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University of Texas Choice of Athletic Director Reveals Deep Inequality
Mike Perrin, a lawyer and former college football player, was chosen as the new interim athletic director for University of Texas over Chris Plonsky, a woman who has worked in the athletic department of the university for a quarter of a century. The announcement of this decision has many pointing to the lingering gender gaps in athletics at the collegiate level and beyond.
Decades after Title IX was passed in an attempt to address and prevent sex discrimination, statistics show there is a major disparity between male and female head coaches in college athletics. According to NCAA reporting, more than 80 percent of men still make up Division I collegiate head coaches, and of a total 313 Division I athletic directors, only 37 are women. As the New York Times reported:
Its not that women arent qualified, or that Texas has something specific against hiring [Plonsky] for its top job. Its just that the sad numbers dont lie.
. . . .
This is easier said than done, as women at both the collegiate and professional level face massive inequalities. As Meg Linehan of Vice Sports reported, the salaries for professional athletes in the National Womens Soccer League and the National Womens Hockey League are below the poverty line. Similarly, more established womens leagues like the WNBA are paid enormously less than their male counterparts.
The United States womens soccer team made headlines this summer for both bringing home the FIFA World Cup trophy, but also for lingering disparities in pay coverage between the mens and womens teams. In this summers world cup tournament alone, the US world champions of the womens World Cup earned collectively $15 million- a stark difference from the $576 million earned collectively by the US mens team, who lost in the first round of the tournament last year.
At the same time, tiny victories are taking place for women in athletics. Jen Welter was hired as a coach for the Arizona Cardinals this summer, becoming the first woman to be an NFL coach. And just this season, Sarah Thomas was named the first female referee official for the NFL. San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon also made history as the first woman to coach an NBA team.
http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/09/22/university-of-texas-choice-of-athletic-director-reveals-deep-inequality/
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)Mike Perrin has deep roots with the university of texas, and seems like he is well qualified. There are many reasons why they could have made the decision either way.
Their revenue is 160 million a year. 110 million of that comes from football, so I can see why they would want to hire somebody with ties to football.
niyad
(113,364 posts)did you not get?
no, of course there is no such thing as institutional sexism. couldn't possibly be.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)There are a lot of choices that have to be made. Without knowing either person, I don't know which one is the better pick.
Bonx
(2,053 posts)"Ive never been interested in the mens athletics job, Plonsky said. Im here to serve President Fenves, and Im here to serve Mike now that hes the AD.
Plonsky has known Perrin for many years and called him a man of integrity, well known and well respected.
http://www.hookem.com/story/chris-plonsky-not-interested-in-replacing-steve-patterson-she-says/
mythology
(9,527 posts)Much like no individual storm can be tied to global warming, no individual hiring can be tied to institutional sexism. The article doesn't give enough credence to that.
But the article has some fundamental flaws when it starts talking about athlete salaries in comparing men and women. For a whole host of reasons, women's sports don't bring in supporters and viewers like men's sports. Hockey players don't make as much as basketball players either.
But one of the big reasons for the discrepancy is that professional women's sports leagues are new. Men's sports didn't pay nearly as well comparatively years ago. It was a big deal when Babe Ruth made more than the president. Now a backup player earns more.