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Women, Time to Compete Against the Men

Eliminating divisions will solve gender identity issues in sports

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 23, 2009 12:56 PM CDT

(Newser) – Female athletes will always be inherently inferior to their male counterparts unless they can directly prove their mettle against them, Dominic Lawson writes in a provocative column for the Times of London. His solution: “Let there be no male or female athletics championships. Instead, let men and women—and all those anomalously and uncomfortably perched in the middle—compete against each other in a single championship.”

As precarious as gender issues are in everyday life, they are further dramatized in the athletic world, where extraordinary women have been dogged for decades by allegations that they are not really women. South Africa’s Caster Semenya is the latest victim. The Olympic movement’s elimination of controversial “gender determination” tests has only worsened the issue. Latching onto contempt for “separate but equal,” Lawson declares, “Away with this sporting sexual apartheid, I say, and may the best person win.”

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

Women and men should compete directly against each other, Dominic Lawson writes. (Shutter Stock)

South Africa's Caster Semenya celebrates after winning gold in the Women's 800m during the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

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If women truly wanted to be treated equally as cricketers, they should compete not just against each other but in open combat against and alongside the allegedly over-favored men.
- Dominic Lawson, the Times of London,
on England's cricket teams

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Women, Time to Compete Against the Men