Media and Women’s Sport

Media coverage in sport is beneficial for both the sport and the media. They have a special relationship with one another. Media helps sport in the fact that it covers an event so people can watch it and gain awareness and information a team or player. By covering sport, media helps generate money for the league, school, coaches, and possibly players (if college, the payment is in the form of scholarships). Sport helps media by providing an opportunity to get advertising and consumer interest. Sports create their own market with merchandise and sponsors. For example, in newspapers sports sections are about 25% of the content and they generate significant portions of the ad revenue. Sport provides sponsors and viewership. Most of the revenue in media from sport comes from the coverage of men’s sports. This is because women’s sports are overlooked or forgotten by the media.

Women’s sports have been overlooked since sports have been reported in the media. Women haven’t had equal opportunities to play sports and aren't thought of as being able to play well and being as competitive as men. Women have recently been given the equal chance of participating in sport, thanks to Title 9, only to have their sport disregarded because they aren't as popular as men’s sports. Women may have equal opportunities to play sports now but the media tends to shy away from covering them. Whether it is college or professional sports, the media tends to treats women second best to men.

 It seems that for the media, it is not the competitive drama that sells women’s sports.  Rather, it is sex or sex appeal.  For example, Lindsey Vonn was the first American woman to win gold in the winter Olympics. Also, she was the first U.S. woman and second woman ever to win three consecutive world championships (Kane 1).  However, Sports’ Illustrated, one of the most important and most respected sports’ periodicals, emphasized her sex appeal rather than the importance of her success and her impact in the sport (Kane 1). While the article talked about Vonn's accomplishments, the magazine made sure to include photographs which emphasize her looks and sexuality (Kane 1). While sex does sell in the short term, showcasing women as “physically gifted, mentally tough, grace-under-pressure athletes” will bring the fan and consumer back in the future (Kane 4).

Since women’s sports are hardly covered in media, few people know who the star players are, who the teams are, or how competitive they are. The media tends not to broadcast women’s games as much as men’s, and if a game is televised it is at inopportune times when nobody is watching.

Women’s sports aren't even treated as second best in our society. Pro sports, men’s collegiate sports, and even male high school sports are more popular on television than most women’s sports. Media doesn't cover women’s sports because they aren't as popular as men’s. This is because there is such a poor relationship between women’s sports and money that the media doesn't want to waste their time covering something that people won’t pay money for. Many people don’t enjoy watching women’s sports because they aren't usually as fast paced as men’s, there is the stereotype that women lack the skill that men have, and there is a lack of knowledge about women’s sports so people don’t want to take the time to watch.

The media cater to public perception of male vs. female sports and in doing so foster the continuing bias against female sports.  A recent study found that the reporting of women’s sports was not reported as much as men’s in network sport’s news during early evening and late night television (Cooky 4).  Sport’s almost always led with the men’s sports story (Cooky 4).  More airtime was spent on out of season men’s sports than in season female sports (Cooky 4).  Television news and sport’s highlight shows do more than reflect fan interest.  “They also help generate and sustain enthusiasm for the sports they cover, thus becoming a key link in fans’ emotional connection to the agony and ecstasy of spectator sports” (Cooky 26).

There are certain instances in which the media does cover women’s sport. When a sporting event is big enough, media will cover it and try to advertise it to the public. A few examples include the women’s NCAA basketball tournament, the WNBA Finals, women’s Olympic sports, and usually any other championship game or tournament. It seems that the media is trying to expand the coverage of women sports. There are cable networks, like ESPN, who are covering more games, advertising more games, and promoting more teams than in the past.

I think that media should cover women’s sports just as much as men’s. People may not watch it as much at first, but I think that is due to the lack of knowledge and promotion of women’s sports. Fans will identify with local teams if they have exposure in the media. Promotion of the stars will work in women’s sports just like in men’s sports. An example is Jenny Finch, who did for women’s softball like what Michael Jordan did for basketball. Additional exposure would benefit both the media and women’s sports. Women’s sports would benefit because there would be more recognition about the sports, there stars, and their stories. The media would benefit because more interest translates into more dollars. Women’s sports can be as captivating, as competitive, as compelling, and just as profitable as men’s sports.

