Women in Sports — Issue on Pay Gap, Media Coverage and Women Representation in Sports
Abstract
The aim of this essay is to examine and discuss three challenges women face in the world of sports, either as athletes or as professionals. The paper discusses such issues by pointing out relevant concepts and examples as illustrated by various studies and researchers. The three main challenges include pay gap between female and male athletes within the same sport, inadequate media attention and exposure for women’s sports, as well as female representation in various sports. The paper also goes further to mention recommendations to improve on these challenges.
Women in Sports — Issue on Pay Gap, Media Coverage and Women Representation in Sports
Introduction
Despite sports participation amongst women and their acceptance and support has tremendously increased since the 1970s, future still looks bleak, especially when it comes to media coverage of women’s sports, pay gap with their male athlete counterparts, as well as gender representation in various sports. Although gender equality is evident in many other social setups (marriages, offices, politics, etc.), similar sentiments are yet to be reflected in sports (Cox, 2018). The reality is that women in sports still undergo inequalities in terms of funding and social support. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss and examine challenges affecting women’s sports, whereby some of the issues include pay gap amongst the athletes, lack of media coverage, and female representation in the sports industry.
Lack of Media Coverage on Women’s Sports
As reported by Bowdy (2017), 90 percent of sports television hours have been devoted to men’s sports, whereby women’s sports are viewed as less significant for media coverage. Media coverage on women’s sports is only evident during the Olympics and in “feminine” sports events such as gymnastics and ice-skating. In other sports like basketball, hockey and soccer there lack positive and inspirational stories of female athletes. If they do exist, the media coverage is not available for the public’s appreciation. The only media coverage and exposure of women’s sports are mainly sensationalized stories of women challenging their male counterparts, which is very rare. Other stories involve women athletes dying from eating disorders.
As reported by Tamir et al. (2017), 2018 witnessed remarkable progress for media coverage on women’s sports. For instance, the women’s hockey finals in 2018, the game between USA and Canada, delivered the highest rating ever for NBCSN. Better yet, the media credentials at the Women’s basketball finals were the highest ever in the history of the sport. At the same time, viewership ratings for 2018’s tennis women finals were higher compared to the men’s final. Despite this, media coverage in female sports is still low.
Unlike what most people think, the lackluster media exposure is not due to lack of interest. Report by Adams and Tuggle (2018) proves this viewpoint through a survey across eight major global sports markets. The study concluded that eighty-four (84) percent of fans are actually interested in watching women’s sports. Three out of five people believe that women’s sports are on the rise and that 46 percent of the public would watch a female sporting event on TV. Moreover, a study by Weedon et al. (2016) realized that the younger generation (aged 35 and under) are very enthusiastic and highly fascinated in women’s sports. Therefore, the advice is for the sports industry to start targeting the younger demography, which will result in reaching a broader audience.
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Pay Gap between Male and Female Sports
Even though certain sports are narrowing the gap pay between their male and female tournaments, other sports are still adamant in emulating similar stunts. In 2018, both the men’s and women’s tennis championships at the Australian Open had both winners pocketing equal amounts of USD3.2m, which is an impressive example to other sports. Bowdy (2017) explains that when Wimbledon first decided to offer equal prize money for both men and women winners, only 9 out of 44 sports emulated the same.
Fast forward ten years later, and that figure has gone up from 9 to 35, whereby only a handful of sports are yet to offer an equal winning payout to their female counterparts. Unluckily enough, the remaining sports are the biggest and the most lucrative sports, which include soccer, golf, and cricket. Arguments against equaling the pay are aired by Weedon et al. (2016), whereby such thoughts are because male sports usually target larger demography. The women’s sports do not receive similarly huge viewership ratings as the men’s sports. Nonetheless, this only creates the perception that the targeted demography only cares about men’s sports. Cox (2018) debates otherwise by stating that increased media coverage can result in equal interest among the targeted demography.
It is about time the sponsors should start using the men’s games revenues to make their female’s sports just as good. However, even with high investments, pessimists believe that female athlete will not be able to draw huge crowds and viewership as the men’s sports. Tamir et al. (2017) predict that investments in women’s sports will have a positive effect on the growth of the sports industry. 63 percent of the public feel that brands should undertake equal investment in all sports, either men or women.
Equal Representation of Women in Sports
Unlike pay gap issues and lack of media coverage, women’s representation in sports has seen some improvements. However, the representation is not yet “equal” as it should be, thus making this still a problem for women in sports. The Olympics in 2018 had a female representation of about 38 percent, and this is expected to increase to 49 percent in the 2020 Olympics (Adams & Tuggle, 2018). Although no country in the world has managed to guarantee equal representation of women in sports, determination amongst women is expected to achieve their representation goals and objectives.
It is only in the Olympics where female representation is seeing tremendous improvements, mainly because female-dominated sports are involved. However, for popular sports such as the NFL, NBA, soccer, and even hockey, female representation is still lacking. Because of this, the Olympics board is trying to become a great example to other sports by offering women more positions. The current IOC membership consists of 29 members, which is about 43 percent increase from the previous year, and about 98 percent increase since 2013.
The global movement by women in the past 30 years has enabled the transformation and evolution of society’s mentality towards women and sports. Women are no longer viewed as the weaker sex, which has made men to pave the way and leave some of the managerial positions for women in female sports (Weedon et al., 2016). The intentions of the movements for equal representations are not only meant to have more women in different positions but also to empower them, both physically and intellectually. The reason for empowerment is to emancipate women in developing countries to take the mantle and start participating in sports as a career. The resultant effect is to create an economically viable women’s sports industry.
Conclusion
Despite the existence of Title IX (equal female participation in sports), most of its objectives are yet to be fulfilled. For instance, for every dollar spent on a female athlete, two dollars are spent on their male counterparts. In essence, this disregards the Title IX. As reiterated in this paper, issues, and challenges women face in the world of sports are yet to fade off. Nonetheless, the future looks bright, whereby recent years have witnessed improvements in media coverage for women’s sports, a narrowing pay gap, as well as increased representation. Despite the improvements, the progress is gradual and at a slow pace; thereby, determination and insistence amongst women are required.
References
Adams, T., & Tuggle, C. (2018). ESPN’s SportsCenter and Coverage of Women’s Athletics: “It’s a Boys’ Club”. Mass Communication And Society, 7(2), 237–248. DOI: 10.1207/s15327825mcs0702_6: Retrievable at https://bit.ly/2EvTdZ9
Bowdy, K. (2017). The Interest is There — It’s Past Time to Start Giving Women’s Sports Equal Media Coverage — Women’s Sports Foundation. Women’s Sports Foundation, Retrievable at https://bit.ly/2ThiHnz
Cox, D. (2018). Why are female athletes still paid less than males? Al Jazeera, Retrievable at https://bit.ly/2SZIs7w
Tamir, I., Yarchi, M., & Galily, Y. (2017). Women, sport and the media: Key elements at play in the shaping of the practice of women in sports journalism in Israel. Communications, 42(4), 278–296. DOI: 10.1515/commun-2017–0039: Retrievable at https://bit.ly/2NFjngr
Weedon, G., Wilson, B., Yoon, L., & Lawson, S. (2016). Where’s all the ‘good’ sports journalism? Sports media research, the sociology of sport, and the question of quality sports reporting. International Review For The Sociology Of Sport, 53(6), 639–667. DOI: 10.1177/1012690216679835: Retrievable at https://bit.ly/2NEBuTv
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