It’s been 50 years since the passage of Title IX. How would you assess the state of women in sports, both as athletes and sports media/communications professionals? What opportunities do women have now that they didn’t in the past? And what challenges do they still face in what is still a male-dominated field? To support your answer, include specific examples. Limit: 9 responses
Danielle Zerbo
ReplyDeleteThe best way to assess the state of women’s sports is as a work in progress. Despite several the work that still needs to be done, the progress that has been made is still monumental, and it is something that should be celebrated. One aspect of women’s sports that I have noticed is the strides the NCAA has made to make the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments an equal experience for all. According to CBS Sports, “women will receive the same perks- lounge areas, gifts, swag bags per diem and travel,” as the men do (Dodd). Women have also made significant strides in terms of media and communications within their sports. In wake of the NIL restrictions being lifted, women are certainly benefitting. If one were to take football out of the equation, 60% of all NIL deals would go to women (Dodd). Women are receiving many deals for their personal brands which gives them even more opportunities to earn a profit. For example, the Cavinder twins have built up an enormous platform. They sport their own clothing lines, have many WWE deals, and even have the option to become professional wrestlers when their basketball careers end (Dodd). Those are opportunities that would not have been available to any women without Title IX and recent NIL laws, which proves the strides that women’s sports are making for themselves.
Now that Title IX has been established for over 50 years, women are getting more opportunities than they ever had. The largest opportunity that women are earning for themselves is the ability to play their sports at a collegiate level while receiving financial compensation. Before Title IX, many women who did have the ability to play collegiate athletics could not play because women’s programs did not have the funds to give them a scholarship. During the 1971-72 season, “fewer than 30,000 women participated in college sports, compared to more than 170,000 men” (Bennett). That disparity could be attributed largely to only about 2% of school’s budget for athletics going to women’s sports, with little to no scholarships given to women. Now, with the implementation of Title IX, women receive about 48% of a schools’ athletic scholarship funds, which has allowed for a 600% increase in women collegiate athletes” (Bennett). That increase would not have been possible without the amount of scholarship money increasing significantly. Now, women can be rewarded for their hard work on the field and can play wherever they can contribute athletically.
Although there has been a lot of progress since Title IX had been put into place, there still is progress to be made in terms of equality between men’s and women’s sports. One of the largest challenges women face today is the lack of coverage of women’s sports compared to men. Every sports channel is headlined with hundreds of men’s sports games and players, and very little women’s sports. The disparity is clear, and it is becoming a talking point on the national level. Athletes such as Sabrina Ionescu and Sedona Prince are taking to social media to voice their opinions. They believe there is no reason for this large of a disparity, because frankly, the demand is there. According to a poll by Marist College, “56% of sports fans want more coverage of women’s sports and athletes” (McManus). That is over half of all sports fans that have that demand for women’s sports. The fact that women are still not getting coverage on their games has always been an uphill battle, but the pushback on the national level may be the final push needed to finally have women’s games receive the coverage they deserve.
ReplyDeleteBennett, Lindsey. “4 Ways Title IX Expanded Women's Access to Education.” Kaplan, Kaplan International Pathways, 13 Jan. 2022, https://www.kaplanpathways.com/blog/4-ways-title-ix-expanded-women-access-to-us-higher-education/.
Dodd, Dennis. “Approaching Its 50th Anniversary, Title IX Is Just Getting Warmed Up.” CBSSports, CBS Interactive , 22 Mar. 2022, https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/uconn-vs-stanford-takeaways-huskies-use-defense-to-outlast-defending-champion-cardinal-in-final-four/.
McManus, Jane. “Why Is It Still so Hard to Find Coverage of Women's Sports?” Deadspin, G/0 Media, Inc., 26 Nov. 2021, https://deadspin.com/why-is-it-still-so-hard-to-find-coverage-of-women-s-spo-1848117663.
Brianna Gonsalves
ReplyDeleteWomen have been on the back burner when it comes to being respected and held to a high esteem when it comes to professional sports. Men have been the center of sports for as long as anyone can remember. We often find ourselves supporting mens sports because when you go to turn on your television that is typically what is being broadcasted. Women have not had the same opportunities for success when it comes to sports and the news coverage that follows womens sports is very low. Women are heavily invested in sports whether it be as athletes or as a career path but it is male dominated and the shift to focus more on womens sports is in high demand.
Social media has given women athletes a serious advantage in recent years because the endeavors and sponsorships that they take on social media are having them reach bigger platforms. It is easier to watch a sport on television and not necessarily keep up with the player outside of the game. The issue arising with womens sports is that we are not often in many situations where a women’s game is playing right in front of us so to get the information on these players, people must branch out and gather the information themselves, through the use of social media. In an article titled, Who’s Making the Most from NIL? Women’s Basketball is Near the Top written by Kareem Copeland from the Washington Post, it focuses on UConn women’s basketball player Paige Bueckers and her use of social media in a way to gain popularity and attract people to her sport. In the article it says, “Engagement is what separates women’s college basketball. Marketers don’t want a boring post that merely pitches a product. Athletes who are active on their pages and interact with their followers have people coming back more regularly. More eyeballs and more visits provide more opportunities for a follower to become a consumer,” (Copeland). Women have more interest and better social media tactics which is what is making these athletes have a fair shot in the world of sports.
