Dual Inequalities In Sports

Despite the remarkable growth in female sports participation opportunities under the legislature of Title IX, black females have not had the same benefits to the same degree as their white female counterparts. While gender-related complaints about female athletes still lag behind males in the areas of scholarships, participation opportunities, athletic facilities, and equipment, larger inequalities associated with being black and female remain absent from talks about Title IX. All of this serves to demonstrate the dual invisibility of black females. Dual invisibility refers to a form of discrimination that is unique to black females and other female minorities that render them practically nonexistent because of their multiple race and gender …show more content…
While these sports may have been added at HBCUs to meet the requirements of Title IX, black females often find themselves locked out of these sporting opportunities (Theune). In 1971, the year before Title IX legislation, fewer than 300,000 girls competed in high school sports compared with 3.6 million boys according to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS, 2011). Similarly, while more than 170,000 men played collegiate sports in 1971, fewer than 30,000 women participated in college athletics (NCAA, 2012). Few schools, except HBCUs, offered women athletics scholarships (Butler & Lopiano, 2003). The passage of Title IX and the passing of time have brought about several highly celebrated visible changes as well as some less obvious changes. According to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS, 2014), participation in high school sports reached an all-time high of 3,267,664 girls in the 2013–2014 school year, an increase of 44,941 over the previous year, and marked the 25th consecutive year of female participation growth (NFHS,