Segregation in Sports Essay Example

For as long as sports have been played, people have been arguing about whether women and men should be playing sports together. Some people believe that women are just as physically strong as men, and others think that men have an unfair advantage over women. Others believe that women and men should play together to see who is better at the sport.  However, the truth is that men and women should not play sports together, because men are naturally stronger than women, women are naturally leaner and more agile than men, and sports would have to completely change strategies and gameplans to be able to adapt to this change.

Women and men should not play sports together, because men are stronger than women, and women are more agile and leaner than men. Scientific advances have allowed people to find out that men have much more of a hormone called testosterone which is a hormone that increases muscle mass and muscle recovery. In addition to that, it allows men to grow muscles at a much faster rate. In Wickliffe Shreve’s words, “Generally, women’s bodies make about 1/10th to 1/20th of the amount of testosterone as men’s bodies.” This means that since women do not produce as much testosterone as men, they are leaner and more agile. Since  men could grow muscles faster and more efficiently than women, and women are naturally more agile,  it would be unfair for men and women to be playing sports together because women are always at a disadvantage.

Another problem with men and women playing sports together is that many major religions do not allow physical contact between men and women. For example, in Islam, women and men are prohibited from having excessive physical contact. In Judaism, men and women are not allowed to touch each other. The concept is called “ Shomer Negiah.” It means that touch between anyone except the wife or direct family is prohibited. Even in the event that a religion does not prohibit physical contact with the opposite gender, some people just prefer not touching the other gender for comfort reasons. Some men say that they are uncomfortable playing physical and aggressive sports with women. They think that the women have an advantage because men don't feel comfortable being too aggressive and physical with women.According to Barbie Carpenter, “Boys might fear being too aggressive with girls on the playing field.” meaning that Barbie thinks men are going to be less aggressive with women on the field because they are afraid of hurting them.

The skill gap between women and men at this present time is too huge for people to be able to play together. According to many statistics in many different countries and sports, men perform better than women in almost every sport other than gymnastics, figure skating, and synchronized swimming. In the event that women and men were to play together on a professional level, women would just be benched because they would always get outperformed on the field. According to a study conducted by Doriane Lambelet Coleman and Wickliffe Shreve, on average, there is a  10 to 12% performance gap between elite males and elite females. It would take many years of elite training for women to close that gap, so it would just be better to keep the sports separated.

Many sports viewers would like to see men and women play sports together to see once and for all who is better. Others want men and women to play sports together so women could be freed of stereotypes. Female athletes are always hated upon and they have a fraction of the 

viewers that men athletes have, so going against men would be very beneficial for them because people would be interested in seeing who would win and how strategies would differ. Womens salary in sports would also increase dramatically because they are getting a higher viewership than before. However, if women were to play sports with men, then sports would entirely change. Male athletes would have to find a way to counter speed as well as female athletes would have to find a way to counter strength. However, the bad outweighs the good which is why  women and men should not play sports together.  Maybe some time in the future in the event that women evolve to the point where they grow muscle like men, but that seems very unlikely.

People still beg the question, if women and men should play sports together. The answer is no! Men and women have completely different physical builds and there are many differences and factors that may cause difficulties when it comes to playing sports. For example, when playing football, a mostly physical game, a woman has a much harder time competing against a man. The reason for this occurrence is that men are naturally stronger. For religious reasons, some men cannot make physical contact with women. Some women and men are just not as comfortable playing with the opposite gender for many reasons.In conclusion, men and women can not do sports together because of religious reasons, physical differences, and comfort reasons.