Abstract
Despite women athletes' recent gains and the increasing popularity of women's team sports, disparities between men's and women's collegiate athletic programs persist. Twenty-seven years after the passage of Title IX federally funded college education programs still discriminate against their female athletes and there is Little, if anything, done to reprimand these schools. This essay argues that the disparity in treatment of men and women athletes may, in part, be attributed to the disparities in arguments far men's and women's athletics. The arguments advanced far female participation in sports focus on individual and affective issues such as self-esteem, teen pregnancy, and depression - issues that carry even less weight once the female athlete achieves the social merit marker of attending college. In contrast, arguments far men's sports highlight the economic potential of the sport as well as males' ability to learn teamwork and leadership. The degree to which this vocabulary repertoire has influenced the debate can be seen in national testimony to Congress, as well as in debates waged on the pages of campus newspapers in Iowa.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
32
Issue
2
First Page
83
Last Page
103
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Turpen, Katherine L. and Palczewski, Catherine H.
(2000)
"If You Let Me Play: Determining Which Arguments "Count" in Debates About Title IX and Gender Equity in College Athletics,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 32:
No.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol32/iss2/5
Copyright
©2000 Iowa Communication Association
