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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Gender Equality in Sports
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was created by Pierre, Baron de Coubertin, in 1894 and is now considered “the supreme authority of the Olympic movement” [1]. Its headquarters are located in Lausanne, Switzerland. The title of supreme authority of the Olympic movement consists of many different duties, which include promoting Olympic values, maintaining the regular celebration of the Olympic Games, and supporting any organization that is connected with the Olympic movement [1]. Some of the Olympic values that the IOC promotes are practicing sport ethically, eliminating discrimination from sports, encouraging women’s involvement in sport, fighting the use of drugs in sport, and blending sport, culture, and education [1]. The IOC supports these values by creating different commissions that focus on a particular area. These commissions hold conferences throughout the year where different people around the world discuss ideas and ways to implement the Olympic values into the lives of people internationally [1]. The commissions also have the responsibility of reporting their findings to the President of the IOC and its Executive Board [1]. The President has the authority to assign members to different commissions based on the person’s interests and specialties.
The IOC can contain up to 115 members, and currently, the members of the IOC come from 79 different countries [1]. The IOC is considered a powerful authority throughout the world as it creates policies that become standards for other countries to follow in the sporting arena [2].
History of IOC with Gender Equality in Sports[edit]
Gradual Increase in Women’s Participation[edit]
When the Olympic Games first started in 1896, not a single woman was allowed to compete [3]. The IOC did not promote gender equality in sports for its first fifty years, but it gradually began changing its views on the topic and followed the lead of many progressive countries that were starting to view women as equal in almost all spheres of life [4]. This attitude has led to positive trend in which women are becoming more involved in sports, especially evident at the Olympic level. Over time, as women gained more rights in other areas of their lives, this followed with more rights in areas regarding participation in sports. Not all countries have the same policies regarding women’s participation, but it can be said that women participation in sport has significantly increased over time. A country’s view on if women should be allowed to participate in sport involves the country’s culture and society [3]. Sometimes culture and society do not move in lockstep with each other, though, which is what causes some women to be discriminated against for their desire to participate in sport. In some more traditional countries, sport is still considered a manly activity and not suitable for women participation.
Women and Sport Commission[edit]
A goal of the IOC is to encourage these traditional countries to support women’s participation in sport because two of the IOC’s Olympic values that it must uphold are ensuring the lack of discrimination in sports and promoting women’s involvement in sport. The commission that was created to promote the combination of these values was the Women and Sport Commission [3]. This commission declares its role as “advis[ing] the IOC Executive Board on the policy to deploy in the area of promoting women in sport” [3]. This commission did not become fully promoted to its status until 2004, and it meets once a year to discuss its goals and implementations [3]. This commission also presents a Women and Sport Trophy annually which recognizes a woman internationally who has embodied the values of the IOC and who has supported efforts to increase women’s participation in sport at all levels [2]. This trophy is supposed to symbolize the IOC’s commitment to honoring those who are beneficial to gender equality in sports.
Another way that the IOC tried to support women’s participation in sport was allowing women to become members. The first American women member of the IOC was Anita L. DeFrantz, who became a member in 1986 [5]. DeFrantz not only worked towards promoting gender equality in sports, but she also wanted to move toward gender equality in the IOC so women could be equally represented. She believed that without equal representation in the IOC that women’s voices would not get an equal chance to be heard. She was instrumental in creating a new IOC policy that required the IOC membership to be composed of at least 20 percent women by 2005 [5]. She also commissioned a study conducted in 1989 and again in 1994 that focused on the difference between televised coverage of men’s and women’s sports [5]. Inequality still exists in this area, but her study was deemed to be eye opening to how substantial the problem was and suggested ways to increase reporting on women’s sporting events. DeFrantz is now head of the Women and Sport Commission.
Recent Accomplishments of the IOC in Gender Equality[edit]
The most recent Olympics in 2012 marked the first time that every country in the Olympics had at least one woman competing [6]. This fact shows the IOC’s progress when considering that at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games that 26 countries did not send any women athletes [6]. DeFrantz was instrumental in this accomplishment as well as she and the IOC pressed the countries of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Brunei (the only countries that had never sent a woman athlete up to this point) to include women athletes from their countries in the 2012 Olympic Games [6].
Also, if new sports want to be added to the Olympic Games, the sport must include a women equivalent [3]. This policy was evidenced in the fact that women’s boxing became an Olympic sport in 2012, which made it the last sport to gain a women equivalent at the Games [8]. Even though many people thought boxing was too dangerous for women athletes to participate in, the IOC deemed it necessary to promote equality in all Olympic sports and to not restrict some sports as only male appropriate.
Controversies Surrounding the IOC and its Role in Gender Equality[edit]
Participation but not Equality[edit]
Many critics argue that even if the IOC presses countries to allow women’s participation in sports, especially at the Olympic level, that this does not mean that the women athletes are treated equally. Much controversy surrounded the participation of two women athletes from Saudi Arabia in the 2012 Olympic Games. These two athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics but were not allowed to train inside their country and were chastised by many in their Islamic communities for their “disgraceful” actions [7]. In a country where women can not drive a vehicle or leave the house without a male escort, the thought of women competing in sport was very controversial. More controversy surrounding these women athletes followed when they were required to participate in hijabs (traditional Muslim head covering). Critics said that the IOC was requiring the countries to send women athletes but then forgot about the countries’ cultures after the fact [9]. The IOC was stuck in a lose-lose situation in which they could either allow the women to participate in hijabs which symbolized for many people the subordinate position of women or they could force the countries to allow their women to compete without the hijabs and then receive criticism from people who believe that they were stepping on the traditional culture of the countries. They ended up allowing the women to participate in hijabs in order to keep the countries from removing their women athletes, which some people thought was a very hypocritical move by the IOC [9].
