We call America "land of the free", a place where dreams come true and discrimination is only found in history books. Would you agree with this? For years people everywhere fled their homes in search of freedom and more opportunities, but only a select few benefited; white men. We have come a long way since the nineteenth century but anyone can see the huge gender gap in occupations, society and especially sports. Women unlike men have only had the option of playing sports for a few decades. Though they were frowned upon, women were permitted to play in their back yards and on playgrounds but it was not too long ago when they were finally allowed to join organized sports. Bills and acts were passed and amendments were added to improve the inequity of women, but we are still far from equality in job opportunities and even further in sports. I point my finger at society for these discriminations and claim that social constructions have led to prejudiced outlooks on working females, athletic females and worst of all, females in general.

             In an effort to bring an end to overt and deliberate discrimination against female athletes Title Nine was passed in 1972. This marked the beginning of a new era of females and a new breed of athletes. Yet 28 years after the passing of this act a grave injustice was demonstrated that only proves how much female sports are overlooked. On February 20, 2001 the (number 11) Rutgers women"s basketball team took on top ranked Notre Dame at the Louis Brown Athletic Center in front of a sell-out record-breaking crowd. Unfortunately, the only crowd able to enjoy all 40 minutes of the game was the crowd that witnessed it in person. I am sure that the women"s basketball fans of both these programs watching on TV were all but satisfied when the game cut off two minutes before the finale to show a pre-taped interview with Duke"s associate athletic director.