Has Gender On The Agenda Really Made A Difference? In Sport and Athletics, Women Are Not Just Smaller Men

Abstract

  2022 has marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the educational amendment in the United States that prohibits discrimination in educational institutions based on sex. This amendment had major implications for female athletes in the United States, resulting in large increases in participation in sports and athletics by women. The historical myths surrounding women participating in athletic events have been largely dismissed.  Many initiatives have worked to improve the numbers of female health care providers in orthopaedics and sport medicine. However, the changes are slow, and the culture in sports still favours the male default, both for athletes as well as physicians. We need a renovation of our culture - to reimagine the way we understand and approach the medical care of our athletes, both male and female, equally important, but not the same. Different in many ways, not just in size, all of which need to be addressed by the physicians and surgeons that care for them.  This can only be accomplished when those that care for our athletes represent and look like the athletes that they serve.