Unveiling Women's Power

Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball, and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. While compensation for women has improved over the past decade, the gap still extends to even the world’s highest-paid players.

As women's sports continue to bring in fans, marketing, and entertainment these women finally say  enough is enough, taking steps to close the massive wage gap that has been long overdue. In 2016, five USWNT players a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC never published a response, but the players received a 30% raise among other benefits in 2017. With this one step, 28 of their fellow players joined the class-action suit against U.S. Soccer in 2018. This continued to bring more awareness to the unfair pay for a team that at this time was doing better than their male counterparts. Finally, in 2022, the U.S. Soccer reached a settlement with the women's team where they received a $24 million settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation, short of the $67 million they were seeking. This agreement ensures that men and women will be paid at an equal rate going forward.

Now, in the world of social media, online presence, and media coverage are extremely relevant. Media coverage of women's athletics is growing, but the way the media puts certain athletes in the spotlight and relegates others to the shadows can explain a lot about the role of sport in our society and how it relates to gender. While the increased coverage is a huge step forward for the continued visibility and growth of women’s sports, these events continue to remain underrepresented across major media platforms. A lack of consistent coverage has continued to place a strong emphasis on individual players, teams, and leagues being able to generate organic interest and increased fandom. Further, coverage is not always created equal.

Today, The USWNT played in the "She Believes Cup" here in Atlanta, Georgia. A crowd of 50.644 set the attendance record for a USWNT friendly on home soil, but it was not the only cause for celebration for the hosts. Among the standouts on Saturday was Mallory Swanson, who returned to the USWNT 364 days after tearing her patella tendon and created several impressive chances in her nearly 90-minute shift. 

Media coverage of women’s sports has nearly tripled, according to a recent report by Wasserman. The average share of sports media coverage across broadcasts, streaming, social media, and digital publications has risen to 15% for 2022, based on their report. Impressive coverage trends for women’s sports across new and emerging media platforms such as streaming and social media. As younger generations of fans are turning to streaming platforms such as ESPN+, Peacock, Amazon Prime, and Paramount+ at high rates, the roughly 22,000 hours of women’s sports coverage provided across a variety of streaming platforms in 2022 is very encouraging.

The first-ever network to focus on female athletes, the Women’s Sports Network, launched Wednesday, offering 24/7 streaming of original programming, competitions, documentaries, and a daily studio show “Game On.” The new network comes at a time when investment and viewership numbers for women’s sports are on the rise, yet women only receive a small fraction of media coverage. “It’s a significant step towards narrowing the gap in media coverage for female athletes, for female sports,” said Angela Ruggiero, CEO and co-founder of Sports Innovation Lab and four-time ice hockey Olympian, who is on the board of advisors for the new network.

I got the chance to talk with a fellow senior student-athlete committed to playing their respective sport at the next level. Along with creating media platforms like "Game On," I got the chance to sit down with DJ Harvey and get his perspective on women's athletics. The reason I decided to ask a male classmate was because I was interested in learning all angles and perspectives about women's athletics. While talking with DJ, we discussed his senior capstone project as well. He is creating a recruiting website that helps make the recruiting process a little easier for all student-athletes.

After talking with DJ and hearing how he and his family try to work within the community to be apart of growing women's athletics, one thing he said that really stood out to me was, "I think that one misconception of something that people overlook is that a lot of time with the NCAA it's still about that dollar bill and ultimately it's all about a platform. You have some incredible talents out there right now some incredible programs like South Carolina and the more they put on the more attention they're going to get. I think they have to work a lot harder to get that attention, which is the unfair part, but as the world becomes more media influenced I think subsequently they'll get more attention as they deserve." 

Before talking with DJ, I worried about what type of response I would get from a male athlete because there are people out there who are not willing to see how important women's athletics is to females, but after hearing his response to my question on media representation, I was grateful for the time and answers that I received from him. This opened my eyes to a new perspective, seeing that although it is truly unfair with amount of hard work and energy that women's athletics has put in, eventually the world will see how truly special women's athletics is.

One of the things that sparked my interest in this topic was hearing classmates talk about the non-importance of women's athletics. This got me thinking about all the stereotypes that I hear, whether it be in school, the community, and on social media. Stereotypes of any kind can mentally, and emotionally take a toll on those who are impacted by them.  I got the chance to talk with the female athletics trainer and athletic director, who both have significant voices within our school community.  

While I was not able to sit down with Coach Molly Miller (Athletic Director at CCES) I did get the chance to email her and ask her some question and hear about what its like to be a female in a male dominated profession. My question to her was, "Have you in your athletic or coaching career ever been affected by stereotypes of women in athletic positions?" and her response was, "Yes, I think at some point in time all female athletes are affected by stereotypes of females in athletics roles. Early in my career as an AD, I was often treated as if my voice and opinion did not matter because I was a female. While at some degree it bothered me, I also didn’t let it deter me from the work I was doing. I had to continue to show up and voice my opinions. Over time, I earned the respect of my colleagues and across the state but this has taken time.” 

This made me curious to know about how stereotypes of women become a thing in the first place. "I think from the beginning–push for women’s sports, push to be treated fairly, and create equal opportunities, etc. I work to ensure our female athletes are afforded the same opportunities as the male athletes at CCES. I keep trying to be a role model of female leadership. I challenge the status quo when I see inequalities.” said Coach Miller. 

Athletics is a major part of not only my school community, but society as a whole. Taking care of our bodies is essential to being the best athlete we can be whether our gender is male or female. Since, I hope to major in athletic training in the future, I wanted to take the time to sit with Angie Johnson who is one of our schools athletics trainers. Before sitting down with her, I learned that she played softball in college and because she had this experience of playing at the collegiate level, I wanted to hear how inequalities and stereotypes of women's athletics impacted her mindset on women's athletics.

Sitting down with Angie, DJ, Coach Miller and Coach Overstreet, they all had wonderful and amazing information and interest in growing the world of women's athletics. One question that I asked all of my people was, "How can we continue to make women's voices be heard, and motivate the next generation to continue what those women in 1972 were able to do."

That starts by being "role model's for the next generation. Continue to bring exposure to those women who are doing amazing things in their sport, but also continue to be determined in athletics and for the sport you love." said Coach Overstreet. As I continue this journey, I notice how many young girls are just like me when I was there age. Loving to play a sport, but don't have the confidence to continue further. One thing that I focus on as a coach and as a player is setting the right example for young girls to follow. 

For all the high school students who are about to continue there athletics career at the collegiate level, "Never forget what you bring to the table. We bring a lot to the table, and I don't even know if we as women give ourselves enough credit for what we bring to the table it's unfortunate that we have to do so much more to be seen, but just let that empower you that you are that much more of what you bring to the table.” said Coach Overstreet. There are many people who will continue to try and bring you down, but there is something special in everyone that has the ability to continue and try their best.

Encouraging "Generation Next" is also about looking at who is changing the game for women now. The Portland Thorns signed forward Sophia Smith to a new contract with the club through the 2025 season with an option for an extension until 2026. Additionally, the deal for the 23-year-old also makes Smith the highest paid player annually, according to ESPN.

During March Madness, these women's basketball teams continue to shatter records. Caitlyn Clark, Angle Reese, Dawn Staley with the South Carolina basketball team, break through barricades. The most recent Iowa v. LSU elite eight march madness game was watched by over 12.3 million people. As these women continue to play the sport they love they are inspiring younger girls to chase after their dreams.