Literary Review
Sexism towards women is not an uncommon thing to find while looking back through history. In fact there have been numerous attempts erase the idea of sexism and allow women to walk as equally as men. Yet in today’s society, women are still finding themselves trapped by sexism. The question of this study is whether or not sexism is the reason behind the lack of participation of female officials, specifically through basketball. Almost every officiating community will welcome new females; however there are still a significantly lower number of females than males. This is an important area of study since this has been a constant war for women for centuries yet it is still undecided why sexism still occurs and barriers are still held around women.
The following sections of this study will review and analyze other studies done in similar aspects and goals and make connections to situations found today. By combining similar studies found though research we may be able to come one step closer to solving the decade old mystery of sexism. Other pieces of literature evaluate stories in similar yet different ways and this particular study will only describe exactly that and ignore any opinionated statements. There are only facts and findings that will be shared, none of which will be stretched or ignored in any way.
Johnette Howard presents an article to ESPN news discussing Violet Palmer, a former NBA official. Johnette goes on to explain how Violet overcame obstacles and dealt with the pressure pushed at her throughout her career as an official. Violet Palmer was a seventeen year veteran official who became the NBA’s first female referee alongside Dee Kantner in 1997. Palmer’s background consisted of playing point guard for Cal-Poly Pomona, a DII college, and won two NCAA championships during her career. When she became an official her goal was simple, stay unnoticed. Palmer was also quoted, “I can just try it. If nothing happens, the training will be good” (Howard 2013). When Palmer hit NBA status she was instantly bombarded by comments and harsh criticism. One such example came from a broadcaster Cedric who was commentating one of her games saying, “Get back in the kitchen and cook me some eggs” (Howard 2013). More comments said during Palmer’s career consisted of things such as a woman will not be able to handle the bad language or aggressiveness of the players and coaches.
The purpose of Johnette’s article was to applaud Violet Palmer and her accomplishments and what she has overcome during her career as an official. Howard may have also been trying to attack the fact that this is a reoccurring problem in today’s society and let her readers be aware of the sexism taking place. Her article was conducted simply through discovery and interviews followed by minor research along the way. Major findings in this article were the recorded comments from onlookers of Palmer’s career and the disbeliefs of women being successful.
Assaults on Basketball Referees: A Statewide Survey was conducted by David W. Rainey and Peter Duggan in March of 1998. Rainey and Duggan’s survey was mailed out to 1,500 certified referees in a certain area in hopes of finding information about assaults towards referees throughout their careers. Of the 1,500 mailed surveys, only 721 were returned, being 664 men and only 57 women. In the survey officials were asked questions such as who their assailant was (player, coach, fan, etc.), what game circumstances an assault happened (championships, rivals, etc.), whether or not they thought their assailant was drunk or drugged, and other variant yes or no questions. Respondents to the survey varied in ages from 20-72, averaging 41.9, and had anywhere from 3-49 years of experience, averaging 14.4 years. Having at least one assault throughout their career was reported by 91 men but only seven women. However three of those women had stated being assaulted more than once. Collected data presented that of the reported assailants 41% were players, 20% parents, 19% coaches, 15% fans, 82% adults, 52% high school level games, and 24% adult league games. Of the reported assaults, minor incidents consisted of pushing (43%) and spitting (2%) and major incidents such as hitting or punching (28%), throwing objects (19%), and choking (4%) (Rainey and Duggan 1998). Overall only 55% of reported assault cases in the survey had a followed punishment of the assailant, all others going denied or ignored.
The purpose of this survey that Rainey and Duggan are focusing on is assaults towards officials and to find whether or not there is any kind of patterns of these assaults. However, it was hard to find such patterns seeing as though there was an uneven number of males and females that responded to the survey. This survey was conducted simply by a mailed survey to certified officials with instructions stating that a response was optional and results of the survey may be sent back if they were interested. Other major findings taken place during this particular survey was further research of past assaults towards officials. Rainey and Duggan presented that in 1986 and other parts of the 19th century players and coaches believed that fighting was a part of their sport and that it was normal to treat officials as villains. There was actually a time made up called “Kill the Ump” in regards to baseball umpires. Also during this time period, officials believed they could not report any assaults so that they would not affect any of the players’ or coaches’ future or reputation.
