The injustices between men and women is prominent throughout history, and the injustices in sports is no different. Sports coverage has always been swayed towards men, leaving women with a fragment of TV time. Though women’s media coverage has almost tripled in the past years, they still receive as little as 15% coverage.
Think back: When was the last time you turned on the TV and you decided to go watch the WNBA or the NWSL? Most of you probably never, and although this is unfortunate, you are not the only one.
Whether it is social media, the internet, or the newspaper, you are almost always getting the latest updates about who got traded in the NFL, who made the latest 100 points in the NHL, or who got the game-winning three in the NBA. Rarely do you see that for women’s sports. When I am scrolling through social media, everyone on my feed (friends and family) is posting about men’s sports and rarely, if ever, women’s sports.
Not only do women receive little coverage, but the representation of women presenting the media is also low. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2022, only 15% of women are represented as reporters in sports media.
Women are often stereotyped in sports. I always hear “They don’t know anything” or “They are doing this to impress men” which is completely not true. Sadly, even today, some people can’t accept that women like sports, and it’s even sadder that these are the same people who also enjoy watching sports.
Why aren’t we able to share the same interests?
On the flip side of this, it almost makes sense. Now, I am not saying that women should not be represented in the media, because as a woman, I just don’t think that’s right, but popularity plays into the coverage. The attendance of the WNBA’s regular season games averages 9,800 fans and a total attendance of 2.4 million for the season. This is a big chunk of people but compared to the NBA, with an average of 18,000 fans at each game and a total attendance of 22.5 million, these numbers do not come even close.
News outlets and social media are here to make money, so they cover the teams that most people are interested in, even if that means unfair representation.
To bring this to a local level, I have watched how Sutton High News covers the media between men’s and women’s sports. Equal representation is seen throughout our news outlet. There is a great mix of photos from each sport in the daily updates and different articles are written up on both girls and boys fairly. Our school is taking a step in the right direction for equal representation in the media.
Women’s and men’s sports coverage has always had a gap, but with representation almost tripling last year, we should keep seeing improvements if we all keep pushing for change.
