Gender roles in Western societies have been changing rapidly in recent years, with the changes created both by evolutionary changes in society, including economic shifts which have altered the way people work and indeed which people work as more and more women enter the workforce, and by pressure brought to make changes because of the perception that the traditional social structure was inequitable. Gender relations are part of the socialization process, the initiation given the young by society, teaching them certain values and creating in them certain behavior patterns acceptable to their social roles. These roles have been in a state of flux in American society in recent years, and men and women today can be seen as having expanded their roles in society, with women entering formerly male dominions and men finding new ways to relate to and function in the family unit. One of the primary spurs to these changes has been a search for equity, for the truly equal treatment before the law that American society has always promised but has not always delivered. There was a time when men were sent to college and women were not, and women fought their way into our institutions of higher learning and showed that they could benefit greatly from the experience and that society would benefit as well. Colleges and universities remain a battleground of ideas and social change, and today one such battle involves the desire for equitable treatment of women in terms of providing opportunities in sports.
Excelling in sports has long been seen as a male prerogative, and in this area women remain far behind because of the structure of both amateur and professional sports in America. Newspaper coverage shows a prejudice for male teams over female teams, and many Americans may have only a vague idea of the extent of women's sports. The 1994 women's tournament of basketball was cited recently as a milestone for sexual equality in spite of the f...