Even in other countries that are not known for their conservatism towards female activity showed some discrimination towards their women athletes in the 2012 Olympic Games. It was discovered that the Japanese women’s football team and the Australian women’s basketball team flew to London in economy seats while the male squads of their countries flew in business class [7]. For many people this symbolized that women’s participation in sports did not exactly lead to equality because it might be possible to change society (the actions), but it is harder to change the more static culture (people’s beliefs).
Even though 2012 marked the first Olympic Games in which every country sent women athletes to compete, many people believe that the Olympic Games are far from reaching gender equality. This belief is evidenced by the fact that the number of women participating in the Olympics is still significantly less than the number of men competing [4]. The 2012 Olympic Games did mark the highest percentage of women athletes ever, though, at 45 % [9]. Another example of possible inequality was the removal of women’s softball from the summer Olympics for 2012, which was considered one of the most popular women’s sports in the summer Olympics [8]. Critics have argued that reinstating women’s softball in the 2016 Olympic Games would be a huge step towards gender equality, and they also suggest requiring each event at the Games to have a women equivalent, not just each sport [8]. For example, if there are 10 men’s boxing events, there should also be 10 women’s boxing events. They believe that this is necessary because the Olympic Games need to set a high standard for sports programs and countries around the world to follow [8].
High Testosterone Levels in Women Olympic Athletes[edit]
The controversy of high testosterone levels in women Olympic athletes became a major issue when Caster Semenya, a woman from South Africa, won the 800 meter run in the 2009 Field and Track Championships with a time that was faster than the men’s winner in the same event [9]. Her physical appearance also sounded off alarms as she had a muscular, manly build that some deemed unnatural for a woman. After the contest, she had to undergo a series of tests in which doctors were to determine if she was actually a woman, and she was not allowed to compete for 11 months’ time [9]. This circumstance led to the creation of a new policy by the IOC to begin in June 2012 which stated that if a woman athlete had an abnormal amount of testosterone in her body that she would be given an unfair advantage over other women and should not be allowed to compete in women’s sporting events [9]. The policy does not give a certain amount that a woman can not exceed and also does not include any provision for a man with testosterone levels in the female range [9]. A study conducted in 2000 of approximately 650 Olympic athletes showed that 6 % of female athletes had a male range of testosterone and 5 % of male athletes had a female range of testosterone [9]. Critics believe that this new policy by the IOC is discriminatory and that femaleness or maleness can not be determined solely on levels of testosterone in the body [9].
It has also been discovered that there is no scientific research that directly links naturally high testosterone levels to women’s success in sports [10]. Most people assume that women with high levels of testosterone will be more athletic because they know that men have higher levels of testosterone and are usually seen to have more athletic prowess than their female counterparts [10]. Even though testosterone can be a factor in athletic ability, so can a number of other factors, like “physique, thermoregulation, biomechanics, oxygen uptake, training, and genetics, as well as the psychological and the social” [10]. The policy also does not distinguish between natural and enhanced testosterone, and many believe that only doping on testosterone should be regulated against because regulating anything else is just another form of covert discrimination [10].
References[edit]
1 - “IOC: The Organisation.” Olympic.org. N.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2012.
2 - Division for the Advancement of Women of the United Nations Secretariat. “Women, Gender Equality and Sport.” Women 2000 and Beyond (Dec. 2007): 2-40. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.
3 – “Women and Sport Commission.” Olympic.org. N.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2012.
4 - Cleary, Jennifer Ann. "Notes: A Need to Align the Modern Games with the Modern Times: The International Olympic Committee's Commitment to Fairness, Equality, and Sex Discrimination." Case Western Reserve Law Review 61.4 (2011): 1285-1313.
5 - Sharp, Kathleen. "Unsung Heroes." Women's Sports & Fitness 18.5 (1996): 64. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Oct. 2012.
6 - Longman, Jere. "A Giant Leap for Women, but Hurdles Remain." New York Times (2012): 2. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Oct. 2012.
7 - Goldsmith, Belinda. “Woman Athletes Aim to Keep the Spotlight Post-Games.” Chicago Tribune (31 July 2012): n. pag. Web. 14 Oct. 2012.
8 - Winchester, Anne. "Women's Participation in the 2012 Summer Olympics." Lesbian News 36.11 (2011): 8. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Oct. 2012.
9 - Winchester, Anne. "Headscarves and Hormones: Reflections on the 2012 Olympics." Lesbian News 38.2 (2012): 10. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Oct. 2012.
10 - Karkazis, Katrina and Rebecca Jordan-Young. "Stop Policing Testosterone in Female Athletes." Discover 33.9 (2012): 16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Oct. 2012.