Women In Sports

The written form piece about the discrepancy in representation, funding and overall treatment of female athletes compared to their male counterparts. Originally written December, 2021.

WSU STORIES

Doyal D'angelo

6/2/20235 min read

woman standing in front of women at the field during day
woman standing in front of women at the field during day

Women’s Sports Coming to The Forefront is a Process

Before Title IX was established in 1972, women were far and in-between when it came to sports.

According to the WomensSportsFoundation, only one in 27 girls participated in sports before the law was established in the 70’s.

As of 2016, about two out of every five girls participate in sports.

Over the span of nearly 50 years, women’s sports have gained an increased amount of funding which creates an abundance of opportunity for involvement over time.

These opportunities were capitalized on.

There has been a 545% increase in women playing college sports, and a 990% increase in high school sports, according to WomensSportsFoundation.

In succession, media representation and equality for women in sports became a pressing issue that still exists today.

The media is a business and men’s sports are the moneymaker for sports media – in other words, sports media turns predominantly to men’s athletics as it receives the most engagement.

Scott Jedlicka, Assistant Professor of Sports Management at Washington State University, says that the engagement is dominated by male sports partly because consumers aren’t presented with many other options.

“If I look at my media menu and say well what’s available to watch? It’s men’s sports, so that’s what I’m going to watch. Then that feedback loop tightens, and it becomes a difficult cycle to break,” Jedlicka said.

Not to say that women’s sports isn’t televised, but there is a huge disparity.

A 30-year study conducted by USC and Purdue found that live televised coverage increased over that time, but also found that women’s sports was almost completely shut out in television news segments and online media – representing only about 5% of the content.

The current structure of media representation boils down to money and how that money is being made.

Media organizations make the bulk of their profit from men’s sports, although there is a huge gap in money invested when it concerns women.

An example is the NCAA and its media negotiations for March Madness.

After an external review was conducted on the NCAA by New York law firm Kaplan Heckler & Fink LLP, it was found that the NCAA was undervaluing the women’s basketball championships and could be bringing in much more revenue.

The NCAA sells the rights to women’s basketball to ESPN in a package deal, versus men’s basketball which is sold on its own.

“When it came to march madness, the NCAA tried to get top dollar and shopped it around but didn’t do that with the women’s sports package. They sort of took the first deal on the table and didn’t try very hard to maximize that revenue,” Jedlicka said.

The report used this as part of the reason why the NCAA is likely losing out on additional revenue.

The law firm estimated that women’s basketball’s annual broadcast rights in 2025 would be worth $81 to $112 million, which is much more than what ESPN pays the NCAA currently at a little less than $36 million.

Dunja Antunovic, Assistant Professor in Sport Sociology and Staff at the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, says that besides major sporting events like the Olympic games, the World Cup or the NCAA Basketball Tournament – the amount of televised women’s sports coverage beyond college is low. Somewhere between one percent and five percent, Antunovic says.

It’s also more difficult to get access to women’s broadcasts, as men’s sports dominate the TV landscape.

Many of those fans (of women’s sports) must subscribe to additional channels, newsletters, streaming apps or websites because it isn’t always widely available on flagship broadcast channels, Antunovic says.

This shows a lot of room for growth.

Research published by Nielsen Sports in 2018 illustrated that women’s sports is growing in interest globally.

The survey, which covered eight major countries including the U.S., displayed that 84% of sports fans are interested or could be interested in women’s sports. 51% of them being male.

63% of the participants also said that they believe brands should invest in both genders equally.

Antunovic believes that the lack of coverage and the amount of time that women’s sports leagues have been established is the biggest barrier to increasing engagement.

People don’t really have the opportunity to develop an interest in women’s sports. Many journalists I’ve asked have mentioned the tradition of watching sports with family and friends, but that tradition is in relation to men’s sports. Those leagues have been around much longer Antunovic says.

Now that more women’s organizations exist and are sustainable, the key is to develop that tradition for people to have the same association with women’s sports as they do with men’s sports, Antunovic explains.

Jedlicka intertwines the idea that sports fandom relates to identity and meaning, which directly influences viewership and engagement.

“Whether we’re talking about men’s or women’s sports, the extent to which an organization can build that meaning within people’s minds is at the core of everything. That’s a hard thing to do and to a large degree, it’s a function of time” Jedlicka said.

It is not only that media needs to give women more coverage in sports, but they also need to give the same type of coverage in terms of language and topics so that women aren’t being alienated, Jedlicka says.

As women are fighting to be seen more on television in sports, they are also widely underrepresented in the sports media industry when it comes to decision-making.

The low percentage (19.3% in APSE) helps to represent the fact that women are major minorities in the sports media industry.

The Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) - which covers over 100 newspapers and websites nationwide and is the largest group representing sports sections within them - was given a C grade for diversity and inclusion in hiring for 2021.

On top of that, 2021 marks the sixth-consecutive year that APSE received an F grade for gender hiring.

The report conducted by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports did show that there are increases in female sports editors, reporters, and copy editors since the last report was done in 2018.

Despite an increase in those categories, the APSE still received the worst grade possible which signifies an uphill battle for gender diversity in media.

Despite that, women have made strides since Title IX was passed in 1972.

Alversia Stroughter, a 73-year-old African American Washington resident, grew up before the advent of Title IX and has witnessed women’s sports change over time as a fan.

She explained that even though she never had the opportunity to advance in sports, it is refreshing to see that the generations after her does.

“Growing up as a woman of color, playing basketball and softball, was a tough thing because there weren’t any opportunities to advance or be seen after school. Now I’m happy to say these women have a chance to make a difference and be seen not only in their communities, but throughout the world of sports,” Stroughter said.

Stroughter hopes that she gets to see women’s sports gain more recognition before she dies and is hopeful that it might happen.

“Much of my peers watch women’s sports more than ever before, and I think that’ll only continue to happen,” Stroughter said.