The topic of gender is a common area of discussion and controversy for sports teams in and out of WHS. With many rules, dynamics and norms being different due to gender, the treatment of girls in sports compared to boys can have significant impacts on the athletes themselves.
Despite playing the same sport, the physical and biological differences between girls and boys can result in different strengths and weaknesses.
“A boy at the state meet will tend to go a little faster than a girl at the state meet, even if they are at equal level of abilities,” said swim and dive head coach Jim Mclaughlin.“For divers, it’s often the other way around, where the top girl diver at the state meet might be better than the top boy diver.”
This difference may affect the rules and regulations of certain sports as well. Sports, like lacrosse, tennis, volleyball, and basketball also have different rules due to women’s physicality.
“In lacrosse, there are more rules in terms of how aggressive we can be [as compared to boys],” said senior Nola Dickie, member of the girls swim and lacrosse teams. “As a result, girls lacrosse is less physical and more running.”
Physical differences between girls and boys can also result in different uniforms. For sports like track, women wear very short and tight shorts to help their speed. Some uniforms in certain sports are less efficient. Girls’ attire and uniforms in WHS sports teams has been a concern for many.
“For tennis, our uniforms have shorter shorts [than the guys] and tank tops,” said junior Sienna Zerola, member of the tennis team. “Sometimes it’s uncomfortable because if you’re running around the tank top falls down, so you have to constantly be pulling it up.”
For comparison, the boys tennis team uniform is a t-shirt or polo with knee length shorts.
The issue with women’s uniforms being less practical often for reasons that have nothing to do with aiding performance is also seen in professional sports. During the 2024 Olympics, the women’s US team outfits in track and field were heavily criticized for being very revealing compared to the men’s uniform.
Like uniforms, body image is a significant factor in many sports. All athletes, no matter what gender, are encouraged to consistently train and be at a healthy weight. For women and girls, however, the issues with weight and training can be more severe.
According to a survey conducted by webmd.com, “68% of female college athletes said they felt pressure to be pretty, and 30% said they were afraid of becoming too muscular.”
Certain beauty standards are not as severe in Weston sports teams.
“I feel like you don’t want to be super muscular as a girl, but at this point, for people who are, it’s cool and not seen as a bad feature,” said senior Elizabeth D’Amaro, a basketball and tennis player.
Due to the way all sports are run,WHS keeps the funding between sports teams balanced.
“For swimming, [funding] could not be more equal,” said Mclaughlin. “All the coaches coach both the boys and girls, the pool is used by both teams, and both teams get equal buses.”
This is not the case in professional sports. In terms of funding, it can vary based on the type of sport and number of wins. There is a clear pattern, however, that female athletes are consistently underpaid for their work.
In the 2024 sport rich list, a list of the world’s highest paid athletes, no women were present. According to espn.com, “Cristiano Ronaldo again topped the list of the world’s highest-paid athletes with a total income of $260 million in 2024, but there were no women in the top 100.”
The treatment of female athletes also depends on how popular the sport is between the two genders. Volleyball, for example, is a more women dominated sport, which impacts the amount of support the team gets.
“Since [Weston has] such a good program and the girls typically go further than the guys [volleyball team], we generally have better resources,” said sophomore Zoe Jackson, member of the WHS girls volleyball team. “We just have a smaller boys team so they have to join up with other schools.”
Despite funding being relatively equal for specific sports, boys sports teams seem to get significantly more attention than the girls teams do.
“For viewership, a lot more people go to the boys hockey games or the boys basketball games than they do the girls,” said junior Kate Krueger.
Many in Weston have noticed the lack of viewership of girls sports compared to boys sports teams. This issue is even more pronounced in professional sports.
“Professional sports have a big [gender] difference, especially in basketball,” said D’Amaro. “The WNBA has no attention and it’s not very promoted, whereas the NBA is a huge league.”
While this historical discrepancy between men’s and women’s professional sports teams’ popularity has typically been mirrored in high school sports, some at WHS are hopeful that the trend is changing.
“I speak for a lot of girls when I say that it’s kind of a bummer when no one really shows up,” said Dickie. “But it is changing a little bit and more people are showing their spirit. Advocating for all sports games to be attended is a really good thing for a high school. They’re really fun and it shows a lot of school spirit no matter who or what game is being played.”
