Literature Review Assignment

Angelina Quirch
Professor Samantha Gonzalez
ENC 1102: Composition 2
30 March 2023
Literature Review Assignment
Stereotypically when people think of college athletics men’s basketball, baseball, or
football are the first thing that comes to someone's head. But where are “the female athletes?
Why are they looked upon differently than male athletes? Why are they misrepresented on social
media? Why is less money put into their sports than male athletics? These are all questions that
come to my head when I think of college athletics. Not many people realize the inequality in
female and male sports but why is this?
The overrepresentation of male athletes in social media can affect how fans view female
athletes due to the way social media discriminate against female athletes. When researching for
this topic my goal was to include research about female inequality in athletics, resources, and
social media. I also made sure to look into other sources that show stereotypes, discrimination,
and race when searching for related research. UCF library database was a very resourceful tool I
used to search keywords to find topics that related to my research question.
In Where Are the Female Athletes?: An Investigation of College Student Perceptions of
Gender Representation in the Media by Maria Yim a female athlete here at the University of
Central Florida who has also questioned: “how female athletes are portrayed in the media, and
how does that affect young girls' participation in sports” (9). Her research provided information
techniques that I have never seen before such as surveys and interviews asking many questions
about female representation in media and attendance at male and female sporting events. In
conclusion to the conducted research, it was found that “women are active participants in sports,
and they are achieving an equal amount of success as male athletes. However, many people do
not recognize female athletes and are not even aware of this” (19). Women have the same
success as male athletes but do not receive the same praise and respect as males.
Underrepresentation of Women in Sports Leadership: Stereotypes, Discrimination, and
Race by Keyleigh N. Wallick show how women are not only depreciated in college athletics but
also when it comes to receiving coaching positions for both male and female teams. “Between
2000 and 2014, 2,080 new head coaching jobs in women’s athletics have opened up and women
have filled one-third with men obtaining the remaining two-thirds (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014).
Underrepresenting women in athletics hinders the athletic success of women and does not allow
equality between women and men. In the paper, it states “Serena Williams is one of the greatest
tennis stars of this century, and yet commentators, sports magazines, and the like will often
comment on her “manly figure” or “Black Panther bodysuit” rather than her tremendous play of
the game” (Wallick 3). Women are looked upon as weak and when they do have a more muscular
build they are compared to a man rather than looked upon as strong or an athlete.
Gender Differences in the Pay of Professional Basketball Players by Nola Agha and
David Berri focuses on the WNBA and the NBA and how there is a pay change depending on the
gender difference. According to the article, “The relatively low pay in the WNBA, even when
compared to the identical formative period in the men’s professional league, led 48% of
American WNBA players to seek employment in basketball leagues in Europe and Asia in 2019”
(Agha and Berri 53). The pay difference is so significantly low that women who want to pursue a
career in basketball have to go overseas to not work two jobs to play here in America. This is
because “the constraints to pay to derive from not only gendered systems but also the structure of
profit-maximizing leagues and teams in the United States” (Agha and Berri 53).
Media Coverage of the Post Title IX Female Athlete: A Feminist Analysis of Sport,
Gender, and Power by Mary Jo Kane goes into depth on the difference on how females and
males are presented on social media. I found it fascinating when Kane said, “Female athletes are
significantly more likely than male athletes to be portrayed off the court, out of uniform, and in
highly passive and sexualized poses” (102). I never thought about it in this way until reading this
article because I then immediately thought of how women are presented in magazines like Sports
Illistrated. It is crazy how “Males are consistently presented in ways that emphasize their athletic
strength and competence, whereas females are presented in ways that highlight their physical
attractiveness and femininity (Kane 102). This shows how unfair the sports world is when it
comes to equality in athletics.
The final research paper I reviewed was How Campus Media Cover Sports: The
Gender-Equirt Issue, One Generation Later by Suzanne Huffman, Dana Scott Rosengard, and C.
A. Tuggle. These researchers found that “College newspapers in the study covered male athletes
and events in 72.7% of their sports stories” (Huffman, Rosengard, & Tuggle 475). This proves
that women do not get nearly as much recognition as females especially when it comes to college
athletics.
To conclude, each source will significantly improve my paper but not only giving me
sources to back up my research but also providing me examples for producing my research. I
also got a different perspective on women's inequality in athletics when it comes to social media,
salaries, getting jobs, and stereotypes. This topic is very close to my heart and I am excited to
further along the process and start performing my research.

Work Cited
Yim, Maria. “Writer’s Statement for ‘‘Where Are the Female Athletes?’: An ...” Stylus, 2019,
https://cah.ucf.edu/writingrhetoric/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2019/10/Stylus_10_1_Yi
m_Writers_Statement.pdf.
Wallick, Keyleigh N. “Underrepresentation of Women in Sports Leadership: Stereotypes,
Discrimination, and Race.” The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College, 2018,
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/687/.
Agha, Nola, and David Berri. “Gender Differences in the Pay of Professional Basketball
Players.” Gender Differences in the Pay of Professional Basketball Players | Emerald
Insight, 20 Sept. 2021,
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-80043-196-620211004/full/
html#s5.
Huffman, Suzanne, C.A. Tuggle, and Dana Scott Rosengard. “How Campus Media Cover
Sports: The Gender-Equity Issue, One Generation Later.” Mass Communication and
Society, vol. 7, no. 4, 2004, pp. 475-89. Communication & Mass Media Complete, doi:
10.1207/s15327825mcs0704_6.
Mary Jo Kane (1989) The Post Title IX Female Athlete in the Media, Journal of Physical
Education, Recreation & Dance, 60:3, 58-62, DOI: 10.1080/07303084.1989.10603973

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Angelina Quirch

Professor Samantha Gonzalez

ENC 1102: Composition 2

Literature Review Assignment

Stereotypically when people think of college athletics men’s basketball, baseball, or

female and male sports but why is this?

used to search keywords to find topics that related to my research question.

In Where Are the Female Athletes?: An Investigation of College Student Perceptions of

Underrepresentation of Women in Sports Leadership: Stereotypes, Discrimination, and

comes to equality in athletics.

further along the process and start performing my research.

Wallick, Keyleigh N. “Underrepresentation of Women in Sports Leadership: Stereotypes,

Discrimination, and Race.” The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College, 2018,

Players.” Gender Differences in the Pay of Professional Basketball Players | Emerald

Insight, 20 Sept. 2021,

Education, Recreation & Dance, 60:3, 58-62, DOI: 10.1080/07303084.1989.10603973

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