Gender Role Attitudes

2106 Words9 Pages
The Gender Role Attitudes Toward Females In Sport After reading the first chapter of C. Wright Mills book, “The Sociological Imagination”, I contemplated my own biography and how societal gender role attitudes played a part in shaping my future. When looking back on my athletic career as a female ice hockey goaltender competing against men, I realize that my abilities had little to do with the lack of opportunities I was given. In this essay I hope to explore the history behind gender role attitudes and there effects on young girls in sports. I will do so by discussing my personal experiences and relating them to society as a whole. First I will discuss my experiences with gender discrimination, having opportunities taken away because I was female. Second, I will touch on the inequality of funding between men and women’s sports. And third, I will show how I was affected by the sexualization of females in sport. To start this journey of connecting my personal biography with the history of societal gender role attitudes I will briefly explain Mills concept of a sociological imagination and how larger societal issues often shape personal problems. To Mills, the sociological imagination is the ability to relate ones personal biography to society and its history as a whole. It’s about looking at the bigger picture rather than focusing on one individual event. The sociological imagination “enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society” (Mills, 1959: 6). When using your sociological imagination you are able to step back and see things from a different point of view. Doing so helps make sense of feelings of uneasiness, indifference and apathy. It helps us understand ourselves as individuals, and our role within society. It helps put life in perspective and without the sociological imagination one can become isolated from their
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