Women have also reached another victory this week of having the first women’s sports bar open. In an article titled, Watching Women’s Sports is Hard. The Sports Bra Makes it Easier from Portland Monthly written by Margaret Seiler, it shares how a new bar called the “Sports Bra” has just opened that only streams womens sports, “As of 11 a.m. Friday, April 1, the Sports Bra is open, and so there is now at least one sports bar on the planet devoted to showing women’s games. On the screens that first morning: college softball, pro golf, an old college basketball game on the Pac 12 network, and a streaming replay of Wednesday night’s Thorns game,” (Seiler). This is one of the first big steps to equality between women’s and men’s sports and this could potentially become something that is of the norm.
Women still face adversity in the sports world regardless of status or skill. Masculinity is rampant throughout sports and this can result in a lot of men looking down upon women because they claim they do not know as much or that it is not the career for them. In an article titled, Promised a New Culture, Women Say the N.F.L. Instead Pushed Them Aside by Katherine Rosman and Ken Belson from the New York Times, it discusses how the N.F.L. has proven time and time again that they have no respect for women in sports and that they feel the N.F.L. should be completely male dominated. The N.F.L. has had and still has many women employees, 30 of which came forward to talk about their unfair treatment which resulted in some of them quitting because of the frustration. A former N.F.L. employee discusses her experience, “‘We all love football, but if you work there every day, you learn it is not a place you feel good about,’ said Ramona Washington, a former production coordinator at NFL Network who is Black. After four years, she said, she quit in disgust in 2018 after her report of bias among managers went nowhere. ‘People would say to me, ‘You really want to leave the N.F.L.?’ Washington said about her departure. ‘Yes,’ I would answer, ‘with running shoes on,’” (Rosman and Belson). Women will often face these struggles in sports because the way in which sports were believed to be a man’s world and some people have yet to accept the change and demand for equality.
DeleteWorks Cited
Copeland, Kareem. “Who's Making the Most from Nil? Women's Basketball Is near the Top.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 Mar. 2022, https://washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/03/30/womens-college-basketball-endorsements-nil/?tid=pm_sports_pop.
Rosman, Katherine, and Ken Belson. “Promised a New Culture, Women Say the N.F.L. Instead Pushed Them Aside.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/sports/football/nfl-women-culture.html.
“The Sports Bra, Portland's First Bar Dedicated to Women's Sports, Opens.” Portland Monthly, Portland Monthly, 3 Apr. 2022, https://www.pdxmonthly.com/eat-and-drink/2022/04/sports-bra-women-sports-bar-opens-portland.
Matthew Miller
ReplyDeleteIt has been 50 years since the passage of Title IX, which states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under and education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” (U.S. Department of Education). While there has been progress in the 50 years since its passing, there is still plenty of work to be done. I remember seeing a video during a previous March Madness Tournament from Oregon Women’s Basketball player Sedona Prince, who called out the NCAA for the disparity between the men’s and women’s weight rooms. Prince said, “A part of me didn’t think what I saw was real. We’d been hearing things and seeing stuff on Twitter; the stark difference in resources was a hot topic in the women’s basketball community, but for awhile, I thought it was a joke. But then when we saw it before practice, it was like, are you kidding me?... It was ridiculous.” (Prince 2022). The NCAA ended up giving them a better weight room after her video came out. The problem here is that it should not have taken a video from a player for the NCAA to realize the differences between treating the men versus how they were treating the women. Former Stanford sports performance Ali Kershner said, “I really feel like women’s sports has come into a new era this past year… Maybe it’s the new stories coming out about the women’s national soccer team and settling with U.S. Soccer. The WNBA has gotten a lot more attention recently. Maybe it’s the [name, image and likeness rights]. I feel like we’ve turned a page in women in sports getting recognition.” (Dodd 2022).
One thing that has recently changed in women’s sports is the NCAA Basketball Tournament. This is the first year where they have the same amount of teams the men’s tournament does (68). Their tournament can also be called March Madness, unlike in the past when people were refrained from calling it that. While I do not understand why they could not call their tournament March Madness in the past, this is a step in the right direction. There was also a significant pay discrepancy between the men’s and women’s national soccer teams. The women have been much more successful in recent years yet were making considerably less than the men’s team, who did not even qualify for the previous World Cup in 2018. There was an agreement between U.S. Soccer and the women’s players to receive $24 million and a pledge from the soccer federation to equalize pay for both the men’s and women’s national teams. More progress could be on the way as “The men’s and women’s teams have already held joint negotiating sessions with U.S. Soccer, but to make the deal work — the federation is seeking a single collective bargaining agreement that covers both teams — the men’s players will have to agree to share, or surrender, millions of dollars in potential World Cup payments from FIFA, world soccer’s governing body.” (Das 2022). However, they are still faced with challenges as much of what has been said and promised has yet to come to fruition. Until these things come to fruition, there will still be some doubt about the entire situation. Perhaps the most prominent challenge women in sports face is that they are not showcased nearly as much as the men are. Because of this, it is increasingly more challenging for them to get their names out and show the world the talent they have.
