celebrated widely in both print and electronic media giving them their much-needed and sought-after coverage. This coverage was short lived, however, and the focus soon turned to the deemed ‘failure’ of the men’s swim team who, in comparison, achieved a limited medal haul. This apparent failure of the men was more newsworthy as it threatened the identity of Australia as a successful sporting nation.

38. 6 b Continued • Hegemonic masculinity is constructed at all levels of Figueroa’s framework; perhaps mostly at the institutional and structural levels. The passing and prevention of laws by the government and the mandating of by-laws by individual sporting institutions are possibly the two most influential contributors. Furthermore, males have maintained control through their positions of power within such sectors that make the rules. It is common, for example, for the chief executive officers of sporting associations to be male. As of 2010, only two of the 15 members of the executive board of the Australian Olympic Committee are women despite an IOC recommendation of 1997 that national Olympic committees achieve a 20 per cent target for women's representation by the end of 2005. • The most visible tool in the maintenance of hegemonic masculinity in sport is the media. The media serves to both persuade and reinforce society of masculine dominance by reinforcing male power and by marginalising women and their sporting activities. They limit the coverage of women’s sport and coverage is mostly geared towards the male population by sexualising and trivialising the female athletes.

39. 7 Explain the link between sport and the promotion of Indigenous Australians’ identity. • Indigenous Australians have a strong link between sport and their culture. • Developed through activities that reflect life skills: • Physical skills • Communication • Dance • Solving disputes • Sport has provided an avenue for Indigenous Australians to demonstrate their sporting prowess and culture to be positive role models to all Australians. • Boxing • AFL • Rugby League • Athletics

40. 7 Continued • Increased recognition of outstanding contribution to Australian sport: • Lionel Rose: 1968 Australian of the Year • Adam Goodes: Brownlow Medallist • Cathy Freeman: Olympic Gold • Cathy Freeman wearing the Aboriginal flag at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and 2000 Sydney Olympics • Increased awareness of Indigenous culture: • Formation of the Yuendumu Games (1962) • All Stars NRL games (2010)

41. 8 How are elite athletes able to use their status as role models to promote discussion and change attitudes about culturally entrenched stereotypes within Australian society? Is such change possible? Justify your response. • Preston Campbell came up with the All Stars concept in the hope it would encourage indigenous Australians to learn more about their identity. • Advantages of elite sportspeople: • Media coverage through sponsorship is guaranteed due to their profile from sporting achievements • Continued media exposure through careers in the media • Wendell Sailor • Gordon Tallis • Liz Ellis • Are often asked for their views on a wide range of topics. • Wendell Sailor is working with the ARTIE program – Achieving Results Through Indigenous Education, run by the Former Origin Greats and designed to encourage academic, cultural and sporting achievements in indigenous students. Through this forum he has spoken about the experience of being bullied in support of Just Say No To Bullying, a campaign by The Courier-Mail and radio station 97.3 FM. • Read the full article “Wendell Sailor wants to break the vicious cycle of bullying” online.

42. Image credits • Slide 1, Photolibrary/Aflo Foto Agency • Slide 4, National Library of Australia • Slide 6, State Library of Queensland • Slide 8, Photolibrary/Mary Evans Picture Library • Slide 9, National Library of Australia • Slide 11, Getty Images/POOL/Dean Lewins • Slide 14, Queensland Ballet • Slide 17, Getty Images/Stefano Oppo • Slide 21, Newspix/Renee Nowytarger • Slide 23, AAP Image/Dean Lewins • Slide 24, AAP Image/Dave Hunt