We all know that sexism is an increasing issue in society. We see it in our day-to-day lives, and schools stress the importance of fighting against sexism. You can even see it in professional sports, such as in questions, commentary, and so on. Sexism is a virus that infects our society and our youth. How can we fight against this? And are schools doing their best to fight it? I want to look more into the sports aspect of it. As an athlete, you face sexism in bare words and microaggressions to blatant favoritism toward male sports— or maybe the other way around? How does our student body and staff see it? Many reasons were given, from bad coaches to lack of funding.

When I interviewed the student body, out of the 19 interviews I conducted, all 19 were a yes. The question being: “Do you think there is favoritism towards male sports in this school? And how?” I interviewed boys, girls, student athletes, and non–student athletes, and they all felt the answer was yes. Why? Let’s look at a couple of the answers.

One anonymous female student athlete said, “I think favoritism is happening in sports because I have personally seen it in baseball and softball. They get new uniforms and new equipment while we have to use old ones. For example, Varsity Softball gets different equipment than JV Softball, but it’s different for baseball, in JV, who get the same amount of equipment as Varsity. Also, more people view the boys’ soccer games compared to the girls’.”

In another answer, a male student athlete shared, “I believe there is favoritism towards male sports in this school in terms of funding. I think sports such as boys’ basketball get more funding than sports such as girls’ basketball, and the same goes for soccer. I think the reason for this could be because boys’ basketball, for example, (does) better than their counterpart sport. However, the success could be a result of the funding, meaning it’s a cycle that won’t get better.”

Now, in terms of staff, out of four surveys, three said no.

“No, they (the boys) get support from outside sources. How, you may ask? WINNING,” one male staff member said.

Another says something similar: “No, the boys get more because they win. If the girls want recognition, they should win more.”

But the other survey response says something completely different, bringing up full-fledged points and evidence. He shared:

“Funding? (boys having more compared to girls) Absolutely not. (He believes the) girls get better treatment. I personally have also put hundreds of hours of my time and thousands of dollars into our boys’ (anonymous) teams. Nobody does this.” He then showed proof—merchandise for his team, such as zip-ups and t-shirts—saying he spent over $700. So this brings up another aspect: is this a funding issue with underlying sexism, or just a funding issue in itself?

There are so many aspects this can fall back onto: funding, coaching, etc. When speaking to Mr. Farkas, our school’s athletic directors, he cleared up all he could. In its entirety, it falls back onto the coaches. When it comes to equipment, the coaches have to request it for it to get sent in, and so on. There is also an aspect brought up earlier by one of the coaches: some buy their team supplies out of their own pockets. This is what Title IX doesn’t affect. Title IX is an act placed in 1972 which guarantees equal opportunities, respect, and everything required based on sex in educational settings as well as athletics. This doesn’t apply to the fact that a coach paid out of pocket— it wasn’t funded by the school, so…

Now, when it comes to coaching overall, such as coaches hired, there is a larger turnover for girls’ coaches than boys’ coaches because most coaches want to coach boys. So this falls back on our patriarchal society. This is also because a lot of young women who are coaching end up having to leave earlier because they want to start families. Another example of the turnover is that, as a junior, I have not had the same coach for the past few years in my sport. Freshman year my coach got excessed, then we got a new coach sophomore year, and now this year we’re getting ANOTHER new coach.