The coverage of women's professional sports

Local news outlets spend only 3% of their airtime covering women’s sports, and it is only 2% of ESPN's coverage

Have you ever turned on the television to watch the WNBA, NWSL, NWHL, NRL, or LPGA? Probably not. It's also likely that you may not have even heard of some of these sports leagues. And that is what is the main problem when it comes to the coverage of women's sports. It's not that women's sports "aren't as good" or "are undeserving of being on television", but rather that they haven't been given the opportunity to be on T.V. The media has formed our opinion to believe that women's sports are inferior to men, without these female athletes even really being given the chance to shine to change the vast majority of the population's minds.

The media hasn't given women's sports the same attention that men's sports have been granted. Even dogs and horses appeared on television before women's sports!

The interest in women's sports is there. Many large events, like the T20 World Cup in 2020, or the 2019 Women's World Cup, reined in billions of viewers. But somehow, not nearly the same attention is being given to women's sports leagues, and the focus is on men's. Why? Well, take the WNBA for an example. This league, while it has it's own commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, is still owned by the NBA. Therefore, the NBA has a big say on how operations will run in the WNBA, Also, the NBA's commissioner is Adam Silver, a very influential man, being named No. 1 on the publication’s annual list of the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business, one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, among many other accomplishments. Although not a bad person, since he is a man, we can presume that he will act in the interests of other men. Plus, since he is commissioner of the NBA primarily, it is unfortunately expected that the WNBA will be put on the back burner, and not given as much attention.

Additionally, when the media does decide to portray women's sports, the portrayal is very different than the portrayal of men's sports. As Maggie Martens, a sports journalist puts it, “[men's sports] have higher production values, higher-quality coverage, and higher-quality commentary ... When you watch women’s sports, and there are fewer camera angles, fewer cuts to shot, fewer instant replays, yeah, it’s going to seem to be a slower game, [and] it’s going to seem to be less exciting.” The media also chooses to focus more on the private lives of female athletes or their looks than their true athletic ability. This further adds to the notion that women aren't as good at sports, because their athletic abilities simply aren't talked about. Researchers hypothesize that "perhaps, sports fans are not interested in women’s sports because they are covered significantly less than men’s sports, indicating that they are less important and less interesting than men’s sports and other topics that are covered more frequently in the media".

Luckily, the media has become better over the past few years about portraying women in a more positive light, although there are still great strides to be made. They used to actually use camera shots and angles that would expose these women's bodies and make it more interesting to the male viewer. Though it's great that the media has lessened how often they use these angles now, it still results in another issue. Society has almost organized sports into categories of either male or female. Now, women who play "male" sports, such as hockey or basketball, are often assumed to be gay. There are always different stereotypes associated with women's sports that don't seem to be associated with male sports as often. A female athlete should be evaluated on her athletic ability, not her personal life and choices.

In conclusion, the coverage of women's sports is a large barrier to equality in sports. Women need to have access to more representation on television and a better representation in general.