By Sydney Springer

The number was staggering: $1.1 million per player. That’s how much the US Men’s National Soccer team would have made if they accelerated to the World Cup finals. The year was 2019, and the US Women’s National Team had just clobbered Netherlands 2–0 at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The trophy was packed, the paychecks were written, and the (soccer) ball was dropped—each female player earned only $250,000 in prize money.[1]

Gender inequality isn’t a new social issue, and the continued tolerance of gender-based discrimination is only going to make the inequality gap larger. Sexism in the sports industry goes beyond the wage gap and extends to (1) unhealthy beauty standards, (2) disparate levels of media coverage, and (3) the stereotypical portrayal of women. The inequity of gendered sports will not change if society continues to tolerate it.

The Impossible Barbie Standard

Serena Williams strolled onto the courts at the 2018 French Open, barely nine months after the dangerous birth of her daughter. Williams wore a specially designed black catsuit to reduce the risk of blood clots, and she felt empowered by the message she sent to other female athletes seeking body confidence. Controversy over her unique outfit, however, quickly overshadowed her message of strength, and discussions surrounding her personal life and health completely glossed over her performance.[2] Googling the 2018 French Open provides photos of the notable catsuit before Williams’s score, reducing her victory to commentary on her appearance.

Consume and Approve

Professional athletes aren’t the only ones affected by comments on their physical appearance. Dove, a personal care brand, interviewed over ten thousand females in thirteen countries to study body confidence and self-esteem. The startling results

Women want change, but attempting to shift a patriarchal society is discouraging for most. Women are the ones tasked with advocating for change by themselves—with little help. For example, Sports Illustrated photoshoots exploit the gender divide by photographing men in action shots, legs extending to kick a ball or in mid-jump, calf muscles straining. On the flip side, nearly all women are photographed in sexy, passive poses—one arm holding a soccer ball while she looks coyly off to the side.[4] This focus on appearance reduces women’s abilities to the way their bodies look, and reduces their performance to men’s perceptions. In fact, Dove’s research found that 65%–69% of females “cite increasing pressures from advertising and media” as a key force that drives appearance anxiety.[5]

All Eyes on Him

A token female athlete—Simone Biles, Serena Williams, or Megan Rapinoe—is shown in news clips on ESPN. A running headline ribbon across the bottom of a screen displaying a college football game reports that a women’s basketball team won a championship. The hashtags #GirlPower and #WomensSoccer briefly trend on Twitter. Is this token attention enough? Media attention is crucial for sports. Coverage of events and teams does more than drum up buzz—that coverage determines sponsorships, fan turnout at events, and, ultimately, money earned.[6]

Scraping the Bank

According to Sports Business Journal, less than half of 1% of sport sponsorships are invested in women’s athletics.[7] While analyzing ROI and the financial benefits of sponsoring a sport are crucial factors of choosing which teams to sponsor, the numbers of women’s sports sponsorships compared to the number of female athletes just don’t add up. Female participation in sports is at an all-time high, with more than 3.3 million girls playing high school sports in America.[8]

Using women’s basketball as an example, roughly 4.1% of high school players continue playing in college. That means about 1.3 million female basketball players are in the NCAA. Surveys show only about 0.08% of female NCAA athletes go pro—but that’s still about 108,000 athletes.[9] How can this level of ability result in less than half of 1% of all sports scholarships?

 Quality Camera Time

However, funding opportunities are also determined by media audiences, and audiences are less inclined to tune in if their favorite teams aren’t being broadcast. Sports fans can use their existing passion for a favorite team to help close the gap between the genders’ sports and demand improved quality. But, in order to do that, fans need to have opportunities to track and follow teams’ progress through national channels, like ESPN’s SportsCenter. Young girls need to see role models on their screen, encouraging them to pursue sports. Even the US Women’s National team winning the top competition for soccer barely made headlines.[10]

A 30-year study conducted by the University of Southern California and Purdue found that women’s coverage during the 90s was in the gutters—and that number hasn’t changed, even 15 years later. In 2019, 95% of total television coverage—including SportsCenter highlights—was focused on men’s sports. The study began in 1989, with researchers surveying levels of media reportage every five years and then including social media posts and online newsletters as media during the second half of the experimental period.[11]

Results were unsurprising—even the newer resources like Twitter and YouTube are disproportionally advertising men’s and women’s sports. A spike in coverage was recorded in July 2019 when the US National Women’s Soccer team swooped in to snag the coveted World Cup, but the numbers returned to the average of 3.5% once the excitement tapered off (See Figure 1[12]).[13]

Following the return of sports in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN capitalized on the fans’ excitement and tripled the number of WNBA games broadcasted across various networks. While this sounds like progress, researchers are skeptical that the increased coverage will set a trend, believing instead that female coverage will taper off and return to the “normal” percentages (like the ones displayed in figure 1) once the novelty of enjoying live sports again has worn off.[14]

Going Beyond the Binary

Ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published 26 pages of portrayal guidelines for media to use throughout the much-anticipated Games, in an effort to create more gender-equal, inclusive coverage. The guide acknowledges the importance of sensitive and fair reportage, as the worldwide Games spotlights often underrepresented cultures, races, and genders.[15] Positive portrayals of identities on international levels encourage minority groups and girls to pursue sports, but if those portrayals are laced with stereotypes and sexualization, is it even worth it?

