Impact of sports on the self- esteem of sportswomen in Pakistan

Abstract

Sports have always been considered a field dominated by men. All over the world, women and girls are less likely to participate in sports than men and boys, who continue to dominate sports (Larkin, Razack&Moole, 2007, cited by Right to Play, 2008,p. 131).Even in the developed world, like Europe and the United States, women were marginalized in the field of sports, and it was only in the 20th century, after the Second World War that, women’s sports took a whole new image. After initial reluctance from the authoritiesand relentless persistence from sports advocates, women were allowed to take part in the Olympics in five events in 1928. These were the 100m, 400m, 800m, high jump and discus. However there was much concern over the fact that the 800m might be too strenuous for women and was banned for 32 years (Prakash, 1990, p. WS20). In the United States, women’s participation in sports was seen to increase greatly after the implementation of Title IX in 1972 (Carty, 2005, p. 132). In the rest of the world, the situation has been slightly different.