Richard G. Graf and Paula J. Konoske write the Gender Effects in the Evaluation of High School Basketball Officials. Their goal of this article is to prove people view a low status female official as more compatible to referee women’s games than men’s. Around the same time as this survey, the act of Title IX passed allowing more women to participate in activities and opened up new opportunities for them. Yet it seemed soon after the act was passed, more male officials were being assigned to games before women. It was found that female participation in team sports were less socially acceptable than if they were to participate in an individual sport. Also, females were looked down upon whenever they took part in what people considered to be a males sport (Graf and Konoske). In this article, Richard and Paula conducted a survey focusing on high school students. The students were presented with scenarios and statuses of officials and were asked to rate them and what they think of each official. The survey focused on status of officials, gender of officials, gender of the respondents, and the gender of the game being played. The data from the survey presented that males often rated male officials higher than females and females rated female officials higher than males. It was also found that a higher status official was more capable of doing either a men’s or women’s game, while a lower status official should only be doing a women’s game. An answer for these responses were given a simple answer that women may be overwhelmed or influenced my men therefore they need to stick to female games.
The purpose of this research and survey was to look for other possibilities to explain the sexism taking place towards female officials and to look at other peoples’ perspectives on officials and their opinions. This survey was conducted through a survey of high school students. A total of 171 students were surveyed, however only 160 were used and split to 80 boys and 80 girls. The surveys gave the students scenarios and back ground information on each of the refs and were asked which one was more suitable for a boys’ game and which one for a girls’ game. Other major findings while conducting the survey was a strong bias when females are involved in sports that are perceived to be a more dominant male sport.
From the previously stated articles and research we can see there are similarities and yet each document also presents a new idea towards sexism. Major findings of these articles presented that criticism of female officials present high disbeliefs in their abilities to perform as a referee and suggesting that that are incapable of the job, surveys presented information to connect patterns of assailants and what may invoke them, and bias may be strongest whenever a female is involved in a more dominantly male sport. With these major findings it is clear that there may be more towards the reasoning of lack of female officials than what was originally expected. From this research, questions can be asked such as what can be done about these findings, and is it enough to be what is pushing females away.
Sexism towards women is not an uncommon thing to find while looking back through history. In fact there have been numerous attempts erase the idea of sexism and allow women to walk as equally as men. Yet in today’s society, women are still finding themselves trapped by sexism. The question of this study is whether or not sexism is the reason behind the lack of participation of female officials, specifically through basketball. Almost every officiating community will welcome new females; however there are still a significantly lower number of females than males. This is an important area of study since this has been a constant war for women for centuries yet it is still undecided why sexism still occurs and barriers are still held around women.
The following sections of this study will review and analyze other studies done in similar aspects and goals and make connections to situations found today. By combining similar studies found though research we may be able to come one step closer to solving the decade old mystery of sexism. Other pieces of literature evaluate stories in similar yet different ways and this particular study will only describe exactly that and ignore any opinionated statements. There are only facts and findings that will be shared, none of which will be stretched or ignored in any way.
Johnette Howard presents an article to ESPN news discussing Violet Palmer, a former NBA official. Johnette goes on to explain how Violet overcame obstacles and dealt with the pressure pushed at her throughout her career as an official. Violet Palmer was a seventeen year veteran official who became the NBA’s first female referee alongside Dee Kantner in 1997. Palmer’s background consisted of playing point guard for Cal-Poly Pomona, a DII college, and won two NCAA championships during her career. When she became an official her goal was simple, stay unnoticed. Palmer was also quoted, “I can just try it. If nothing happens, the training will be good” (Howard 2013). When Palmer hit NBA status she was instantly bombarded by comments and harsh criticism. One such example came from a broadcaster Cedric who was commentating one of her games saying, “Get back in the kitchen and cook me some eggs” (Howard 2013). More comments said during Palmer’s career consisted of things such as a woman will not be able to handle the bad language or aggressiveness of the players and coaches.
The purpose of Johnette’s article was to applaud Violet Palmer and her accomplishments and what she has overcome during her career as an official. Howard may have also been trying to attack the fact that this is a reoccurring problem in today’s society and let her readers be aware of the sexism taking place. Her article was conducted simply through discovery and interviews followed by minor research along the way. Major findings in this article were the recorded comments from onlookers of Palmer’s career and the disbeliefs of women being successful.