Examining “HIStory”

The first time women participated in the Olympics was in 1900, and the 2.2% of female athletes could only compete in sailing, croquet, tennis, equestrian, and golf. The right for women to participate in sports wasn’t formally included in an international convention until 1979. Finally, in March 2017, the IOC launched the Gender Equality Review Project to review current levels of gender equality in the Games and determine ways to move toward the ultimate goal of gender equity.[16]

Today the Olympics are the largest and most gender-inclusive sporting event in the world. In the 2016 Rio Games, women accounted for more than 45% of the total participants. The 2012 Games in London marked the first time women competed in every event on the program. And most recently, at the 2020 Tokyo Games, women made up just over 49% of the competing athletes.[17]

Don’t Normalize Social Norms

While these statistics are worth celebrating, the root of the problem still exists. For example, the standards for any gymnastics floor routine include a quota of tricks, flips, and jumps, but women are also required to incorporate music and dance moves into the routines.[18] The expectation that men compete to show off strength and ability while women participate to perform and entertain is an outdated and stereotypical perspective that diminishes the ability of a female athlete to what her body looks like.

The production of routines, strategies of interviews, and angles of the cameras are fueled by the acceptance the general public has for the continued sexism of the industry. Viewership increases, and cheers for another gold medal for the USA drown out any shown outrage. The public, therefore, has the power to either diminish or empower sexism in the industry.

Change the Narrative

Gender inequality can’t be hidden behind viral videos of women breaking world records, nor should it be. But what can the general public do to shift the focus away from outdated societal norms? If we change the way we speak about women, then the way we treat women will change. Encourage girls to have female role models in the industry. Teach children to focus on skill rather than appearance.

Additionally, we need to hold local media organizations accountable. We need to encourage ESPN to prioritize female coverage or risk losing viewership. We need to lobby for equal reportage of men’s and women’s sports. The public voicing their opinions changed the way the Olympics conducted sports,[19] and now there are mixed-gender events, including the triathlon, judo, and the 4 x 400-meter team relay in track.[20] Sexism does not need to prevail in our futures.

As the Lorax once said, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”[21]

 

Notes:

[1] Davis, Scott. 2019., “Here is the giant pay disparity between the U.S. Women’s National Team winning the World Cup vs. the men.” Business Insider. July 7, 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/us-womens-national-team-world-cup-pay-vs-men-2019-7.

[2] Oates, Katelyn. 2019. “Body image, sexism among barriers to women’s sports participation.” Global Sport Matters. February 11, 2019. https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2019/02/11/body-image-sexism-among-barriers-to-womens-sports-participation/.

[3] Dove. 2016. “New Dove Research Finds Beauty Pressures Up, and Women and Girls Calling for Change.” PR Newswire. June 21, 2016. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-dove-research-finds-beauty-pressures-up-and-women-and-girls-calling-for-change-583743391.html.

[4] Martin, Adam, and Mary G. McDonald. 2012. “Covering women’s sport? An analysis of Sports Illustrated covers.” Graduate Journal of Sport, Exercise & Physical Education Research, no. 1: 81–97. https://www.academia.edu/6448447/Covering_womens_sport_An_analysis_of_Sports_Illustrated_covers_from_1987-2009_and_ESPN_The_Magazine_covers_from_1998-2009_INTRODUCTION

[5]  Dove. 2016. “New Dove Research Finds Beauty Pressures Up, and Women and Girls Calling for Change.” PR Newswire. June 21, 2016. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-dove-research-finds-beauty-pressures-up-and-women-and-girls-calling-for-change-583743391.html.

[6]  Oates, Katelyn. 2019. “Body image, sexism among barriers to women’s sports participation.” Global Sport Matters. February 11, 2019. https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2019/02/11/body-image-sexism-among-barriers-to-womens-sports-participation/.

[7] Fink, Janet S. 2021. “Changing the Game: Examining the issues facing women and sports.” Sports Business Journal. November 1, 2021. https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/11/02/Opinion/Changing-the-Game-Janet-Fink.aspx.

[8] Ibid.

[9] NCAA. “Women’s Basketball: Probability of competing beyond high school.” NCAA.org. April 20, 2020. https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/womens-basketball-probability-competing-beyond-high-school.

[10] Miller, Jenesse. 2021. “News media still pressing the mute button on women’s sports.” USC News. March 24, 2021. https://news.usc.edu/183765/womens-sports-tv-news-coverage-sportscenter-online-usc-study/.

[11] Cooky, Cheryl, Council, LaToya D., Mears, Maria A., and Michael A. Messner. 2021. “One and Done: The Long Eclipse of Women’s Televised Sports, 1989–2019.” Communication & Sport 9, no. 3: 347–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795211003524.

[12] Ibid.

[13]  Miller, Jenesse. 2021. “News media still pressing the mute button on women’s sports.” USC News. March 24, 2021. https://news.usc.edu/183765/womens-sports-tv-news-coverage-sportscenter-online-usc-study/.

[14] Ibid.

[15] International Olympic Committee. 2021. “Portrayal Guidelines: Gender-Equal, Fair and Inclusive Representation in Sport.” Olympics.com. https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Beyond-the-Games/Gender-Equality-in-Sport/IOC-Portrayal-Guidelines.pdf.

[16] International Olympic Committee. 2021. “Women in the Olympic Movement” Factsheet. Olympics.com. https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Movement/Factsheets/Women-in-the-Olympic-Movement.pdf.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Adams, Emily. 2021. “US Gymnastics Olympics trials: What are the differences between men’s and women’s gymnastics events.” USA Today. June 26, 2021. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2021/06/26/mens-vs-womens-gymnastics-differences-explained/5347675001/.

[19] International Olympic Committee. 2018. Gender Equality Review Project, 4. https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/IOC/What-We-Do/Promote-Olympism/Women-And-Sport/Boxes%20CTA/IOC-Gender-Equality-Report-March-2018.pdf.

[20] Goldich, Mitch. 2021. “Wave of Mixed Team Sports Shows Growing Olympics Trend.” SI. July 31, 2021. https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/07/31/mixed-team-events-tokyo-olympics.

[21] Dr. Suess. 1971. The Lorax. New York: Random House Books for Young Readers.