Answer

12

Research Paper

Tommy T Bush

April 11th 2022

Diversity and Inclusion of Women in Sports

Introduction

Equality in our societies has been a recurring issue with women being considered a minority group. By this, women have been subject to bias recruitment, discrimination, and even prejudiced pay throughout history. Specifically, the current legal paradigms, increased pressure for social inclusion, and shifting global demographics are some of the causal factors prompting increased focus upon equality, diversity, and inclusion of women in the sports industry. According to the research by Fiske and Taylor (2013), even though women have attained notable progress towards attaining the necessary inclusion levels in the sports, events, and recreation industry, evidence suggests that women are yet to be fully integrated into the sector. For instance, it is very unlikely to find a woman coaching or managing a male team in the NBA or American football league. In this sense, the lack of diversity and inclusion in our societies because of gender discrimination, bias promotion of men, and stereotyping render the participation by women in sporting events minimal.

With the ‘world of sports being back’ after the Covid-19 pandemic, it is crucial for clubs, sporting agencies, and managers to clearly address the issue of diversity and inclusion, considering the sports industry is considered to be the least diverse industry. Particularly, it is the understanding by most scholars that the undertaking of essential diversity and inclusion mechanisms will guarantee better sustainability and performances (Childs, 2014). By this, the element of diversity relates to the accommodation of people from different backgrounds and attributes. An entity like a sports club is considered to exercise diversity if they are able to fairly assimilate people from different ethnic groups, gender, age, or even those with disability concerns without biasness (O’Bryant, 2010). Alternatively, inclusion emphasizes upon the use of pro-active behaviors, actions, and options to improve on diversity; such that people from various backgrounds, ages, and abilities can get equal opportunities and respect.

By this, even with the presence of exemplary women professionals and others from minority groupings, the United States societies are mired by long standing issues of exclusion where Whites, cisgender, and able-bodied persons hold crucial leadership roles. According to the research by Childs (2014), these patterns of underrepresentation of minority groups and women are quite prevalent in our societies especially with leadership roles. Adding to the limited access, the persons from the underrepresented minority groups and women are subject to face diversity and inclusion problems because of stereotyping tendencies, prejudice hiring tendencies, and discrimination. These disparities are very common among administrators, athletes, coaching officials, and sometimes, the sport fans. According to the research by Griffin (2012), the existence of such patterns in sports is an indication that diversity and inclusion is yet to be fully achieved in our societies irrespective of the proven organizational effectiveness and the positive effects brought forth by promoting diversity and inclusion practices.

Researching about the underrepresentation of women in sports activities and specifically, high level leadership roles like coach and manager, it would be appropriate to explore perspectives posited through cognitive diversity theory. By this, the cognitive diversity theory stipulates that there are multiple perspectives arising because of existing cultural differences between groups, which could be useful in attaining better problem solving and innovative tendencies. Existing research studies posit that diversity and inclusion characteristics especially in sports and recreational events, warrant the attainment of positive performances. This is mainly because with diversity and inclusion, different team members are able to utilize their unique cognitive attributes and experiences from different demographic backgrounds to establish better participation elements. By using cognitive diversity to expound on issues of inclusion amongst women in sports activities, the research details the limited involvement of women in high sporting roles like manager/coaching. In this sense, women are not considered to be lacking the necessary skills or competencies, but they are often stereotyped and discriminated because of the dominant nature of male gender in the industry.

Cognitive Diversity and Inclusion

The perspective of cognitive diversity details the essential inclusion of people from different gender, cultural and religious backgrounds into an instutional entity. With proper inclusion, there would be better decision making because of the integration of unique perspectives possessed by the different persons towards establishing better view points. According to the research by McAllister et al. (2012), cognitive diversity is different from demographic diversity because it aspires to achieve mixed approaches regarding how persons facilitate the undertaking of intellectual activities and collaborations. Promoting workplace diversity at sporting clubs and entities provides demographic diversity and cognitive uniformity. The attainment of diversity and inclusion of underrepresented persons and women in the sports and recreational evennts require organizational managers to limit on issues of confirmation bias and stereotypic employment tendencies (Fiske and Taylor, 2013).