Works Cited

Cheryl Cooky, and Messner, Michael. GENDER IN TELEVISED SPORTS. 2010. Print. https://dornsifecms.usc.edu/assets/sites/80/docs/tvsports.pdf.

Kane, Mary Jo. "Sex Sells Sex, Not Women." Nation. 27 2011: n. page. Print. http://www.thenation.com/article/162390/sex-sells-sex-not-womens-sports

Gender Inequality in Financials

Professional and college sport programs continue to provide unequal funding for women when compared to their male counterparts.  We see this happen in most sports and at most levels; however, we have also noted there have been a few exceptions to this.

There are many different statistics to prove male athletes receive more money at both the professional and college levels.  There is a large difference in professional sports.  For example, the minimum salary for a WNBA in 2011 was $35,880 and the maximum of $103,500 for a six-year veteran who qualified for a maximum contract.  At the same time, the minimum salary for a NBA rookie for the 2010-1011 season was $473,604.  At four years in the NBA, the male player would earn $885,120 and $1.3 million for ten years in the league.  Of course, we know there are the very talented male players making $10 to $20 million a year and some even in excess of those amounts.    In professional golf, the average salary of the top 250 male golfers on the PGA Tour was about $1.1 million in 2010 compared to $34,500 for the top 100 ladies on the women’s tour.  This difference is a combination of prize money available as well as events held.  A few professional sports including marathon events and tennis have closed the gap in prize money for females and males.  In 2005, the New York City Marathon earnings were equal for both men and women.  In 2007, Wimbledon provided equal prize purses to both men and woman and now all four Grand Slam events offer equal prize money to the champions.

There is also a large discrepancy in money allocated to men vs. women in college sports.  This happens even despite Title IX.  Title IX is a portion of an Amendment to give equal opportunities and treatment for women and men.  Although the gap has gotten smaller, male athletes continue to get more college athletic scholarship money than women.  Currently approximately 55% of college athletic money goes to male athletes compared to 45% for women.    A few additional examples include the fact that only about thirty eight percent of college sport operating dollars and thirty three percent of a college athletic team recruitment spending are allocated for female athletes while the remainder is allocated to male athletes.  There is also a significant discrepancy in the dollars given to college coaches for female vs. male sports.  In the NCAA Division I, the head coaches for women’s teams made an average of $850,400 while the men’s team average was $1,783,100.  That equals more than two times the average for men.

There are many reasons why this large discrepancy of funding, prize money and salaries exists.  I believe the largest reason for the discrepancy is somewhat obvious as the demand to watch women’s sports is much smaller than men’s sports.  There is much more demand for spectators to watch male sporting events whether at the college level or professional ranks.  This is evident in not only in the sales of tickets but also advertisement revenue and the revenue received from television broadcasts.  This is evident from the “Televised Sports Manhood Formula” study, which shows 38.6% of commercials were directed towards men only while only 3.9% were directed towards only women.  The targeted market is males who are watching male sports.  Another example includes Super Bowl commercial costs.  These costs are around $3.5 million which is obviously a ridiculous amount of money.  Women’s events are unable to generate revenue like this.  Lastly attendance attributes to this large difference.  The overall average attendance per WNBA game was approximately eight thousand per game in 2011 compared to eighteen thousand for the NBA.

I ultimately believe athletes on average should be paid based on the fan’s demand to see the athlete whether on television, the internet, or at games as well as the revenue they generate for their respective team.  So I agree with the fact that men athletes get paid largely more than women athletes but we must find a solution in order to make these salaries more even and fair to both sides.  The only way for this to happen is to make women’s sports as popular or desired as men’s sports.  Women athletes do not generate the same amount of money for their teams or sports as male athletes.  Ticket sales, clothing purchases and other fan expenditures are not nearly as significant for the female as they are for the male athletes.  In addition due to the smaller following, female athletic events are unable to generate the advertising and television revenue to support additional money for the female athletes.  So for all of these reasons it is clear that the only way they will ever receive the same salaries would be to promote women’s sports and get a larger following behind them.

