The coverage of women’s sports is significantly lower than males and has limited media coverage. Due to this lack of investment and lower quality disadvantage, it sparks issues between the equality of both gender sports.
Women’s sports deserve more attention in order for both male and female sports to be equal in investment, media coverage and social biases.
First, women’s sports have much fewer investments put in than males in which for decades their teams operated with minimum financial foundations and limited investment in marketing. Due to this, women’s sports receive significantly less media coverage than males do and fewer high-paying opportunities. This results in many professional women athletes earning less than the average male athlete from their sport. According to an article by Jaylin Hardin, he says, “Another issue in the professional sports world is that the women’s leagues are paid less than their male counterparts. For example, NBA players receive 50% of shared revenue from their teams and leagues, while WNBA players receive only 20%. In numbers, the average NBA player’s salary is $7.5 million a year. The average WNBA player’s salary? $116,000 a year.” This shows how much of a difference it is between the salary between male and women sports all just because of a gender. There is much cruelty rooted in stereotypes that label sports as a masculine activity instead of something exciting for everyone. These biases create the idea that women’s athleticism is not as entertaining as for men which is the reason why women are facing pay inequality and even fewer resources.
Despite all these factors considered, many people believe that since male sports have been around for longer and have always been popular among people; it immediately makes one better than the other. However, women worked very hard to even have their own program, and for that alone, they should have the same opportunities men do. Creating equal opportunities between both boys and girls will lead to better sport programs and overall make things fair for everyone.
There are many ways to improve this issue. For one, there should be more media coverage among female athletes in which girl athletes get the same attention boys do as well. There should also be an improvement in financial investments where both genders get equal pay and sponsorship opportunities. By following, sharing and promoting female athletes on social media platforms to create public awareness, it will greatly impact the number of people who support female sports.
Overall, women’s sports deserve the same amount of attention as male sports because it stops the harmful stereotypes and shows that female athletes’ hard work is paying off.