Diversity and inclusion in sports such as the hiring of more women into senior management positions is integral to success. This is because with diversity differences, groups are able to establish different perspectives when approaching threats and market opportunities. With increased participation of women in sporting and recreation activities, O’Bryant (2010) insinuates that there is increased human interactions and better performance because women are better in identifying emerging team problems compared to male managers. Through the studies by O’Bryant (2010), there is implicit proof that women and men are considered equally adept when it comes to managing carrer failures and successes. Thereof, the lacking diversity and inclusion in sports and recreational events is an indication that women are subject to discrimination, biasness, and stereotyping during the hiring or promotion process.

Most sports and recreational events are usually segregated with involvement by players and coaching personnel influenced by sex and gender assigned roles. It is usually common for transgender and female athletes or coaching personnel to experience poor levels of engagement with male dominated sports. According to the research findings by McAllister et al. (2012), regarding coach and athlete gender similarities, the researchers identify the existence of high levels of performance correlation. By this, with men sports, having gender congruence enabled for increased performances and participations compared to having a female coach. This kind of biasness has significantly affected the enrolment of female coaching and manager personnel into male dominanted sports. Additionally, with women sports activities, evidence suggests that athletes would also perform better when trained and coach by a male coach, which most consider to offer better training initiatives compared to a woman athlete. The existence of such kinds of historical biases informs on the limited representation of women in several sports activities, because most professionals, shy away from male dominanted leagues because of prejudicial biasness and discrimination during promotions (Griffin, 2012).

Approaching diversity and inclusion requires that professionals exploit and think of how their own sports and recreational club promotes diversity and employment of women and people from minority groups. From a cognitive diversity perspective, our communities should be able to integrate strategic inclusion elements, meant to enable for equality and the allocation of equal opportunities for all. With diversity and meaningful practice of necessary women inclusion in the sports and recreational industry, most of our societies would attain better social changes and governance. In this sense, using effective women inclusion in sports leadership, Taylor (2001) indicates that our boards and governance approach would be able to realize better potential and the drive towards social progress. It is evident with many social institutions led by women that gender equality and inclusion should be prioritized by many leaders to enable for better work environments and decision making (Cunningham and Chelladurai, 2015). Through the report findings by TIDES (the institute for diversity and ethics) on racial and gender analysis, it is evident that the NBA and WNBA continue to lead in promoting diversity, equality, and the practice of inclusive hiring.

According to the TIDES report, the NBA and WNBA are the only national sports leagues that scored an A+ concerning equal hiring practices that were lacking any prejudice or discrimination against women. By this, it is very clear to most gender activists that our social structures need to implement equality changes especially throughout the hiring process. If we genuinely involve non-biased hiring practices in sports activities, we are often able to prompt inclusion, diversity, and fairness. Notably, with increased involvement of women in crucial leadership roles in sports like coaching or managerial roles, most teams and college institutions are able to better their decision making and strategies. With increased involvement and hiring of women in sports institutions, most athletes are able to improve upon team cohesion, relationships, and effectiveness. As a clear depiction of the importance of diversity and inclusion in sports, Lix and Goldberg et al. (2022) makes implicit reference to the famous “Maya Angelou poem, And Still I Rise,” recited by Serena Williams in the 2015 awards. The reference to the poem illustrates the existing awareness of issues regarding discrimination especially with hiring practices in various sports avenues.

Stereotyping In Sports

Providing the view of individuals considered as stereotypes, (Cunningham and Chelladurai, 2015) considers that such people will possess certain fixed attributes, which embody specific social group requirements. By this, being a stereotype warrants one to develop the unfair belief that all persons with particular characteristics are necessarily the same. For instance, the stereotyping of women being unrealiable managers or coaching personnel,’ has been an issue promoting the limited involvement of women in sports and recreational activities. According to the research by (Preece and Bullingham, 2020), women and minority groups (blacks and people with disability) are underrepresented in various sporting activities because of behavioral actions from top management personnel, who are usually considered to be stereotypes and undertaking actions that are biased. The stipulations are mainly informed by the fact that the American society is marred by unfair actions especially in industries like sports and recreational events that are subject to male dominance.

