As a young female athlete, I stopped sports my senior year of high school due to the fact that I was afraid I was far behind the competitive curve and I saw no future for it whatsoever. I honestly believed going to college for the sport I was playing was a waste of my time, because going pro for females is extremely hard and not worth the effort or time I would be putting in.
Do young athletes actually believe they will end up going professional? Does the answer differ between male and female?
There is a case study that two college students and their professor did that addresses these exact questions. They interviewed young female and male athletes in middle school, high school, and junior college. They asked questions on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being not important and 5 being very important. The questions had to do with the like the likelihood of them having a future in professional sports, how they value sports, and the certain aspects of sports they value. 16 girls and 18 boys who were in middle school were interviewed, 13 girls and 17 high school boys were interviewed, and 15 women and men who attend college were interviewed.
The results came out to be somewhat surprising to the researchers. As females approached a higher age the more serious about their studies they began to be. Is this because they have to be due to the fact there is not much of future for them in professional sports? At every levels of age all of the females rated their likelihood of being in professional sports extremely low in comparison to the males interviewed. This tells us something about the lack of opportunities and exposure for females in professional sports.
Citation: Flanagan, K.E., Baker C.I., Fortin, M., Tinsley, D.V. (2006, Mar. 2). The effect of gender opportunity in sports on the priorities and aspirations of young athletes. The Sport Journal. Retrieved from http://thesportjournal.org/article/the-effect-of-gender-opportunity-in-sports-on-the-priorities-and-aspirations-of-young-athletes/
Women Going Pro 