Works Cited
DeleteDas, A. (2022, February 22). U.S. Soccer and women's players agree to settle equal pay lawsuit. The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/sports/soccer/us-womens-soccer-equal-pay.html
Dodd Mar 22, D. (2022, March 22). Approaching its 50th anniversary, title IX is just getting warmed up. CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/approaching-its-50th-anniversary-title-ix-is-just-getting-warmed-up/
Prince, S. (2022, March 17). Oregon's Sedona Prince, who shot infamous video at last year's Women's NCAA Tournament, speaks out. USA Today. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaw/2022/03/16/sedona-prince-ncaa-tournament-video-womens-inqueties-speaks/7058680001/
US Department of Education (ED). (2021, August 20). Title IX and sex discrimination. Home. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html
Brandon Krikorian
ReplyDeleteProfessor Burns
4 April 2022
Weekly Blog #7
I think that women in sports have grown exponentially over the last couple of decades and especially over the last few years. In terms of women being athletes, there have been strides in college basketball and the WNBA to grow the game and have it become more mainstream. The WNBA has a deal with ESPN and college basketball does too. Just last night, I watched the women’s college basketball national championship and I would not consider myself as someone who watches or follows women’s sports at all. I think that certain players can make a big impact in the popularity of the sport and currently that player is Paige Bueckers as she is the biggest college star in women’s basketball. This has happened over the past decade with players like Maya Moore, Skylar Diggins, Brittney Griner, and Breanna Stewart. When you have special players it brings more people into the sport because they want to see these players lead their team to a championship. Nowadays, these special type of players can get brand deals and get paid in a sport where women do not make a lot of money. According to the Washington Post, “The star Connecticut guard has nearly 1 million followers on Instagram and recently gifted each of her teammates with new sneakers through a partnership with StockX” (Copeland). She also has a deal with Gatorade and other women athletes have multiple NIL deals as well which is a really good thing for the sport. If they are not going to be paid by their league a substantial amount, then at least they can make up some of that loss with these NIL deals. Despite the fact that women’s college basketball is leading in NIL deals, it can be really hard to find their highlights on TV or on social media. A quote from a former star women’s college basketball player Sabrina Ionescu talks about that disparity, “I wish I could open my social media and see highlights about Women’s sports” (McManus). She later goes on to say that pages like Bleacher Report, House of Highlights, SportsCenter, etc. only post about male sports which is true but they do make an effort to post women’s sports.
With the new feature on Instagram with having two accounts joining together to post the same post which allows both of the accounts followers to see the post, those pages have been posting more women’s sports. It is not as much as men’s sports but it is a start and has been getting bigger over time. Even though this is very encouraging for women’s sports, one company still does not think that women’s sports get enough coverage. A commercial, which has been making the rounds over the last couple of weeks, made by Buick talks about the lack of coverage for women’s sports. In an article by The Drum, they give the foundation for the new ad, “Over 40% of athletes are female, yet they receive less than 10% of total media coverage” (Wright). Each commercial has the audio of a famous women’s college moment but the visual is just a black screen because it wants you to know that despite this crazy event, you did not see it because of the lack of coverage for women’s sports. This ad was made in conjunction with the fact that it is the 50th anniversary for Title IX which set the grounds for women in sports. This is a powerful ad because it has a prominent car company taking a stand for women’s sports and wants to see a change be made. So, in all women’s sports have made strides over the years but there is still work to do in the future and it starts with everyone right now.
DeleteCopeland, Kareem. “Who's Making the Most from Nil? Women's Basketball Is near the Top.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 Mar. 2022, www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/03/30/womens-college-basketball-endorsements-nil/.
McManus, Jane. “Why Is It Still so Hard to Find Coverage of Women's Sports?” Deadspin, Deadspin, 26 Nov. 2021, deadspin.com/why-is-it-still-so-hard-to-find-coverage-of-women-s-spo-1848117663.
Wright, Webb. “Buick Lifts up Female Athletes for Women's History Month.” The Drum, The Drum, 10 Mar. 2022, www.thedrum.com/news/2022/03/08/buick-lifts-up-female-athletes-women-s-history-month.