Facilitating the necessary inquiry into the issue of stereotyping (Knight and Giuliano, 2011) employs the participation of over 100 Princeton University sports students. The research study sought to establish stereotype attributes associated with specific nationalities, religion, and ethnicity, and gender aspects. Through the study, the researchers compiled several attributes associated with each group that they implied to as “group fallacy attitude.” In this sense, the presented group attributes were characteristic of general mistaken believes concerning the specific culture or ethnicity and gender. The repetition of similar study by different researchers in Princeton presented similar attributes, hence a depiction of the endurance of stereotypic associations that suggest social generalization. The existing differences that emerged between the two studies undertaken during different periods necessarily show changes in stereotyping tendencies as our societies continue to assimilate elements of cultural assimilation, inclusion, and diversity. However, through the two studies, it was clear that stereotypes are usually a correlation of character attributes within different social groups. The individual mind and culture are commonly the most influential determinants bringing about the existence of prejudice and other issues associated with stereotyping of women in sports and recreation activities.

According to (Lix and Goldberg et al. 2022), the notion stereotypes is usually characteristic of two theoretical concepts that entail associative network semantic (knowledge) of the memory and automatic activation due to cultural bias. In this case, individuals with aspects of cultural biasness will often associate a certain group to certain attributes because of their appearance or characteristics. For instance, a person will consciously associate women involved in sports to junior roles that are limited to leadership roles like coaching or management. This is because of their semantic knowledge and understanding of gender equality, which is under the influence of stereotyped backgrounds (O’Bryant, 2010). The consistent acquisition of information and other attributes associating women and minority groups in the society to minimal participation and roles in sports, considerably impacts the realization of proper diversity and inclusivity. Through the research by (Knight and Giuliano, 2011), most RESM employments are usually affected by male dominance in the sports industry with leagues unable to accommodate female managers/coaches..

Particularly, these theoretical ideas of stereotypical association are often representing people under a generalization perspective; such as with the notion that being black or a woman will reciprocate to being unreliable to attain required business standards (O’Bryant, 2010). The semantic memory of most of the persons with such a perception automatically activates to facilitate their creation of stereotype effects. When individuals are raised to articulate women to being inferior in the society, the person will often dicriminate against hiring a woman to undertake leadership or managerial roles. In essence, the reinforcement of such an ideology warrants to the eventual emergence of stereotypic elements, such that the affected persons’ will be fearful of hiring a woman not because they are incompetent, but because their mind is conditioned to avoid hiring or promoting women. Making reference to the research study by (Cunningham and Chelladurai, 2015), the aspect of automatic brain activation will usually impact a stereotype judgment concerning gender, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. For example, low prejudiced individuals would stipulate to other communities like blacks as “all persons are equal” and it is important not to judge people because of their features/traits. However, a high prejudice individual would provide a list of statements or traits that are supportive of their stance against the stipulated group of individuals.

With the frequency of occurrence, the respective stereotypical associations concerning the individuals from the stereotyped group will usually attain firm establishment in the memory of persons. Owing to widespread existence and cultural diversity, every individual from the stereotyped culture and gender will always appear to possess unwanted attributes (Cunningham and Chelladurai, 2015). Our semantic memory status will always associate the learned cultural or else behavioral attributes to the targeted stereotyped group of people. For instance, in the presence of the stereotyped group, a sports manager would automatically activate their perceived thoughts and behavioral attributes associating to women being unreliable and not legible to successfully facilitate team success. This aspect will usually occur automatically irrespective of the stereotyped person’s nature; that is, regardless of their financial, social, and otherwise, work competencies.

However, there are persons with personal beliefs that mandate their rejection of racial/gender discrimination or else, prejudice. In this sense, such individuals will often seek to instigate conscious inhibitions that would ensure their ability to limit the effects of stereotyping tendencies in their behavior and thoughts. Most of their actions and decisions seek to provide equality and effective consideration of a person’s competencies, skills, experiences, and professionalism. Unfortunately, our conscious processing calls for allocation of the necessary attention resources, which would mitigate the resulting influences of automatically activated stereotype elements (Preece and Bullingham, 2020). By this, the attainment of such inhibitions require the person to have great awareness of the potential bias that would arise upon activation and is further, motivated to allocate effort and time towards suppressing the vice especially during decision making processes. The implicit understanding of stereotyping effects and the essential need to avoid cultural or gender biasness guarantees the person’s ability to facilitate “intentional non-stereotypical judgments.”

