Women Participation in the Olympics
Women participants at each Summer Olympic Games as a percentage of all participants.
Women participation in the Olympics was first allowed at the 1900 Olympic games in Paris. The participation rate of women in the Olympics did not improve very significantly in the earlier stages, but it increased exponentially later on. For the first time ever in the recent 2012 Olympic games at London, every participating country fielded women! The road to this event however, took a lot of time and effort from women's rights supporters and the International Olympic Committee.
Maitha bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
She was one of the first female athletes to participate for the United Arab Emirates, an area where the Muslim tradition roots deeply among the people. A female participating for their Olympic team raises hope for women's rights, but she is no ordinary woman. She is part of Dubai's ruling family. Though slowly, I'm sure female participation is one step towards equality for women within the United Arab Emirates.
Maryam Yusuf Jamal - first female gulf athlete to win an olympic medal
Earlier in Jamal's career she caused a minor outrage in Bahrain because her uniform was to revealing. However, Maryam Yusuf Jamal competed for Bahrain in 2012 and is it's first Olympic medalist. Not only is she the first Bahraini to win an Olympic medal, she is also the first women from any Gulf Nation to win an Olympic medal. To much surprise, her uniform did not change from that of earlier in her career. The first medalist for a country being female provides major support for the equality of women. Winning this medal is proof that women should be allowed to compete and they should be encouraged to do so.
"UNITED NATIONS -- The International Olympic Committee says it will be promoting the U.N. goal of equality for women and will be pressing Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei to send female athletes to the 2012 Olympic Games for the first time.
Anita DeFrantz, who heads the international committee's women and sports commission, said there are 205 national Olympic committees and only those three countries have never sent women athletes to the games.
She told a news conference Tuesday that in 1984 only 23 percent of the athletes at the Olympic Games were women, but in 2008 the number of females competing rose to 43 percent.
The IOC was granted observer status at the United Nations in October."
In an attempt to strive for equality for women, the International Olympic Committee suggested to ban the countries that did not send women on their Olympic teams. This pressure worked as in the recent 2012 Summer Olympic games every participating country had female athletes on their team. This is a big step for women's rights in sports. They are finally allowed the same participation as men all around the world. The permission to participate will increase the funding in women's sports for most countries in hopes of fostering more Olympic Medalists.
Male vs Female Sports in the Olympics
Sports popular with women or women exclusive sports were traditionally excluded from the Olympics. As women participation became increasingly popular, so did the amount of women's sports. Finally in 2012, there is a female counterpart to every male sport. There are also sports like equestrian where men and women compete together. However, there are sports such as synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics which are female only. Hopefully with the slow increase in joint competing sports that in the future all sports will be joint competition.
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