According to the Oxford Dictionary (Google), a sport is defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. However, that definition only partially covers what a sport actually is. A sport is more than just a game or a competition; it’s what brings people together from long and far. It’s what gets people active; it’s what entertains us; it’s even what brings together people who know nothing about sports when their team wins the Olympics. As much as sports bring people together, people still manage to divide treatment based on gender. Women in athletics, especially in male-dominated sports, have received unfair treatment and appreciation for a long time now.
Recently, an incident occurred in which, after the USA men’s hockey team won an Olympic gold medal, there was a locker-room phone call involving President Trump. During the conversation where President Trump invited the men’s team to his State of the Union speech, he said an alarming and distasteful statement, “we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team…I do believe I would probably be impeached.” Even though the women’s team was incredibly dominant throughout the Olympics with an undefeated record, outscoring opponents 33-2, President Trump’s statement makes it seem like he was apprehensive of inviting them and is solely doing it to not anger US citizens. After this statement, the locker room burst into laughter, showing the misogynistic views of men’s hockey, but also sports as a whole.
For years, women have continuously experienced underrepresentation within sports cultures. Even as an industry, sports are male-dominated. This is typically because of things like women getting fewer opportunities, less funding, and less coverage. A thirty-year study found that when not including espnW, women’s sports are only covered for around five percent in televised media, online news, and social media (Cooky et al., 2021). This clearly represents the sparse difference between coverage for women’s versus men’s sports, as men’s sports are covered around ninety percent in all three categories. Due to this, it makes it harder for people to watch and support women’s sports due to the inaccessibility. This leads to women’s sports getting less funding because of the fact that they don’t bring in as much money. When the NCAA examined Title IX, it found that men’s programs got more than double the amount that women’s programs did. Further proving that women’s sports are severely underrepresented in the world today (The Associated Press, 2022).
Now, some people may look at this more global side of equality in sports and say, “Well, this doesn’t affect me personally,” or say, “This only happens in national sports.” As much as we can feel out of touch with the equality in professional women’s sports because they are at such a high level, this kind of mistreatment happens to women in our local communities. Think back to gym class in elementary school. Did you ever notice that the boys would never pass the ball to a girl? Even if the girl was better than some of the boys in the class, some boys would continue to force a pass to their other guy friends. They would rather jeopardize the game than pass to the girl that has a better chance of scoring. I know this is something I experienced often and although we might not all be the most athletic people in the world, it hurts to see guys treat you as invisible on the court when you have a fighting chance to play. What about on game day? As a college student, I love to go watch college sports. However, I can’t help but notice the stark difference in attendance between the women’s and men’s games. I’ll see sold out arenas for men’s basketball and hockey during the season. But when the women’s team goes on, the attendance cuts more than half. This is potentially due to women not getting prime time opportunities like men, as seen in an article from the Huntington News, but also due to people’s own biases (Yohe, 2022). Ice Hockey Central states that “gender bias remains one of the biggest obstacles, with many people still viewing women’s hockey as inferior to men’s hockey” (Ice Hockey Central, 2024). It truly is disheartening to see and hear this because these women have worked just as hard, sometimes even harder, than the men who are in the same sport. All for them not to get the proper support from their classmates.Â
Now with all of this information, what do we do about it? There are a couple of small things that we as a society can do to help support women’s sports and give them the recognition that they deserve. The first thing that you can do is simply go to women’s games. They may be at slightly different times than men’s games, but they are just as interesting, if not more interesting, as the men’s games. Another way to support is, if you are able, volunteer at women’s games. This can be anywhere from coaching to handing out juice boxes at your local softball game. Sharing knowledge with the rising generations allows little girls to feel empowered in their sport and continue with it instead of getting discouraged and quitting altogether. You can even show your support by keeping up with women’s sports on social media, posting about it, and telling your friends and family about what’s going on in women’s sports. Lastly, and probably the most important way to give women in sports what they deserve is to educate yourself on women’s sports. Learn about the history, challenges, and achievements that women of the past and present have gone through. If you can stay up to date on all of the men’s statistics, I’m sure you can keep yourself knowledgeable on what is happening in women’s sports today. Hilary Knight, captain of the US women’s hockey team, really drives this last tip home by stating how, to fix the support given to women in sports, we need to “really focus on how we talk about women, not only in sport but in industry … Women aren’t less than, and our achievements shouldn’t be overshadowed by anything else other than how great they are” (Hall, 2026). So with that, I hope to see more people at the next women’s game on campus, and more support for women in general, because these hard-working women deserve our utmost support. After all, everybody watches women’s sports, so why aren’t you?