The Entirety of Gender Inequalities

in Intramural Sports

Photo Courtesy of: Central Michigan University Recreation

Intramural CoRec Flag Football Championships at Kelly Shorts Stadium on Sunday, Oct.
23, 2014.

or senior and intramural CoRec soccer participant, Hannah Maciejewski,

she was against the different scoring rules for males and females from the
beginning.
In CoRec play, some institutions award additional points for goals scored by
females in order to encourage team play, the National Intramural-Recreational
Sports Association, NIRSA, said on their website.
Assistant Director of Intramural sports at Central Michigan University Scott
George said they typically follow guidelines provided by the NIRSA, which
were originally designed to create equality among teams as a whole by awarding advantages to females. In addition, the University is trying to develop ways
to increase the involvement of females in other aspects of intramural sports
because the number of officials and supervisors is imbalanced as well as the
number of participants.
Females who choose to play intramural sports in the CoRec leagues are given
an advantage by being awarded double the points for a goal, touchdown, etc.
For example, in flag football, when a female scores a touchdown they earn nine

points as opposed to a male earning six points. This is also true for when a
female throws a pass resulting in a touchdown.
George said goals made by females in both soccer and floor hockey, were
previously worth two points. He said these rules were in place because historically, that was how the rules are.
Our office is big on updating rules based on the needs but after an examination of the rules, we determined that those rules were outdated and didnt
serve the purpose of why they were originally instituted, George said. So we
changed the rules based on participant feedback.
This was based upon a survey sent out to all intramural participants at the
end of the 2013/14 school year. Based on the feedback they received, they
made revisions to a few of the rules in CoRec sports.
Now, the only specific gender rules for CoRec soccer and floor hockey is the
even amount of males and females on the field of play at any given time, which
is also consistent amongst all intramural sports, George said.
Other universities such as Grand Valley State University and Western Michigan University, follow these same guidelines when it comes to their intramural
sports programs.
For the most part, their rules for intramural soccer and floor hockey are similar to CMUs rules. The only difference is that both Grand Valley and Western
never had a previous rule in place regarding female goals being worth two
points in soccer.
However, when it comes to floor hockey at Grand Valley, goals scored by
females account for two points, a rule that was recently revoked by CMUs
intramural sports program.
As for Western, their floor hockey rules follow the Official USA Hockey
guidelines, which govern all play. However, there are no CoRec rules in place
at all.
The rules in place for other CoRec sports such as flag football and softball are
quite different when it comes to gender equality. It may take longer to change
the gender-biased rules for these sports.
According to CMUs Intramural Sports Policies and Procedures under flag
football, the specific gender rules for flag football are that a female touchdown
is worth nine points as opposed to a male touchdown being worth six. Every
other play is either open or closed. If the play is open, a male-to-male reception may occur, but then the play becomes closed. A closed play means a
female must be involved as a passer or receiver on the next successfully completed pass in order for the play to become open again.

For softball, CMUs Intramural Sports Policies and Procedures states that the batting order must alternate genders in CoRec play. If a male batter is walked, they get two bases, but if there are two outs, a female has the option to take first. All outfielders must start behind a designated CoRec line for all batters.
When it comes to softball, flag football, and the CoRec modifications, there are rules from governing organizations (ASA for softball and NIRSA for flag football) that we follow, George said. The reasoning is to reward
inclusive play and eliminate strategies that would exclude involvement of all genders.
The objective is to ensure that both men and women have equal opportunity to be active participants by creating
a structure that promotes more female involvement.
Also if any of the CoRec teams under these two sports want to play at higher-level tournaments, such as regionals and state tournaments, the rules they play under remain the same, George said.
Grand Valley and Western follow the same ASA and NIRSA guidelines for their flag football and softball CoRec
sports.
George said these rules are set at a national level. The rules are there to eliminate the strategy of having male
quarterbacks throw only to male receivers in flag football, and in softball to eliminate intentionally walking a
male to get to a female in the batting order. These rules were put into play many years ago.
These rules are also in place to encourage inclusive thought when forming teams and finding players from
both genders who enjoy playing and are experts in the sports, George said.
However, some players argue that the principle of these guidelines, hardly suggest fair play.
I signed up for CoRec soccer for a reason. That reason was not to have an advantage simply because I was
female, Maciejewski said. It was because I wanted to play soccer on an equal playing field with both men and
women. Thats the whole point of CoRec.

Photo By: Taylor Vecchioni

Hannah Maciejewski, senior, poses with her soccer ball and team jersey for
intramural CoRec soccer.

