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Jul 24, 2021 07:50AM
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Jul 24, 2021 07:54AM
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divinemrsm
Serenity, I attended a Catholic grade school for several years, too, and remember those skirt length guidelines. When I transferred to public school, dress code for girls still required us to wear skirts or dresses. Not until 1974 or 75 did the rules change and we were permitted to wear “pantsuits", no jeans, and then a year or so later, jeans were finally allowed.
According to this article from ABC (edited for length) there is improvement in women's Olympic sports on some levels:
*Tokyo is the most gender-equal Olympics in the games' history, organizers said.
At the first modern Olympic Games, held in 1896 in Athens, there wasn't a single female competitor. When the 2020 Games kick off in Tokyo this month, nearly half of the athletes competing will be women.
Tokyo marks a "turning point" for the elite international sporting competition as the most gender-equal Olympics in the games' history, organizers said, with women accounting for nearly 49% of the 11,090 athletes. That's up from 45% at the last games in 2016 in Rio, 23% at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, 13.2% at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, and 2.2% at the 1900 Games in Paris -- the first to have female athletes.
The milestone comes as the 2020 Games have sparked a conversation around the needs of mothers in particular, regarding accommodations around pregnancy, breastfeeding and child care and as scandals involving the abuse and harassment of female athletes continue to plague sports globally.
The International Olympic Committee has been working toward achieving more gender equity in terms of athlete quotas and event programming. The IOC was "very deliberate" about working to increase the number of female athletes in 2020, said IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell.
"We got the overall number of athletes down from Rio to Tokyo, but even in getting the overall number down, we increased the number of women's athletes," he said.
For the first time, each team participating will have at least one female and one male athlete, and the 2020 Games will feature new events for women and more mixed-gender teams in an attempt at greater gender equity within sports.
Some events have been dropped for men and added for women in boxing, canoe slalom and rowing, and two more women's teams will compete in water polo in Tokyo than in Rio, for 10 women's teams and 12 men's teams total. In swimming, the 1,500-meter freestyle -- an event only men previously competed in at the Olympics -- has also been added for women.
The five sports debuting at Tokyo -- karate, skateboarding, speed climbing, surfing and three-on-three basketball – will all have women's events.
Tokyo Games will have double the number of mixed-gender events than in 2016, for 18 total, including in archery, shooting, judo, table tennis, track and field, triathlon, swimming and surfing.
Additionally, for the opening ceremony, all Olympic teams are encouraged to have one male and one female athlete carry their country's flag.
*Increased visibility for women's sports
When the games are broadcast, women's events will also have more visibility in the 2020 Games, with a more balanced schedule on the weekends -- including more women's team gold medal events (17) than men's (13) on the last weekend. "It's not just about having the athletes on the field of play, it's also finding the best positions in the schedule to promote those events as well," McConnell said.
The Olympics are a time when women's sports often receive their greatest visibility. "Generally speaking, the coverage of women's sports is very low, and I think the Olympics is often the exception to that," said Sarah Axelson, vice president of advocacy for the Women's Sports Foundation.
Having more women in the Olympics has a "ripple effect," with more investment and equality in other competitions. The Olympics can also create a pathway for professional athletes.
*More room for improvement
Other areas within the Olympics movement are working toward greater gender equality. For Tokyo, the Paralympic Games will have at least 40.5% female athletes, up from 38.6% at Rio in 2016.
Over the past decade, only 10% of accredited coaches at the Olympic Summer and Winter Games were women, according to the IOC. The organization has committed to working with international sports federations and national Olympic committees to have more female coaches.
"That area is a little bit harder for us to directly control," McConnell said, noting that the IOC can set athlete quotas, but the athletes ultimately choose their coaches. "But what we can do is put in place programs and create opportunities from the bottom up to ... develop women's coaches."
The IOC has also been working to improve the representation of women within the organization itself, where women currently make up 33.3% of the IOC executive board and 37.5% of IOC members.
found lump 12-22-10—ilc—er+/pr+/her2—stage iv bone mets—chemo~lumpectomy~radiation~arimidex—March 2019-ibrance/aromasin* —Sept 2019-verzenio* —March 2020-xeloda*
