Friday, February 14, 2014

You can literally see the inequality

Last weekish I wrote about my astonishment that there isn't a 4-women bobsled event and how this speaks to the inequality that still remains in the Olympics in spite of visible and highly touted progress (i.e., the much-belated inclusion of women's ski jumping) because of the lack of equality in the events themselves. Even women's ski jumping has only one event while the men have two (two different sized hills).
Want to see the inequality? Not in a pie graph or nifty infographic (though those are fun); but here in the medal ceremony for the team luge event. This was a new event this year (I think--I had never seen it before) in which a team comprised of a female sledder, a male sledder, and a doubles team relay down the course. When one entity crosses the line, he/she hits a paddle which releases the gate at the top for the next entity.
Each team has 1 woman and three men. Why? Because female lugers only have one event--the singles. Just like the female bobsledders only have the 2-person race. Within sports in where the inequality lies.

2 comments:

Support Women's Sport said...

At Support Women's Sport, we think this is a really major issue across a wide-range of sports. We can't help but wonder if there was EQUALITY in the sport, would this lead to EQUALITY in the media?

Tweet us: @supportwomensport
#supportwomensport

Greg Prosmushkin said...

Thanks for taking the time to share this wonderful article with us. Such great information you provide in your posts. Have a great rest of your day and keep up the great posts.
Greg Prosmushkin