Note: The references came from
The Unquatifiable Gap in Women's Sports

http://guysguidetofeminism.blogspot.com/2009/11/unquantifiable-gap-in-womens-sports.html

Womens Sports Foundation

www.womenssportsfoundation.org

What is the Average Salary of a Basketball Player
http://www.livestrong.com/article/347157-what-is-the-average-salary-of-a-basketball-player/#ixzz2C4a51Q6B

Average Salary of a Professional Golfer

http://www.ehow.com/info_8140568_average-salary-professional-golfer.html

Gender Inequalities in College Sport

The majority of sports fans can tell you who won the national championship for both football and basketball last year, Alabama and Kentucky. Naturally with that being said if someone were to ask you the question, who won the basketball national championship last year? Your immediate thought is most likely the men’s national championship. This is because men’s college basketball gets way more coverage than women’s, just as it does for the majority of all male and female sports at the college level. However, female sports have made great strides within college athletics and it is nothing short of spectacular what has been done in such little time. Unfortunately, title IX, the main rule that has led to these advances and prevented sexual discrimination is now the cause of it.

For as long as I can remember there has always been the debate and cultural issues of the lack of equality in sport. Men receive way more advantages, opportunities, coverage and everything else than women do. This is because culturally many sports are seen as masculine and women do not belong. This cultural norm is very outdated and unjust, which is why equal opportunity should be granted. This is exactly what Title IX has been successfully doing since its enactment in 1972. Title IX is a law that forces all federally funded colleges to provide equal opportunity to both male and female athletes based upon their ratio of enrollment as undergraduates. Equal opportunity consists of participation as well as benefits, facilities, scholarships, etc. Overall this has been extremely effective and truly given women way more of an opportunity in the world of college athletics. According to the national coalition for Girls and Women in Education, there are approximately 163,255 more female college athletes than in 1972 and the difference between the number of male and female athletes has gone from 140,407 down to 63,112. Now obviously this is not a perfectly even ratio but the differences that have been made are substantial. Because of Title IX there are now hundreds to thousands of stories of girls who may not have even been able to attend college due to the expenses, but were offered scholarships and help because of Title IX and their sports. This is how it should be, if you are skilled in a sport and have the ability to compete at the upper level you should be given the opportunity being male or female.

With all this being said, Title IX is definitely not perfect and is at the point where it needs reforming. The current problem is that now the males have become the subject of sexual discrimination within college athletic programs. This is because in order to meet the quotas required by Title IX, according to college sports scholarships, many schools are just cutting back men’s programs rather than expanding women’s. Often times numerous males are turned away from JV teams because the corresponding women’s program has just enough to fill the varsity. Also, the main problem here is the popularity of women’s sport as a whole. I am all for males and females having equal opportunity but the issue is the cost compared to the revenue of men’s versus women’s sport. As a current college student at a Big Ten university there is numerous male and female college sports here on campus. I personally however have only been to one women’s sporting event compared to the dozens of male sporting events I have attended and I can confidently say this ratio is consistent with the majority of my friends and peers here on this campus. This is because culturally women’s sports are not followed or given nearly as much attention as male sports. Therefore, as a college student I completely understand why they would rather cut back a male program, rather then add another female program that is most likely just going to cost them money.  What really needs to be addressed is the problem with football and the Title IX rules. Football is a huge revenue generator for most college athletic programs, however, its problem is that the number of male athletes is huge and there is no counter female football team to equal the numbers. This forces college athletic programs to add numerous other female sports to equal out the numbers from football and often times cut other male programs. Which is why football should not be factored into the Title IX equation.