Charlie Windels
ReplyDeletePart 1
Women's Sports have seen great changes in recent years, however, they are still not at the level everyone had hoped for. Women's sports today face many challenges, but that does not mean they don’t have great opportunities coming soon. An article I was reading titled American Sports Perpetuate ‘A Certain Type Of Manhood’ - Here’s Why It Persists by Brendon Kleen talks about society’s role in this issue and how we as a society create this generalized view of masculinity. The article quotes “While sport’s masculine ideals borrow from society’s, what happens in athletics also informs how we define manhood more broadly as a country. Increasingly, however, that conception of masculinity is being scrutinized and challenged” (Kleen). I think this is a very interesting point and is very true. When we think of society's stereotypical view of a man we think of someone physically strong or athletic. This also correlates to how people view sports. They would rather watch men's sports because men are “stronger” or “faster” than women, but this is not the case at all. Many female athletes are capable of keeping up with or even beating male athletes that are professionals in their sport.
Next, I read a lot about the potential of women's sports and how these challenges that they have faced in the past have helped the sports world realize the issue at hand. An article I was reading titled Approaching its 50th anniversary, Title IX is just getting warmed up by Dennis Dodd talked about many examples of growth in women's sports. In particular, the article mentioned the women's March Madness gym incident and how it sparked a change in women's college basketball. The article explains “A historic women's tournament kicked off last week. For one, the field was expanded to 68 teams, matching the men. It's also the first time the term "March Madness" has been expanded to apply to the women's event as well as the one featuring the men” (Dodd). This was just one of many examples of a problem in women's sports followed by a response and an effort to change. With many more changes in the future, we could see women’s sports gain a larger and more committed audience.
Charlie Windels
ReplyDeletePart 2
After looking further and doing my research on the future of women's sports I found out that recently Nike had released a statement on how they would be getting more involved with branding in the WNBA. Nike News stated “To accelerate change from the grassroots level, Nike invests in more than 135 community partners supporting women and girls worldwide. In the realm of professional sports, Nike recently made an equity investment in the WNBA to grow the league and create more visibility for its athletes” (news.nike.com). I think this only emphasizes that there will be change. The only question is, how long will it take for women’s sports to be equally recognized? With more big-name brands getting involved and women speaking out on sports I think we could see this shortly. Women's sports have grown exponentially in the past few years as more and more female athletes are speaking out and their voices are finally being heard. I expect to see a change as more people are made aware of how equally talented many female athletes are. Overall I think we should see women's sports catch up as society’s view on athletics changes.
Works Cited
Dodd Mar 22, D. (2022, March 22). Approaching its 50th anniversary, title IX is just getting warmed up. CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/approaching-its-50th-anniversary-title-ix-is-just-getting-warmed-up/
American Sports Perpetuate ‘A Certain Type Of Manhood’ - Here’s Why It Persists
Brendon Kleen Global Sport Matter Friday, Jun 11, 2021 https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2021/06/11/american-sports-nfl-perpetuate-manhood-toxic-masculinity/
“The NIKE Athlete Think Tank Invests in the Future of Women's Sport.” Nike News, 17 Mar. 2022, https://news.nike.com/news/nike-athlete-think-tank.
Gage Kilborne 1
ReplyDeleteWomen in sports have actually improved in recent years to becoming a big part of how we view sports media today. A big reason for this is the United States Women's National Soccer Team. The USWNT won a $24 million equal pay settlement from the US Soccer Federation which was a monumental decision in women's equality (Dodd). This big decision that was made by the court recognized the equality and female and male sports, unfortunately this triumph is just one of many hurdles that women sports are still fighting today.
Former Oregon women’s basketball star Sabrina Ionescu was looking through the coverage of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament during the 2021 season and was struggling to find highlights. However, she did find plenty of highlights of NBA, NCAA Men's games, and posts about the NFL offseason. Ionescu joined Sedona Prince in starting a fight for women's equality against the NCAA (McManus).
This was another big mistake made by the NCAA this time and the following season they expanded the women's athletic tournaments to be equal to the men's tournaments. For instance, the Women's Basketball Tournament was rebranded to March Madness and they added four teams to the bracket, the NC Women's Ice Hockey Tournament expanded to 11 teams to be equal with the Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. Furthermore, the NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Tournament made an announcement that during the start of the 2023 season, the NEWHA Conference champion will receive an automatic bid to the tournament, this is another monumental decision made by the NCAA to further include women's sports as equals with men's sports (Dilkis).
Gage Kilborne 2
DeleteFollowing these big improvements of equality on female sports, the opportunities for women in sports whether it is as an athlete or as a sports commentator. Many of the pioneers of female sports back then in 1972 up to now have made multiple improvements to ensure that female athletes are getting the recognition that they deserve.
The only drawback that is still being seen as a problem is women have to be forced to wear a certain style of clothing for games. Sydney Carter wore a white turtleneck and pink leather pants to one of Texas A&M's games back in 2021 (Justich). This outfit choice sparked a large debate on social media over if what she was wearing was considered socially acceptable. This outfit not only sparked a gender debate, it also sparked a racial debate as majority of the people who claimed it was disrespectful were white males and females (Justich). One black man sent a Tweet saying that they should just let black people dress like black people.
