Sports Participation and Effect on Business and Education

Origin: Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu>.
Summary: The source makes a connection between female participation and sports. "As a result, U.S. female high school athletic participation rose dramatically from 1 in 27 females in 1972 to 1 in 4 in 1978"(Stevenson). More females started to participate in sports in school and because they had an opportunity to play sports in school they were no longer just getting educated but also being active. It is proven that participation in sports results in better wages and because women were allowed to participate in sports they had the same opportunities as men. "The fact that athletic participation (and only athletic participation among all extra-curricular activities) is associated with higher wages suggests that sports have an especially strong correlation with a type of ability that is both an important determinant of wages and is not measured by other observable variables" (Stevenson). The source shows that women participation in sports dramatically increased after Title IX was established. "This fraction increased from 1971 when approximately 1 in 13 athletes were female to 1997 when 2 in 5 athletes were female.  Note that the most dramatic changes occurred from 1972-1978, corresponding with Title IX’s timing"(Stevenson). It is learned that the more women that participated in sports the more education they attained. "The first row in the first column of Table 4 suggests that a 10 percentage point increase in the female athletic participation rate in a state generates an increase in the average educational attainment among women of 0.021 years" (Stevenson).  Overall this source reveals that because women had the opportunity to participate in sports it opened many doors for them in school and after school. 


Value: Important dates, talks about males and females, statistics, graphs, talks about Title IX, mentions the Civil Rights Act of 1964, talks about how women participation in sports has been effective as a whole, sites sources, informal, and uses tables. 


Limitations: Bias, secondary source, uses graphs and tables to prove a point, doesn't provide an exact study on the correlation between female participation in sports and business and education, and it's wordy and not straight to the point. 


Analysis: It shows an achievement of the feminist movement because after Title IX was passed many more women participated in sports and had the opportunity to do it in school. It reveals that Title IX had to be taken seriously because schools had to drop male teams if they didn't mean Title IX requirements. This also shows a failure because Title IX isn't meant to favor women but supposed to give everyone no matter race or gender a fair opportunity in federal funded extra-curricular activities. It shows that because of the hard work done during the feminist movement women were and still are able to get better jobs and be treated as an equal and not differently because they appear weaker. It shows a major success because women are able to get good jobs and get a good educate because of the work done during the feminist movement. "Without controlling for education, playing a high school sport is associated with more than 10 percent higher wages for both men and women"(Stevenson). Because of the hard work of the feminist movement are now able to get better jobs and earn more money and be more independent. This source shows a success because of the feminist movement women are able to be more independent and get treated more like equals.