Remember how in gym, in order to win a fitness award you had to pass certain standards, like doing 20 push-ups and 10 curl-ups? Within these standards there is one thing that repeats itself in anything strength-related—the girls have a much lower standard than the boys do. In gym classes girls are always expected to perform to a much lower standard than boys. Socially, this discrepancy can carry over to how girls perceive themselves in sports and other physically strenuous activities.
This concept was exemplified at the boosters mulch sale. Like many other student athletes, I volunteered to sell mulch in support of the boosters, in hopes that the cheerleading team can receive funding for new uniforms. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to provide any help.
The major problem was that because I am a girl, I was not asked to help with almost any task. Every time that the adult in charge wanted some people to help with loading up cars with mulch, she would specify she wanted the “men” to help. This behavior upset me because she was being extremely sexist, seeing that she showed a obvious preference for boys and generalized girls as weak.
I’m not only on the Marshall cheerleading, I’m on a year-round competitive team that practices almost every day. I currently lift flyers that weigh from 80-110 pounds; I think I can handle lifting a large bag of mulch.
In 2011 The National Women’s law Center (NWLC) found that only 2.6 percent of construction workers are women. This report also found that 88 percent of these women also get harassed when on the job. Gender stereotypes begin in school and only spread from there.
One woman that the NWLC interviewed is an Iron Worker who graduated top in her class. Speaking about t her job in construction, she mentions that women on the site were constantly being harassed: “On the construction site, men don’t see you as a plumber or as an electrician—they only see you as a woman who shouldn’t be there.”
Woman can clearly thrive in this type of work environment, but so few women stay into these jobs not because they are physically incapable, but because of all the negative stereotypes.
If Marshall really wants to promote a even playing field for athletes of any gender, it must stop the constant pleading for “men” and just ask for help.