Overall, I believe that female athletes should be given more recognition, as one who covered the women's ice hockey team for two years I can say that the team deserves more representation than what they currently see in the stands. This is a small step forward in what has been a more than 50-year old fight for gender equality among male and female sports.
Gage Kilborne 3
DeleteDodd Mar 22, Dennis. “Approaching Its 50th Anniversary, Title IX Is Just Getting Warmed Up.” CBSSports.com, 22 Mar. 2022, https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/approaching-its-50th-anniversary-title-ix-is-just-getting-warmed-up/.
Dilks, Chris. “NCAA Women's Hockey Tournament Officially Expands to 11 Teams.” SB Nation College Hockey, SB Nation College Hockey, 15 Dec. 2021, https://www.sbncollegehockey.com/womens-hockey/2021/12/15/22838602/ncaa-womens-hockey-tournament-officially-expands-to-11-teams.
Friday, Brendon Kleen |. “Why Masculinity Persists in American Sports.” Global Sport Matters, 29 June 2021, https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2021/06/11/american-sports-nfl-perpetuate-manhood-toxic-masculinity/.
Justich, Kerry. “Texas A&M Coach Sydney Carter Responds to Outfit Criticism: 'I'm Unapologetically Myself Every Day'.” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 2021, https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/texas-am-coach-sydney-carter-responds-to-outfit-criticism-174538060.html.
McManus, Jane. “Why Is It Still so Hard to Find Coverage of Women's Sports?” Deadspin, Deadspin, 26 Nov. 2021, https://deadspin.com/why-is-it-still-so-hard-to-find-coverage-of-women-s-spo-1848117663.
Rosman, Katherine, and Ken Belson. “Promised a New Culture, Women Say the N.F.L. Instead Pushed Them Aside.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Feb. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/sports/football/nfl-women-culture.html.
Although it has been 50 years since the passing of Title X, women’s sports are still seen differently than men’s. The sports field as a whole is typically a male-dominated workplace, as we have learned not only in class but might have experienced personally. Even though there have been many changes and new opportunities for women athletes and sports media professionals, it has not reached its full potential. Due to the lack of respect and resources for female athletes and professionals, as shown in their salary, media coverage, and opportunities.
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about college sports, people typically think about football and basketball. Both have huge tournaments that attract a sea of people and money. Well, up until 1981, NCAA championship games were not allowed for women. Fast forward, and women are still being treated with disrespect. Ali Kershner, Stanford’s Women’s Basketball Coach, shared a picture on Instagram back in March 2021. The caption read, “Not usually one for this type of post but this deserves attention. This is the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament vs. Women’s Basketball tournament bubble set up. @ncaawbb @ncaa @marchmadness this needs to be addressed. These women want and deserve to be given the same opportunities. Not only that - 3 weeks in a bubble and no access to DBs above 30’s until the sweet 16? In a year defined by a fight for equality, this is a chance to have a conversation and get better.” (Kershner). The picture showed both weight rooms that the NCAA set up and there is a clear difference between the two. Even though the tournament has added in an equal amount of men's and women's teams and considered the women's tournament a part of “March Madness”, there is still a disconnect.
Another part of women's sports that is corrupt deals with the media coverage. In the article “Why is it still so hard to find coverage of women’s sports”, Jane McManus mentioned that the views on women's sports are going up and MLB views are down. Even though numbers show that people want to see women's sports on T.V., it is a male-dominated field, and men post for other men. Sabrina Ionescu former Oregon player tweeted, “I wish I could open my social media and see highlights about Women’s sports” (Ionescu). This right here is making it harder for women to get brand deals and be recognized for their talent. If women are televised and posted more this will bring in a lot more money and allow them the same opportunities as men.
Dennis Dodd Mar 22. “Approaching Its 50th Anniversary, Title IX Is Just Getting Warmed Up.” CBSSports.com, 22 Mar. 2022, https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/approaching-its-50th-anniversary-title-ix-is-just-getting-warmed-up/.
“A History of Women's Sports Media Coverage Progress & How Much Further It Needs to Go.” GirlTalkHQ, 8 May 2018, https://www.girltalkhq.com/a-history-of-womens-sports-media-coverage-progress-how-much-further-it-needs-to-go/.
McManus, Jane. “Why Is It Still so Hard to Find Coverage of Women's Sports?” Deadspin, Deadspin, 26 Nov. 2021, https://deadspin.com/why-is-it-still-so-hard-to-find-coverage-of-women-s-spo-1848117663.
