Monday, February 9, 2015

Girls Tackling Football - Haoyan Gu

I really like this article because it points out a success in women’s sports. In my opinion, girls playing in football teams is a huge step for women’s sports because football has always been seen as men’s sport. It requires intensive physical contact, which is less advantageous for women to play. According to the article, Lisa Spangler plays as starting middle linebacker for Fort Vancouver; and the coach said that he didn’t expect a girl on the team, but his job is to pick the best 11 players to start, and Lisa is one of them (Gutman, 2011). The coach’s statement is the best illustration of sex equality because he didn’t care about sex but skill level. The coach’s statement should be common sense and break the stereotype of “women can’t play football” and should apply to all sports.

In addition, women can achieve what men can achieve in sports now. In the article, Gutman mentioned that Gilbert caught a pass in a football game, and her coach said that if people saw her in her uniform, no one would know it was a girl (Gutman, 2011). If girls can do what men can do, why can’t they be on a male-dominant team such as football? I think it is a great start of breaking down the sex and gender barrier in sports. If letting women play on the same team with men can bring the same level of competition as all men playing, why not give a shot to try a mix gender team in the future.


Gutmann, H. (2011, October 18). Girls tackling football across the country. ESPN.com  Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/blog/high-school/girl/post/_/id/462/girls-tackling-football-across-the-country

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3 comments:

  1. The Tennis Prof ChroniclesFebruary 10, 2015 at 5:48 AM

    Haoyan,

    I'm glad you see "girls tackling football" as a step toward sex equality. I don't know that we will ever reach a point where schools or colleges need to start a football team for girls or women only. However, there are all-women's football leagues that are obviously much less visible than men's leagues.

    Thanks for sharing your observations of this article.

    Dr. Spencer

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  2. SM 4250 - Sport & Gender (1:00 TR Class)February 11, 2015 at 1:52 PM

    I would agree that girls taking on football can be seen as a step towards bringing down the sex barrier in sports. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure that there are many other coaches with this same philosophy that it is not about sex but skill level. Some coaches, even if they know the female is more skilled, may be too afraid of the backlash they will receive for starting a female in what is considered to be a men’s sport. I do think that the barrier has definitely come a long way from what it once was and now people have realized that women can achieve just as much success in sports as men can. I think this example is a step in the right direction but I’m not too sure that schools will start introducing women’s, or even mixed gender football programs.

    Kaleb Kuzma

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 11, 2015 at 5:46 PM

    You make a great point here! Women can achieve what men achieve in ports and it is a great start towards the breaking down of the gender barrier. I feel that the break of the gender barrier starts even earlier than just the examples we discussed in class. I recall a time when I played youth football back in my home town. In fourth grade we had a female on our football team and it made some of the players uneasy, as well as some parents. One day we did a hitting drill and the girl over powered one of my teammates and the boy made a huge deal of it. You could tell his father was a little unpleased as well. We hear about all these success stories but a lot of stories go unnoticed. This personal story hit home with me. This girl started a movement within the league, without even knowing it. She was a barrier breaker for the sport and this is my way of giving credit when it’s due!

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