If the race towards equality between men and women were an Olympic discipline, it would have lasted for two and a half millennia and it would seem to be about to end.
Women were excluded from the Games in ancient times. Pierre de Coubertin, the father of modern games, didn’t resent the first version in Greece in 1896 either.
The first female athletes were allowed to compete in Paris in 1900, where they accounted for 2.2% of delegations. The organization of the next Summer Olympics in this same city in 2024 promises to achieve full parity by dividing strictly equally, between men and women, the number of participants. The proofs will also be reviewed and corrected to impose exemplary parity.
The Tokyo Olympics last year came as close as possible to this equality with 48.8% female participation. The percentage has fallen to 45% of competitors competing in Beijing, a record high for the Winter Games. The current Olympics also have the largest number of women’s events in the history of the event thanks to the addition of women’s monobob (bobsleigh) and big air (freestyle skiing), in addition to four mixed events.
“The Winter Games have always been less equal,” commented Canadian specialist Michele K. Donnelly. Winter sports cost more and fewer countries participate in this event. Parity at 50% is therefore not reached, but we are doing better than ever in Beijing […]. However, it is not enough to simply observe the progress made. We must remain critical, because in this matter of parity, as soon as we let our guard down, very often, we observe a regression. »
Canada has been doing well by sending more women than men to the Summer Olympics for the past few Games. In the summer, this is an effect of qualifying women’s soccer and basketball teams, where the male equivalents failed to qualify.
“Sport is one of the last spaces where the gender divide persists in a very precise way,” continues Michele K. Donnelly, professor in the Department of Sport Management at Brock University in Ontario. She completed part of her studies at McGill. Her doctorate in sociology focused on women’s roller derby. “I am interested in gender as a constructed social category and I use sport as an empirical means to examine gender issues. »
The obsession with numbers
What are we talking about exactly? How is this parity measured?
The International Olympic Committee conceives it and promotes it, with sports federations and the public alike, from a strictly accounting perspective: the objective about to be achieved concerns a balance in the number of participants and disciplines.
The figures speak, but do not tell everything. For Professor Donnelly, as for many other feminists, this perspective must be broadened to consider the conditions under which the financing of sport or competitions are exercised. She herself is interested, for example, in the distances to be covered in the races or in the compulsory equipment.
She gives the example of the biathlon and certain other ski events where the women swell over shorter distances than the men. This difference does not seem to have any scientific basis, especially since in many other events, the two genders compete on the same lengths.
The clothes add controversy. Women’s beach volleyball micro jerseys have been decried as “pure sexism”. Female gymnasts compete in bling-bling leotards. They perform their feats to music (for the floor event) and are judged in part for their artistry and grace.
Figure skating reproduces similar clichés on ice. The official document of the International Skating Union calls for “modest, dignified and appropriate” clothing while refusing “excessive nudity”. Rule 501 requires women to wear a dress for the dance test.
“Of course, the athletes of the Winter Games cover themselves more, which minimizes the opportunities for objectification of the female bodies, points out the specialist. In figure skating as in other disciplines, women should be allowed to dress as they wish. There is often no objective reason for dress requirements. If showing as much skin as possible benefited performance, men would strip too. »
Gobble up in the gouret
Hockey also gives food for thought. The female hockey players play without checks with a full visor while the men tackle each other best by wearing half visors.
Is that a bad thing though? Could we not, on the contrary, wish men to protect themselves even better? “Hockey is a game with impact, and women’s hockey can therefore be perceived as less physical, less lively, answers Mme Donnelly. But when we consider these questions, indeed, we have to ask ourselves what is better for athletes, men or women, for example to avoid concussions. »
Columnist Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star outright asked a few days ago to eliminate women’s hockey from the Olympics, pointing out that this event has remained outrageously dominated by Canadian and American women, and only them, for decades. The Canadian team defeated Sweden 11-0 in the quarterfinals. “It’s not sports. It is an abominable domination “, she decided.
“I completely disagree with this idea of eliminating women’s hockey from the Olympics,” said the professor. Without this presence at the Olympics, the federations would lose motivation to invest in the practice of this sport by women. It would be unfair. Different standards are applied here to women’s hockey compared to other sports. In Tokyo, the Chinese outrageously dominated table tennis, and no thought was given to removing it from the games. »
China has won 32 of the 37 gold medals distributed in this discipline since its introduction to the program in 1988. Similarly, the Germans have won 38 of the 52 gold medals in luge since 1964, and 87 of the 153 medals distributed in this sport. , more than all the other nations combined.
American-Canadian women’s hockey should stay. Conversely, for budgetary reasons, sporting equality sometimes occurs by eliminating certain male events. There will be 329 gold medals distributed in Paris, ten less than in Tokyo. Weightlifting alone will lose four. In boxing, the categories for men will drop from eight to seven, and those for women from five to six. On the march, the men’s 50 km race will disappear.
“This reality makes the discussion on equality contested and tense, particularly for these male athletes who were preparing for Paris 2024 in these now eliminated events”, recognizes this time Michele K. Donnelly. The figures speak, but do not say everything…