Emily Sweeney
ReplyDeleteIf I were to assess the state of women in sports, as well as the state of women in sports media 50 years since Title IX was passed, I would assess it as being dissatisfactory. Although some aspects of women in sports or sports media roles have begun to improve including advances in equal pay and in hiring rates for women in sports media, they have not improved nearly enough. There are definitely still many challenges for women in sports and sports media to face. Because it is such a male dominated field, women in sports lack the attention that male sports get and women in sports media have to deal with many sexual advances in the workplace and aren’t taken as seriously as the male reporters.
Some opportunities that women have now that they didn’t have in the past are awareness in athlete pay equality and an increase in the hiring of women in sports media. Dennis Dodd states “Last month, the women's national team won a $24 million equal pay settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation. Rapinoe was one of five high-profile players who filed the original complaint in 2016 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission” (Dodd). So yes, there was a settlement made and there is now more awareness in athlete pay equality due to gender, however the women themselves are filing complaints or making it well-known in order to get this change. They essentially have to do it all on their own. As for women in sports media, there has been an increase in women who are hired. A graph from a sports article in The Guardian shows the “Percentage of women in APSE-member newsrooms” (The Guardian). This graph shows that although women in those newsrooms has never reached 20%, it has been slowly increasing from 2006-2021. Neither of these improvements are enough to justify the lack of
women’s sports coverage or women in sports media by any means, however it’s still considered to be new opportunities that women didn't have before.
DeleteAlthough the opportunities may increase, women in this male dominated field still face many challenges as well. Women’s sports have not received close to an equal amount of coverage as men’s sports on television or in general and it is not because of a lack of interest. Jane McManus stated “Overall, 56 percent of sports fans want more coverage of women’s sports and athletes” (McManus). So, why isn’t this happening? McManus also stated “When talking about what sports get covered, there is an element to filling the demand of sports consumers. But women’s sports have been a place where that demand isn’t always met. There are a lot of reasons for that, but one big one is that the men who run sports networks are producing coverage for other men. And even as women are a growing part of the sports audience” (McManus). This is a continuous struggle that female athletes are faced with. Because the entire world of sports is run by men and dominated by men, there is not much room for the women to shine and be in the spotlight. Moving to sports media professionals, they struggle every day being faced with sexual comments or gestures throughout their career as well and struggle in general with not having many careers open in the male driven field. We heard Liz Flynn discuss this very topic to our class just a few weeks ago. Richard Deitsch interviewed women in sports media and one stated, “The sad thing is, you’d have to weigh the cost of speaking up. Will it do more damage to my career? Will anyone believe me anyway? The shame of it is, sometimes it’s just easier for us to try to ignore the person or the behavior and go on with our lives. Our jobs are hard enough as it is” (Deitsch). This just shows that although improvements have been made for women in sports and sports media, the challenges faced are still at large and the sports world is overall dominated by men.
Works Cited
DeleteDeitsch, R. (2017, November 27). Revisiting sexual harassment of female sports reporters. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://www.si.com/media/2017/11/27/female-sports-reporters-sexual-harassment-media-circus
Dodd Mar 22, D. (2022, March 22). Approaching its 50th anniversary, title IX is just getting warmed up. CBSSports.com. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/approaching-its-50th-anniversary-title-ix-is-just-getting-warmed-up/
Guardian News and Media. (2022, February 5). Slow progress continues for women in US sports media. The Guardian. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/feb/05/slow-progress-continues-for-women-in-us-sports-media
McManus, J. (n.d.). Why is it still so hard to find coverage of Women's sports? MSN. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/why-is-it-still-so-hard-to-find-coverage-of-women-s-sports/ar-AARaf37
Blake Guerriero
ReplyDeleteIt is no secret that women are becoming more prominent in sports, there have been more sports jobs being granted to women than ever. However, female athletes still are not being recognized nearly as much as male athletes in their respective sports. It is very clear that male sports are still prioritized over female sports among fans, broadcast networks, and general society. Even though there is still a lot of work to do, the march madness tournament has worked in making the experience equal to both male and female athletes. During the tournament women will receive the same perks- lounge areas, gifts, swag bags per diem and travel,” as the men do (Dodd 2022). I believe a big reason as to why people prefer male sports/athletes rather than female sports/athletes is because Men are viewed as stronger, faster, bigger, better etc. While sport’s masculine ideals borrow from society’s, what happens in athletics also informs how we define manhood more broadly as a country. Increasingly, however, that conception of masculinity is being scrutinized and challenged” (Kleen). We view men as better athletes which will give us better competition to watch, which is not totally true as female athletes can be just as good if not better than men at that specific sport. I grew up playing hockey for 15 years, I once was on a team where we had three girls on the team, and they were a couple of our better players. The three girls on my team were better and more reliable than a few of the men on my team, and our competition were just strictly men, we never played against any females. The fact they they competed that well against men and are now playing women Division I hockey says a lot about how female athletes can be just as good as men.