Assaults on Basketball Referees: A Statewide Survey was conducted by David W. Rainey and Peter Duggan in March of 1998. Rainey and Duggan’s survey was mailed out to 1,500 certified referees in a certain area in hopes of finding information about assaults towards referees throughout their careers. Of the 1,500 mailed surveys, only 721 were returned, being 664 men and only 57 women. In the survey officials were asked questions such as who their assailant was (player, coach, fan, etc.), what game circumstances an assault happened (championships, rivals, etc.), whether or not they thought their assailant was drunk or drugged, and other variant yes or no questions. Respondents to the survey varied in ages from 20-72, averaging 41.9, and had anywhere from 3-49 years of experience, averaging 14.4 years. Having at least one assault throughout their career was reported by 91 men but only seven women. However three of those women had stated being assaulted more than once. Collected data presented that of the reported assailants 41% were players, 20% parents, 19% coaches, 15% fans, 82% adults, 52% high school level games, and 24% adult league games. Of the reported assaults, minor incidents consisted of pushing (43%) and spitting (2%) and major incidents such as hitting or punching (28%), throwing objects (19%), and choking (4%) (Rainey and Duggan 1998). Overall only 55% of reported assault cases in the survey had a followed punishment of the assailant, all others going denied or ignored.
The purpose of this survey that Rainey and Duggan are focusing on is assaults towards officials and to find whether or not there is any kind of patterns of these assaults. However, it was hard to find such patterns seeing as though there was an uneven number of males and females that responded to the survey. This survey was conducted simply by a mailed survey to certified officials with instructions stating that a response was optional and results of the survey may be sent back if they were interested. Other major findings taken place during this particular survey was further research of past assaults towards officials. Rainey and Duggan presented that in 1986 and other parts of the 19th century players and coaches believed that fighting was a part of their sport and that it was normal to treat officials as villains. There was actually a time made up called “Kill the Ump” in regards to baseball umpires. Also during this time period, officials believed they could not report any assaults so that they would not affect any of the players’ or coaches’ future or reputation.
Richard G. Graf and Paula J. Konoske write the Gender Effects in the Evaluation of High School Basketball Officials. Their goal of this article is to prove people view a low status female official as more compatible to referee women’s games than men’s. Around the same time as this survey, the act of Title IX passed allowing more women to participate in activities and opened up new opportunities for them. Yet it seemed soon after the act was passed, more male officials were being assigned to games before women. It was found that female participation in team sports were less socially acceptable than if they were to participate in an individual sport. Also, females were looked down upon whenever they took part in what people considered to be a males sport (Graf and Konoske). In this article, Richard and Paula conducted a survey focusing on high school students. The students were presented with scenarios and statuses of officials and were asked to rate them and what they think of each official. The survey focused on status of officials, gender of officials, gender of the respondents, and the gender of the game being played. The data from the survey presented that males often rated male officials higher than females and females rated female officials higher than males. It was also found that a higher status official was more capable of doing either a men’s or women’s game, while a lower status official should only be doing a women’s game. An answer for these responses were given a simple answer that women may be overwhelmed or influenced my men therefore they need to stick to female games.
The purpose of this research and survey was to look for other possibilities to explain the sexism taking place towards female officials and to look at other peoples’ perspectives on officials and their opinions. This survey was conducted through a survey of high school students. A total of 171 students were surveyed, however only 160 were used and split to 80 boys and 80 girls. The surveys gave the students scenarios and back ground information on each of the refs and were asked which one was more suitable for a boys’ game and which one for a girls’ game. Other major findings while conducting the survey was a strong bias when females are involved in sports that are perceived to be a more dominant male sport.
From the previously stated articles and research we can see there are similarities and yet each document also presents a new idea towards sexism. Major findings of these articles presented that criticism of female officials present high disbeliefs in their abilities to perform as a referee and suggesting that that are incapable of the job, surveys presented information to connect patterns of assailants and what may invoke them, and bias may be strongest whenever a female is involved in a more dominantly male sport. With these major findings it is clear that there may be more towards the reasoning of lack of female officials than what was originally expected. From this research, questions can be asked such as what can be done about these findings, and is it enough to be what is pushing females away.