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Despite progress, equity remains a pressing challenge for women in sport

This is an excerpt from Social Issues in Sport 5th Edition With HKPropel Access by Ronald B. Woods,B. Nalani Butler.

Popularity of Women’s Sports

Women’s sports at every level of competition have begun to attract large numbers of spectators. Here are some landmark attendance figures:

• In 1973, at the height of the women’s movement, Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in tennis to win the “Battle of the Sexes” in front of 30,472 fans—then a record for the largest crowd to attend any tennis match and one that stood until 2010 (Women’s Sports Foundation 2009). The match that broke the record was an exhibition between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters in Brussels, Belgium. That match set the women’s attendance record of 35,681.
• In 2019, a women’s basketball game between Baylor University and the University of Notre Dame drew a record crowd of 20,127. That is the highest attendance at a women’s college basketball game not involving one or both of the sport’s two historical powers: the University of Connecticut and the University of Tennessee (NCAA 2020).
• During the 2018 to 2019 season, nine women’s basketball teams—Notre Dame, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Iowa State, Oregon, Baylor, Oregon State, Stanford, and Gonzaga—had higher attendance rates than their male counterparts (NCAA 2020).
• In 2023, Nebraska played Omaha in women’s volleyball to a crowd of 92,003. This game went in the history books as having the largest attendance of any women’s sporting event, which was previously held by the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final (NCAA 2023a).
• In 2023, Iowa set the record for highest attendance at a women’s basketball game. National player of the year Caitlin Clark finished with a triple double against DePaul. For that game, 55,646 fans were in attendance (NCAA 2023b)
• The University of Utah women’s gymnastics team set an attendance record in a 2011 dual meet with the University of Florida by drawing 15,558 fans. In 2014, average attendance for home meets was 14,376—the highest in the nation for the 30th time (University of Utah Gymnastics 2020).

The Battle for Equity Continues

Despite the remarkable progress made by girls and women in sport, equity remains a pressing challenge. Athletic opportunities for girls and women remain clearly unequal, and the urge to congratulate ourselves for the progress made since the 1980s should not cause us to slack off now.

Girls, particularly those of color, have far fewer opportunities than boys to participate in sport; moreover, when they do play, they typically must tolerate inferior facilities, equipment, coaching, and publicity. Although high school sport for girls has experienced many consecutive years of increased participation, girls still trail boys in high school sport. During the 2021-2022 academic year, girls made up 3.24 million of the participants as high school student-athletes, while boys had about 4.4 million participating (Statista 2022).

Since Title IX, there has been a 955 percent increase in the number of female athletes of color and a 320 percent increase in athletes who identify as White and female. In addition, scholarship assistance for female athletes of color increased to $82 million and for White female athletes by $300 million.

During the 2020-2021 academic year, male athletes received 3,000 more scholarships than female athletes (Gough 2024c). Men received $252 million more in athletic scholarships than women. Lastly, 86 percent of NCAA schools offered more athletic opportunities to men, which were disproportionate to their enrollment. This equated to about 60,000 missed opportunities for women athletes during the 2019-2020 academic year (Women’s Sports Foundation 2024).

Male athletes have consistently had more endorsement deals, media coverage, and a higher salary than those of their female counterparts. In some sports like tennis, men and women make about the same salary. However, in sports like basketball and soccer, women do not make nearly what the men make. However, the tide has started to shift, and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the U.S. women’s national soccer team (USWNT) started to make progress toward equal pay for their athletic endeavors.

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