Gender plays a crucial role in sport. For years, the masculine identity has dominated the representation of sport in society. The presence of this ideology has placed many constraints on opportunities for women in sport. However, as women continue to break these barriers and push boundaries, female equality in sport continues to grow and evolve.
In the Maritimes, Brad Janes promotes this ideology and launched a new competitive basketball league to fill this void of inequality in sport for female athletes. The Maritime Women’s basketball Association (MWBA) is scheduled to start its first season in 2022. Janes states that, “there’s just not as many opportunities for females out there for organized leagues”. Just as much as he sees a shortage of opportunity for players, Janes expresses that “there’s a need to bolster coaching opportunities for women”.
Tasia McKenna, former elite athlete and technical director of Basketball Nova Scotia, will become the league’s commissioner and she states “that building a competitive league for women basketball players might open a door and inspire other women’s sport leagues to form”.
Research has clearly shown that male dominance in the sport world is a major issue that female athletes continue to face. Evidently men have a greater amount of opportunity to play sport than women. Due to this institutionalized masculinity this will be a hard perception to break in society but if women continue to advocate and push for equal opportunity to participate in sports then women’s sport is sure to find its way to equality.
Strachan A.
Sport, Not Games ⚽ 