Overall, the number of opportunities for females at the college level has increased substantially over the past 40 years. Unfortunately, the main problem they still have is the coverage they receive as well as their popularity. Until this changes culturally and women sports can start to bring in more revenue, the less popular male sports are going to pay the price. Which is why the current rules of Title IX need to be reformed. It has accomplished huge amounts for women in college sports thus far and that will not change, but it currently is detrimental to college athletics.

Note: The references came from

-       The National Coalition for Women and Girl in Education

http://ncwge.org/TitleIX40/Athletics.pdf

-       College Sports Scholarhips

http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/title-ix.htm

Inequality within Professional sports

Gender inequality is greatly exaggerated in professional sports. This is best seen when

comparing male versus female athlete’s media exposure and salaries. Over 40% of men in

America watches female sports. Yet Sports Illustrated dedicated only 3 covers in 2011 to

woman, and one was the swimsuit issue.  I believe that, professional female athletes should be treated as equals and given equal recognition by the media and equal relative pay. Male professional sports are broadcasted more on television, radio and the internet than female sports. Sports like the NFL, NBA, MLB and NASCAR are among the top sports covered and top money producers.“Despite a sea of change in women’s athletics over the past three decades, men’s sports still receive more than 90% of the coverage on television; news and sports highlight shows, according to a study co-authored by a USC professor (Stutliff Ushua). Yes, I get that the media is not in it for some higher moral purpose like fairness or equality. Some say“why give women equal support when they don’t generate the big bucks that these male sports do”?I think that if female sports were to be given equal air time and news print, fans will watch more, and you would see a serious increase in revenues.Even now with the unequal media coverage 40% of males in American watch women's sport, that's a huge number considering how hard it is to find professional female athletes on magazines covers, television and radio. On almost any night you can find a football, basketball or baseball game on television or radio. Likewise, the local newspaper is filled with sports dominated males and their herculean feats. Female athletes tend to be found in a small forgotten corner of the sports section fighting with advertisement space. The only women's sports you can possibly see on the major television channels are tennis and sometimes golf. Over the past 20 years women have gotten more recognition and been thrown a few scraps of media coverage (on the air and in print), but not as much as men. Maybe it’s time we did. Just think about how many more men and woman would watch and become fans of women's sports if they had better access to watch, and not just stuck on some obscure cable channel.

Another gender inequality can be highlighted when looking at salaries of male versus female athletes. Granted, taking into account the differing types of sports, the punishment the athlete takes in relation to that sport, and the revenues the sports produce; the discrepancies are just to great. For example, a WNBA player in the 2005 season, had a minimum salary of $31,200, and a maximum salary of $89,000, with the team salary cap at $673,000. Their male counterparts in the NBA had a minimum salary of $385,277 and a maximum salary of $15.3 million, and a team cap of $46 million. Another example would be in the world of soccer. The U.S womans soccer team took 3^rd in the 2003 World Cup and each player was given $25,000, if they had won the Cup they each would have received $58,000. The U.S. men’s soccer team in 2002 reached the quarterfinals in the world Cup and received $200,000 each (www.Womensportsfoundation.com). The Networks, media and our on attitudes about true equality is what allow certain sports to thrive.

I have a personal passion for softball, and enjoy the fact that the professional softball leagues have seen resurgence in television air time. I don’t appreciate the fact that the average female softball professional is paid roughly $25,000 a year when her counterpart in baseball can be paid into the millions. The lack of a respectable salary limits the careers for female softball players, like in other female sports. We like to talk about the rights and wrongs of equality, but we look the other way when it comes to sports and our sports heroes. It’s time that the media helped elevate professional female athletes by making our own female heroes. Women in sports are making huge strides to become equal, and they need to be given the proper recognition that they deserve. Who knows, maybe the next Babe Ruth of woman's softball is just sitting out there, wanting something to be passionate about and sees a professional softball. This may not happen if we don't continue to stress the importance of equal recognition on television, radio, print and blogs like these for women.  We need to get this ball rolling, but it’s going to be hard, especially if there is no one there to push it.