Maciejewski went on to say that the double points came in handy sometimes when a
female scored and put their team ahead, but it also screwed them over sometimes too.
We saw both sides of it. IMs are also supposed to be for people of all skill levels, so it
was pretty offensive to me to have that rule, Maciejewski said. I feel like it was just assumed that all girls needed some type of advantage, when in reality we could be better
than some of the guys.
Maciejewski is happy that they finally changed the gender rules for soccer and floor
hockey, even though theres still more progress to be made.
Bottom line is that CoRec should truly be CoRec, with everyone playing under the
same rules, Maciejewski said. Im excited that the IM coordinators have finally recognized this for both soccer and floor hockey.
The gender inequality in intramural sports doesnt stop with the rules and regulations
for CoRec play. In fact, there is a large gap between male and females when it comes to
officials, supervisors, and participation in intramural sports.
CMUs intramural program has a total of 13 supervisors, as does Grand Valley. Of
CMUs 13 supervisors three are female while ten are male. For Grand Valley, the genders are more balanced with six female supervisors and seven males. A supervisor
holds the position of overseeing all officials and participants during a game to make
sure everything runs smoothly.
This is also true with officials. There were a total of 164 applicants for the intramural
official position this year with only 28% of that total being female. George said there are
a total of 68 officials this year, with 18 being female and 50 male.
They had 164 applications for the officials position this year, 46 of those being female
and 118 being male. The intramural staff extended interview offers to 98 people, 31
being female and 67 were male. Of those 31 females offered interviews, only 12 wanted
to officiate three or more sports.
Grand Valley also hired a total of 68 applicants for the 2014-2015 intramural year. Of
those 68, 24 were female and 44 were male. Although the number of female officials is
still less than 50 percent, Grand Valley has a higher percentage of female officials with
35%.
When looking specifically at the females who showed up for interviews, and those
who were hired against the females that were not hired, of the 11 females that were
hired, five wanted to officiate three or more sports, and six wanted to officiate two or
less sports, George said. Of the eight that were not hired, only one wanted to officiate
more than one sport. That means that of the six females that interviewed that wanted to
officiate more than three sports, five were hired.
Of the six who wanted to officiate two or less sports, George believes that they were
willing to try more sports, which leads to why they were hired as opposed to those
females who werent. There has also been one female who resigned this year so far, but
that was due to class work outside of intramurals George said.

Comparing the Number of Female Officials for Each Sport Between

Central Michigan University and Grand Valley State University
100

75

72%

50

44%

40%
28%
25

22%
9.3%

13.6%

Flag Football

6.9%
Floor Hockey

First year official Ashley Marroquin said she loves working the
game. Marroquin is one of the few female applicants hired who
only officiates one sport: soccer. This is because she is a certified
referee for the state of Michigan, making her an asset to the intramural team.
Its a lot more low-key and fun than what Im used to officiating,
so (being apart of intramurals) is a good break from work, Marroquin said. Its also been a great way to meet new people.
Aside from the positive aspects of being an intramural official,
Marroquin has seen some inequality amongst genders.
As far as inequality goes, Ive seen some, but nowhere near as bad
as in other associations that Ive been a part of in my reffing career,
Marroquin said. I think males are given more responsibilities and
tend to take over at times. But a lot of my female coworkers and I
are all very comfortable on and off the field in those situations that
males would normally handle.

Soccer

Volleyball

Key:
Central Michigan University
Grand Valley State University

Marroquin said that as long as the female official on the crew steps up early in the match and shows
authority, the games will go pretty smoothly.
Female participation in intramural sports also appears to be at an all time low. The intramural participation for the 2013-2014 school year was at 35.4 percent female and 64.6 percent male.
First and foremost, I think when you think about it the amount of females officiating/applying is
not that far off of participation numbers when it comes, George said. IMs has always had a majority
of the participants being males. We always want to get closer though, but that is just how it is.
Within intramurals as a whole, gender plays a huge role in participants treatment, Marroquin said.
Everyone understands that the style of play seen in womens matches is at times vastly different than
mens, but I dont think its right how often women are discredited for that.
George believes that if the participation between males and females was 50/50, he bets the amount
of officials and applications would be closer to 50/50 as well.
Ironically enough, Marroquin said many of the referees she works with outside of intramurals and
throughout the U.S. have said that women are actually harder to manage than men at times.
The womens side of intramural sports isnt taken very seriously at times and its really a shame,
Marroquin said. I would hope that as more females begin to hold higher positions in UREC, this
treatment will even out. Luckily though, we have guys like Scott George and Sean Graninger, who I
personally think do a phenomenal job keeping a level playing field for all of us.
Marroquin said that her bosses (George and Graninger), always ensure her and her female coworkers are being treated with respect, but also make sure they hold themselves accountable just as much
as their male coworkers.
All in all, the gender gap in the amount of female to male officials comes mostly from who has prior
knowledge and feels most comfortable in a particular sport.
I think that the main reasons for lower percentage of female officials is because the sport where
their background knowledge and comfortable with, are the sports where we dont need as big of a
staff as the sports males are most comfortable with, George said. Combined with the fact that there
is a smaller primary candidate pool size to begin with (since most potential officials come from the
IM participants to begin with).