Essay Assignment Overview
The Synthesis Essay is a written assignment that asks you to analyze the most important topics, questions, and quotations from the module readings and videos.
You will answer two (2) sets of prompts in proper essay format. Your essay responses count towards your writing requirement word count for the semester.
Instructions
Below, you will see a series of black tabs.
The first black tab contains the Content Framework – provided to help you focus for your analyses.
Tabs 2 and 3 present framing specific to the prompt and the questions you will answer in each tab:
1. Read the framing that is specific to each question in the blue prompt box
2. Respond to all elements of the prompts/questions in the /blue boxes
Each prompt will have the blue box labeled Essay Prompts for Synthesis Paper containing the questions and prompts you must answer in your Synthesis Paper. Please read all elements for ‘Prompt 1’ and ‘Prompt 2’ thoroughly before you begin writing.
You must answer all blue box questions in both Prompt tabs below.
Content Framework
The treatment of girls and women in sport is shaped by the idea that they are “less than” as athletes and as leaders, and thus the disparity in opportunity and social rewards is justified. Across the readings from this unit, you read and saw all the ways that girls and women are affected by the “less than” logic, such as (a) being sexualized, (b) being paid less because being “less than” detracts from their perceived athleticism or leadership capacity, or (c) being criticized, excluded, or fired for being too feminine or not feminine enough.
The Shaw and Frisby (2006) reading presented three frames of gender equity that have produced little long-term success in improving women’s opportunity and treatment in sport. The premise of the frames is the “othering” of girls and women in sport contexts, which requires that they must be granted support to assimilate into how existing structures are organized (power). Frame one holds that a woman can be prepared to fit in if she more closely resembles leadership stereotypes in sports (i.e., white male). Frame two holds that women’s femininity should be appreciated (as though there is one category of femininity and that traits strictly align within it). Frame three proposes that simply opening up spaces for girls and women to enter sport will rectify gender inequity.
Prompt 1
Hints and Suggestions for Answering Prompt 1
You will introduce your review of Shaw and Frisby (2006) with an explanation of the “less than” logic, so consider the first bullet your introduction, which will be shorter than your response to the second bullet. In your introduction, you do not need to spend time writing on the reproduction of masculinity and femininity in greater society (as we have established in previous essays that sport is a microcosm of society); in other words, your explanation of the “less than” logic should be only around how it operates in sport.
Include in your response:
An explanation of how the “less than” logic affects access and opportunity for girls and women in sport as athletes and as leaders; a segment of your explanation should include trends in media coverage. (Approx. 300 words)
Based on what you read in Shaw and Frisby (2006) on the first three frames of gender equity (i.e., fix the women, value the feminine, and create equal opportunity), summarize each frame and explain why those strategies for gender equity haven’t been successful in improving the treatment of girls and women in sport. Use the lens presented in the fourth frame (i.e., disrupt the discourse) to support your position on the constraints on structural change. (Approx. 600 words)
Essay Prompts for Synthesis Paper
Answer the following prompt:
Explain how orthodox conceptions of masculinity and femininity (as binary) produce and reproduce the idea that girls and women are “less than” as athletes and as leaders in sport.
Minimum Word Count Requirement: 900
Prompt 2
Hints and Suggestions for Answering Prompt 2
Organize your legislation in the following structure:
Your statement
Prong 1 and an explanation (2-3 sentences)
Prong 2 and an explanation (2-3 sentences)
Prong 3 and an explanation (2-3 sentences)
Your Title IX extension will include:
A legislative statement (like that of Title IX: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, etc.”) that EXACTLY and SPECIFICALLY identifies what “space” in sport your extension will apply (i.e., media coverage, leadership in college sports, professional opportunities, etc).
A minimum of three prongs that operate as indicators that your legislative statement is being implemented in line with your vision. Explain how the new Title IX statement you wrote will be measured. These will look much like the full Title IX legislation, which has 3 prongs for measurement. If you choose to implement an intersectional strategy, be sure that your indicators reflect that.
Essay Prompts for Synthesis Paper
Answer the following prompt:
Title IX was legislation that falls within a “create equal opportunity” frame in sport for girls as participants in federally funded educational programs but doesn’t apply to any other space. Design an extension of Title IX as it should govern some other domain in sport for women (i.e., media coverage, leadership in college sports, professional opportunities, etc.).
Please include in your legislative statement who it will support, specifically. Detail if your extension will support access and treatment for women in general or if your extension will specifically support women who are marginalized across social categories (i.e., women of color, LGBTQIA+ women, etc.).
Minimum Word Count Requirement: 300
Must use 3 of the provided sources as well as others.
Provided Source Links:
https://ufl.instructure.com/courses/508171/files/87273550?verifier=8hEpuHKV3HvjNkz0RaxJvVxugv4ZHHPGUgrNznWf&wrap=1
https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/soc4.12254
https://ufl.instructure.com/courses/508171/files/87273553?verifier=xjx76ql4INoCjT3oPrMQQgzNavl5pUsn6XTHkeWi&wrap=1