Gender Inequalities Growing Up

"You throw like a girl” “Girls can’t play football!” These are two of the most common phrases heard during your childhood in relation to sports. There are many assumptions that if you can’t throw a baseball correctly then you are throwing in a feminine way that is less superior then its masculine counterpart. If a girl wants to play football, she is being seen as masculine only because the sport of football is generally coined as being only for boys and is too rough for girls. These are all just assumptions made by our culture and there is no historical evidence that hold truth to them. Growing up, young children are influenced by many things in their everyday lives and one of the most growing influences in a child’s life today is athletes. Boys and girls idolize many professional athletes and dream of being in their shoes one day. But there are many obstacles that stand in their way, namely the gender inequalities that are portrayed when they are participating in the sports they enjoy.

Many times when we think of women in sport we tend to look at the current participation of those women in college and professional sports. What we need to consider is the coming of women participating in sports before they are seen in the professional realm. Consider this: Did girls get the same opportunities to participate in sports when they were children as did boys? They answer to that question is clear, No. When we were younger, most of us participated in youth soccer leagues before we were ten years old. And the majority of us can attest to the fact that we were on co-ed teams and were always playing behind the boys. If you were a girl at this time period and wanted to play a sport such as football or wrestling, you were told that you couldn’t because those are “boys” sports. But what is it that makes it a “boys” sport? The physicality of such sports is the main reason why these sports are termed “boys” sports and it is thought that only masculine boys should play these masculine sports and it is not socially acceptable for a feminine girl to participate in them. Because these sports are seen as masculine and too rough, girls are refrained from the opportunity to participate in them. Ashley Huggins and Shirley Randell discuss in a scholarly article that they produced that ever since they can remember, boys were encouraged to be outdoors and participate in sporting practices while girls were encouraged to participate in indoor activities such as reading and home duties. (The Contribution of Sports to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, page 2) But as the years have progressed we are seeing that more and more girls wanting to participate in these typical “boy” sports and they are given that opportunity. If you really consider the popular sports in today’s society: football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, soccer, track and field, a good majority of them are male centered in the media and the women’s counterpart of the sports are set on the back burner. For instance, softball and women’s basketball are less important in many people’s eyes as are men’s basketball and baseball. But, as young children, both boys and girls are eager to participate in as many sports as they can. At a young age, girls have the opportunity to play all of these sports even if they are “boys” sports, but as they get older and enter into grade school, those opportunities diminish and they are only allowed to play certain sports that are viewed to be feminine.

What we see is that as young children, both boys and girls are given many opportunities to participate in a wider range of sports than they will be allowed to play in their future. In today’s society, girls are given more opportunities to participate in even the masculine sports but are cut off from doing so as they get older. In the same sense, boys are allowed to participate in girls’ sports such as dance and gymnastics, although it is more common for girls to play boys sports than boys play girls sports.  Many camps and clubs promote the participation of both boys and girls but somewhat acts as a tease to these children because they may potentially fall in love with the sport but will then be forced to stop playing it because social norms prohibit them from continuing. In all actuality, physicality has nothing to do with who could play certain sports, it all has to do with social acceptability.

It may seem that at a young age, girls and boys are given many of the same opportunities in sport. For example, girls are allowed to wrestle and participate in football camps. But, as they get older it becomes unacceptable for them to continue in those “masculine” sports. It may seem unfair that they are allowed to participate in whatever they would like at a young age, but then be forced to stop their participation once they reach a certain age level. It is when they reach that grade school level where we start to see gender inequalities and discrimination. And those inequalities will only get worse as they get older. So, I encourage all young girls to participate in whatever they find appealing even if it is a “boys” sport because sooner or later they will not have those opportunities!

Note: the scholarly article came from: http://www.ifuw.org/rwanda/media/women_sports.pdf, by Allison Huggins and Shirley Randell.