Discrimination is defined as “the act of making or perceiving a difference” (Discrimination, 2017). The phrase, “perceiving a difference” is the challenging part of this definition because it is rather arbitrary. Another difficult part of this concept of discrimination is where is the line drawn? What is considered discrimination and do intentions matter? It is quite easy to see the difference between a male and a female. Because it is easy to see this difference, men and women are often raised differently, causing them to associate differently, and are ultimately treated differently. So is it considered discrimination if men make a difference because a woman is present, even when they are trying to avoid being inappropriate? The concept of discrimination is not a black or white, or a yes or no matter, it seems quite subjective the more you look into it. Which is why it is such a controversial subject across all industries in the workplace. Looking into a male-dominated industry such as the sports industry makes it even more complicated. In the sports industry, there is this good ole’ boys club and many Human Resource rules are thrown out the window.
Although men dominate the sport industry, the few women in the industry tend to heavily occupy jobs in a limited number of fields, which is referred to as gender clustering. Gender clustering into particular fields in the sports industry is evident as well; “significantly more males are responsible for facility and event management, media relations, and marketing across all NCAA divisions, while females were disproportionately found in academics and compliance” (Lumpkin, Dodd, Mcpherson, 2014, Abstract). Careers in academics and compliance seem to be stable, with less travelling and more typical eight to five schedule; which is great for women who are held to their family obligations. Not surprisingly, women are far underrepresented in the athletic directors’ position, which happens to be one of the most powerful positions in intercollegiate sports (Quarterman, Dupree, & Willis, 2006). In 2014, only 22.3% of athletic directors were women.
Furthermore, in Division I universities, only 10.6% of females held the position of an athletic director (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014). According to the Federal Affirmative Action standards, the workplace should reflect the population. Obviously in the case of the athletic director position, this standard does not hold (Lapchick & Baker, 2015).