Considering the existence of stereotypes and gender bias, most research studies usually articulate to the emergence of discrimination and prejudice during the hiring and promotion of women at the workplace. Specifically, most people might often undertake actions while they are unaware that their feelings, thoughts, and actions are a representation of implicit bias. Such circumstances happen automatically as “gut feelings” thus the unawareness by persons’ that they are bein dicriminative. Accordingly, the resulting effects of implicit bias and stereotype could be through promotions at work that are subject to neglecting others who are better deserving of the position. During such instances, the perpetrators are unaware of the discriminatory nature of their actions, which they are neither conscious nor intentional. Knight and Giuliano (2011) through the research claims that implicit bias with most stereotypes results to unwanted effects, which influence their judgments regarding other ethnic, social groups, and gender. The consistency of implicit bias and stereotyping against women in the society mandates the implementation of institutional mechanisms meant to promote diversity and inclusvity.

Implicit Cognitive Bias in RESM

To mos sports professionals, the emergence of stereotyping elements is mostly attributed to cognitive biasness especially during hiring and work promotion. Unlike with the past, when stereotypes (mostly authoritarians) were biased through their liberal views about others and considering the rest of the population as people with simple views, the current generations are characteristic of about 10 per cent overt stereotypes. Indeed, the views by this number of stereotypes are subject to bring forth exponential effects upon our societies (Preece and Bullingham, 2020). With most social psychologists, the promotion of implicit stereotyping in our societies will necessarily impact everyone because of cognitive bias, which is problematic since the implications are characteristic of “unconscious cognitive failing.” Quoting the problematic nature of implicit stereotypes to the sports and recreation events industry Taylor (2001) refers to the existence of stereotypic characters/behaviors as ‘cognitive monsters,’ especially when attempts to correct such vices have always proven to be unsuccessful.

If we consider the aspect of a wheel, “it would be said that a wheel is biased, if it wobbles on the axle unlike others.” As such, to make this wobbling wheel true, it is critical to implement the necessary corrections to eliminate the imperfections and thus, ensure smooth-straight alignment of the wheel to the axle. Using human social perceptions, the ideology depicts having views that are unbiased and presenting elements of “self-evident truths” that are rooted upon philosophical beliefs or ideologies. Unlike the aspect of ‘a true wheel’ it is important to note that there is no absolute moral standard, which is universal to all humans/societies. By this, different nations and cultures are characteristic of possessing different systems or beliefs, which are usually conventionalized as the national legal foundations (Baldwin, 2018). An example of this notion is quite evident with the hiring tendencies implemented by the NBA and WNBA, whereby the management is always considering the qualifications presented by applicants and not their gender, cultural, or ethnic backgrounds.

Cognitive biases in our societies are quite extensive in nature even though some are at times lacking elements of stereotyping. During the 20th century, women associated with personal dependence were labeled as stereotypes seeking to facilitate the change of existing social norms. Particularly, the overgeneralization of female roles and gender discriminations during that period presented the sevral issues pertaining to cognitive biases (Childs, 2014). In this case, women have had to fight through political hardships to achieve and overcome discrimination and inequality aspects that limited their social and economic empowerment. It is not surprising that most of the existing stereotyping research literature usually lays emphasis upon topics entailing ethnicity or race, sexuality, gender, and age.

Human cognitive diversity abilities are continually purposeful towards assuring the creation of implicit associations and rapid decision making prospects, which benefit institutional success. Through the arguments presented by Cunningham et al. (2015), such pre-judgments that are not limited by stereotypic prejudices present valuable evolutionary and unbiased progression. Specifically, it is our ability to implement “fast and frugal” heuristic judgments that inform on smart associations and the logical use of correct strategies to resolve issues affecting our societies (Preece and Bullingham, 2020).

We are usually tailored to learn and gain socio-cultural morals through socialization and interactions with other members. This does not imply that we should always adopt or approve every specific norm/value presented by others. With cultural knowledge, we are subject to gain insightful pragmatic society functions required for semantic associations. These issues will often guide most of our judgments and actions. As such, to enable the change of emerging implicit associations that are characteristic of cognitive biases, it is important for individuals to explore conscious norms and moral standards that are acceptable for human cognitive development purposes. In essence, the need to lay emphasis upon human cognition as a driving functionality warrants individuals to always utilize regularities as well as develop the necessary implicit associations that correlate with acceptable society paradigms.

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