by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

The recent headline reporting on the Beijing Olympics, “Golden-Armed” gave all of us, especially women, a great feeling. Now we take women’s participation for granted; but that hasn’t always been so.

In 1896, women were barred from the first modern Olympic games and in 1900 they were only invited to compete in tennis, croquet, golf and yachting.

Such barriers reflect how athletic women are stigmatized and in many countries, there have been prolonged legal battles over females in sports.

For the Atlanta Olympics on 1996, 28 nations sent all-male teams and that still persists and it wasn’t until 2000 that women’s triathlon was introduced.

Data from The Penguin Atlas of Women of the World shows there’s also a gender gap in the money and media attention between men’s and women’s sports, even in sports where women have achieved prominence.

For example, at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship in 2002, the winner of the men’s singles received L525,000, while the women’s singles champion received only L486,000.

Let’s hope in the future women will be treated more fairly.