The number of women in media/communication professions in sports has become increasingly obvious and for good reason. I see female broadcasters covering all kinds of professional sports but people still refuse to accept it. I see it all the time on social media where people bash a female reporter, journalist, or broadcaster simply because they feel like she has no knowledge of the sport. Gender does not define who knows a sport or its athletes. Gender does not determine who is the best or worst athlete in their sport. Gender does not define who can or cannot like a sport, team or athlete (Brennan 2019). I have female friends who are pursuing a career in professional sports and they shouldn’t have to face judgement and scruinty because they are female, they are brilliant and know a lot of stuff, more than some men I personally know.
DeleteWorks Cited
Dodd, Dennis. “Approaching Its 50th Anniversary, Title IX Is Just Getting Warmed Up.” CBSSports, CBS Interactive , 22 Mar. 2022, https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/uconn-vs-stanford-takeaways-huskies-use-defense-to-outlast-defending-champion-cardinal-in-final-four/.
American Sports Perpetuate ‘A Certain Type Of Manhood’ - Here’s Why It Persists
Brendon Kleen Global Sport Matter Friday, Jun 11, 2021 https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2021/06/11/american-sports-nfl-perpetuate-manhood-toxic-masculinity/
By, & The Future is Female – KAYLA EDGE BLOG 19 September. (1970, September 20). The Future of Sports is female: The rise of women in the sports industry. Fourteen East. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from http://fourteeneastmag.com/index.php/2019/09/20/the-future-of-sports-is-female-the-rise-of-women-in-the-sports-industry/
Mikala Morris
ReplyDeleteOne word that comes to mind when looking at how one would assess the state of women in sports would be, progress. The passage of Title IX has been an amazing thing for female athletes as it has allowed for them to be treated within the sports world. However, though the sole reason for this bill to be passed was for equality and no discrimination on any basis especially for sex, that does not mean that women are being treated equally in world that’s dominated by men. That is why to me, progress is a great word for describing the state of women in sports because although there has been actions taken in support of women, there is still much that needs to be worked on as well. Though the bill praises equality as a standard, is that what has really been happening? A perfect example of this would be assessing the differences that were cited at last years NCAA basketball championship. Every year when the national tournament is hosted teams who have made it to the ‘big dance’ will be given what’s known as a ‘swag bag’. Within this bag is typically cool gear that is only exclusive to those players and is labeled “NCAA basketball tournament”. Though each bag contains the same prizes, the NCAA still found a way to reward the men’s teams better than the women’s. Ryan Gaydos from Fox news wrote, “Pictures of the men’s swag bag showed several large towels, a T-shirt, a hat, soaps, shampoos, deodorants, anti-bacterial wipes, a book authored by legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson and other items. Pictures of the women’s swag bag showed a scrunchie, Powerade water bottles, a T-shirt, deodorant, shampoo, an umbrella, a hat and a towel among other items“ (2021). Though this biggest scandal tournament had to do with the blatant discrimination when it came to the facilities that were given to the men and women’s teams. Henrey Bushnell a writer for Yahoo sports recently wrote, “pictures of an expansive weight room in Indianapolis, designed meticulously for the men's tournament; and of a single dumbbell tree and yoga mats at the women's tourney in San Antonio” (2022).
Mikala Morris cont
ReplyDeleteThe NCAA did receive backlash and apologized for their action toward the women basketball players, but to my dismay some individuals tried to justify the organizations for discriminating. Reasons for their argument were that because women do not bring in as much revenue as men then they shouldn’t be given equal prizes, or my favorite statement “no one watches women’s basketball”. However, these types of comments are not only ignorant but just flat out wrong. People are watching women’s sports, in fact the trend for viewership continues to increase substantially. In the article, The NCAA’s Shell Game is the Real Women’s Basketball Scandal it stated, “You know how many viewers watched the championship game in 2019? More than 3.68 million, with a peak of 5.6 million in the closing minutes of Baylor’s one-point victory over Notre Dame. Know what that’s comparable to? A Wimbledon men’s final. Game 1 of the 2019 National League Division Series between the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers. LeBron James’s debut with the Los Angeles Lakers” (Jenkins, 2021). However, though trends such as this continue to grow women’s sports are still not be broadcasted not nearly much as men’s competitions. Jenkins also goes on to mention, “There is no question ratings for early round women’s games can be negligible, especially when aired piecemeal on ESPN’s substations, which means lower ad pricing and revenue. Nevertheless, watch any women’s tournament game on ESPN’s channels, and you’ll see prominent title sponsor placements for AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola” (2021). These mindset are the challenges that women in sports still are facing today.
Though as mentioned before there has still be much progress within women’s sports as well. With the recent allowance of the NIL it has given athletes, especially female opportunities like never before. In the article Who’s Making the Most from NIL? Women’s Basketball Is Near the Top it stated, “Paige Bueckers posted a video of herself dancing to Lil Yachty’s “Coffin” on TikTok that has garnered 2.6 million views. The star Connecticut guard has nearly 1 million followers on Instagram and recently gifted each of her teammates with new sneakers through a partnership with StockX” (2022). More shockingly the NCAA basketball tournament recently released the rankings for the top paid athletes from nil deals and four out of the five were women. There is still much to work on in the women’s game but nonetheless we have come a long way.
