Dear Society, Please Respect Women's Sports
- Alexa Sandler
- Oct 4, 2020
- 3 min read
I am passionate about women in sports. This statement should not be shocking to you by now. Being an athlete for the majority of my life, a current sports photographer, and trying to break my way into a career in the sports industry, the lack of representation of women in the sports-playing world and sports business world is alarming.
Here are some really shocking statistics from the Chasing Equity: The Triumphs, Challenges and Opportunities in Sports for Girls and Women report conducted by the Women's Sports Foundation:
3.2% of sports media coverage devoted to women’s sports. (Cooky, Messner, and Musto, 2015)
70% of female leaders who say lack of media coverage limits girls’ sport participation. (Female Leaders in Sport Survey, 2019)
32% of girls who report that sometimes boys make fun of them or make them feel uncomfortable when they practice sports. (Zarrett, Cooky, & Veliz, 2019)
63% of female leaders in women’s sports reported experiencing sex discrimination in the workplace (Female Leaders in Sport Survey, 2019)
60% of female leaders reported being paid less for doing the same job as a man (Female Leaders in Sport Survey, 2019)
31% of female coaches believe that they would risk their job if they spoke up about Title IX and gender equity (Sabo, Veliz, & Staurowsky, 2016)
Take a minute to process this. I am still trying to process it.
Sadly, these numbers don't surprise me. For years on end, our society has been too comfortable in deeming sports a "man's world". Gender doesn't define one's athletic ability or desire to love sports. Sports seriously are for everyone - no matter what. Sports have the unique ability to connect people in a way that music, movies, books, etc. just cannot do. So, why is there such rampant gender discrimination in sports? Why is the default in sports male? Why is it the NBA and the WNBA instead of the MNBA and the WNBA? Why are female athletes so underrepresented and underappreciated for playing the same sports as men? Why is there no NHL, MLB or NFL equivalent for women? In any given day scrolling through Instagram, most of the sports content from well-known media sources is focused on men. Why? Why? Why?
Let me give you an example as to just how much people disrespect women's sports. Following Game 1 of the WNBA Finals (yeah, those are happening! I bet you may have been unaware of that), the NBA posted on Instagram highlighting the accomplishments of Seattle Storm's Breanna Stewart who had 37 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 blocks. She really did ball out in the series opener. However, this one Instagram post was met with a lot of hate from the NBA's IG followers. Comments ranged from "Who cares?" to "That's the equivalent of 2 points in the NBA" to "I don't want to see this" to "Who watches the WNBA?" to "Wrong page" to other very sexist comments.
Why? It boggles my mind that people are just this outright disrespectful to female athletes. For what reason? They play the same sports as men, so why is there a difference? Guess what? There isn't! Sports are sports no matter who's playing them.
Obviously, the instance mentioned above with Stewart is one of thousands of examples of the hate that women in the sports recieve. Women have been making history in ALL sports and are just fighting for respect and recognition.
So, my ask of you is to explore women's sports. Whether that is watching the WNBA, learning about the struggles women face in sports, or educating yourself on the different organizations that are out there for women in sports, just open your mind.
Pages you should be following:
On Her Turf (@OnHerTurf)
Just Women's Sports (@justwomenssports)
Women's Sports Foundation (@womenssportsfoundation)
Women in Sports and Events (WISE) (@wise_national)
espnW (@espnw)
Any female athlete or team
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