History+of+Women's+Sports


 * __History of Women's Sports __**

Early Women's Sports Before Title IX women's rights to be in sports were unequal to men. Prior to 1870, activities for women were recreational and not rather than sport specific in nature. The sports were noncompetitive, informal and rule less; they emphasized physical activity rather than competition. In the late 1800's and early 1900's women began at form clubs that involved athletics. Efforts to limit women's sport activity continued as women became more involved in sports that were competitive. Beliefs in the 1800s was that every human had a fixed amount of energy. Some people thought that if energy were used for physical and intellectual tasks at the same time, it could be hazardous. Women did horseback riding for pleasure and also show boating and swimming became fashionable. Physical activity for women on there period was considered bad for them and may harm there health. When more women wanted to be involved in sports, the became more and more competitive. In the late 1800s and early 1900s women began to form athletic clubs. They were not official. These clubs included tennis, croquet, bowling, and archery those were the more popular choices in the athletic clubs from New York to New Orleans. Some men's clubs allowed women to become part of there club and participate in other activities with out according them to full status. Early Women's College Sports Early college sports for women have not been well recognized. Women only competed against there fellow students rather than against other schools. Competitions included sorority matches and "play days." Women were not active to play against different colleges until basketball was introduced to Smith College in 1892. Basketball quickly spread around to other colleges and students complained to play against other colleges. The first women teams from different colleges to ever compete against each other were Berkeley and Stanford they played in 1896. Competitive sports for women finally started to increase in the early 1900s but the events were still very uncommon. The NAAF made a motto that said "every girl in a sport and a sport for every gi rl."  Below is a video of Britney Griner dunking she plays for Baylor. media type="youtube" key="m44THd6o7-Y" width="425" height="350" align="right"

Title IX  Title XI is a law that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance" —Title 20 U.S.C. Sections 1681-1688. Although the civil rights act of 1964 was written to stop discrimination based on religion race color and natural origin, the act energized the womens right movement, which had somewhat slowed after women's sufferage in 1920. While Title IX is known for sports it originally did not have much to do with sports. Title IX became a law on June 23, 1972. There are many different views on the impact of Title IX some say that Title IX has increased athletic opportunities for women but others say that it has resulted in a decrease of athletic opportunities for men. Almost every school now has a womens basketball, volleyball, soccer, cross country, and softball team. While men's sports like wrestling have been dropped. Some say that Title IX doesnt follow what its text says and instead discriminates against men and has not contributed to the reduction of programs for male athletes.

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