Bushnell, H. 2022. Inside NCAA basketball’s gender inequities and how they were exposed in 2021. Yahoo Sports. https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-basketball-gender-inequities-2021-exposed-march-madness-162712173.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAImBulUYu59_O0hsc0TrMB2mZYT2ZvZ7V_gBwXwQ5_jpNWm_1rVfusRFSLZ9aQ398mGJhkymtV4fLBKUIPZKSqZ4jjxgHo7DoEV6teSdWIzL_IfnY-Px3wniIi8GbNbBgWBrahtQcSVktd-RUJYni5nrD8BrDGk1rfUyqtkfb0ho
ReplyDeleteCopeland, K. 2022. Who’s Making the Most from NIL? Women’s Basketball Is Near the Top. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/03/30/womens-college-basketball-endorsements-nil/
Gaydos, R. 2021. NCAA under fire for differences in swag bags at men's and women's tournaments. Fox Sports. https://www.foxnews.com/sports/ncaa-swag-bags-mens-womens-tournaments
Jenkins, S. 2021. The NCAA’s Shell Game is the Real Women’s Basketball Scandal. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/25/ncaa-women-basketball-tournament- revenue/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1Abek- qBuEL5M0dD4CXTYIo_V1-zXkdR968h3d4xCVUbaE44QFaWwTW_Q
Alex Donald
ReplyDeleteThere isn’t really a best or perfect way to assess women in sports right now since there is still work to be done about that particular situation but however, it has made a lot of progress. Since then female athletes have gained a lot of opportunities, NIL deals, and so on with other well known companies, even college athletes. For example, college sports have made men and women equal for all sports. In fact, some of the well known female basketball players had signed deals with well known players like UConn star Paige Bueckers signing with StockX, Stanford star Hailey Jones signing with Beats, and so on. “Women’s basketball has been a marketer’s dream. Staniscia argued that NIL may be the largest emerging market in the United States, with hundreds of thousands of athletes as potential clients across the country. The explosion of social media has provided the biggest tool for the relationship between marketers and college athletes. Players can pitch products directly to their followers, but the strategy goes beyond just having large follower numbers.” (Copeland 2022). NIL deals can also be an option or opportunities for athletes after they retire from playing. For example, “Maryland forward Angel Reese, who would like to have deals with Fenty and Under Armour. ‘Honestly, right now it’s about connections in the world. I want to, of course, play basketball, but I can’t play forever. So after the WNBA, I want to be a commentator. I want to be a model as well. So I’m using my face and my Instagram and my platform and being good at basketball. I think that it’s going to help me in the long run.” (Copeland 2022).
However, like I said before, assessing the state of women’s sports is still a work in progress. The main example is that they are not getting enough media coverage particularly March Madness basketball. One of the reasons that people think that women's march madness basketball isn’t getting enough media attention is stated that “Sports business reporter, NFT enthusiast Darren Rovell was entirely puzzled by a series of Buick ads promoting gender equity in sports and responded by tweeting: ‘Women get less coverage during March Madness because there’s less madness, fewer upsets and the bracket is predictable. That’s all. It’s not the same product.” (Leibert 2022). Another issue that women’s sports is still is that posted on Twitter Sedonna Prince of the Oregon Women’s basketball team brought to attention that their weight room has only one rack of weights and that the weight room for the Men’s basketball team is a full room until they were heard and the league gave the women’s a full weight room. There are a lot of challenges that female athletes still face in a male dominated sports industry, however the main challenge women face in sports are lack of media coverage, recognition, and respect. “For too long, it has been dominated and reserved for men, their justification being that ‘women aren’t really into sports that much anyway”. (Ray 2016). But despite all the negative comments about women in sports, there have been a lot of successful female athletes who either deal or have dealt with these criticisms like Candace Parker, Sha'carri Richardson, Simone Biles, Dawn Staley, and so on.
DeleteWork Cited
Leibert, Emily. “Really Weird’ That Women’s Basketball Teams Are Actually Bringing Madness to March”. Jezebel. Apr 1, 2022. Visited Apr 5, 2022. Retrieved from https://jezebel.com/really-weird-that-women-s-basketball-teams-are-actual-1848735053
Copeland, Kareem. “Who’s making the most from NIL? Women’s basketball is near the top”. The Washington Post. Mar 30, 2022. Visited Apr 5, 2022. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/03/30/womens-college-basketball-endorsements-nil/
Ray, Sanjara. “Challenges faced by female athletes in the world of sports”. Yourstory. Sept 12, 2016. Visited Apr 5, 2022. Retrieved from https://yourstory.com/2016/09/challenges-female-athletes-face/amp