Women Changing the Game

When it comes to the way women’s sports are embraced and viewed around the world, there is much room for change and progression.

Recently, women’s leagues like the WNBA and the NSWL, as well as the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team saw their players take legal action to get better treatment and pay. The WNBA created a contractual binding agreement (CBA) with the players for better wages, more sponsorship and marketing, and better travel conditions for players. The USWNT sued the U.S. Soccer Federation on claims of purposeful gender discrimination.

Empowerment in women’s sports aligns with the empowerment of women in society. Stars like Megan Rapinoe, Serena Williams, Elena Delle Donne, and Symone Biles are popular figures, and more recognized for their athletic abilities than past female athletes. With the rise of social media, women’s sports has proven to be of interest to many, but even when women’s sports draw large crowds and generated more revenue, women athletes are still paid less, and advertised and marketed less than their male counterparts. Less than four percent of all sports marketing is around women’s sports. When female athletes are marketed, the message is often more about their looks than their athletic ability.

“There were a lot of times when I was told that I appeared masculine,” All-American Tri-Athlete Erikca Wilson said, “not just by males, but by women who did not compete.”

“The body is not a particularly masculine thing,” CSUN Communication Studies Professor Ronda Picarelli said. “The body is a human entity.” But, she said, female athletes are often scrutinized for their muscular and defined physiques. The stigma around women’s bodies that are conditioned for sport is related to the misogyny of mainstream media.

Men don’t get this kind of comment about their bodies, Wilson said. “You hear this a lot with female athletes, and that’s very disparaging, for young female athletes that are coming up and looking at the way that the ‘standard, mainstream female body’ is supposed to look, as opposed to the female athlete.”

“You can’t tell that underneath [women athletes’] jerseys, they’re muscular,” Youth soccer coach Jocelyn Castillo said. “But when they go out to the ESPYS or some type of award, and you see them in a dress, then you get those comments like ‘oh she looks like a man, she looks like a man’. But she can’t perform well when she doesn’t have that muscle to body them out.”

The stigma and negative perception around female athletes’ bodies also play a role in the way young girls and women see themselves as athletes. This, along with the low wages, and the lack of marketing to make women’s leagues successful, may steer young girls away from pursuing sports seriously. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, at age 14, girls quit playing sports at twice the rate of boys, and by 17, over 50 percent of girls have given up their sport. The study says “67 percent of the girls said they felt society doesn’t encourage girls to play sports.

Women’s sports aren’t as popular as men’s for many reasons pertaining to advertising and marketing of women’s leagues. But there are still some who think the women’s sports may need some adjustments to make them more entertaining to watch. In softball, the fields are smaller to allow for more home runs; in women’s boxing, there are only ten rounds; in golf, women tee-off from a closer tee. Many have argued that basketball should follow suit—and that women should play on a lowered rim.

WNBA and two-time MVP Elena Delle Donne said if she could change one rule in the WNBA, it would be to “lower the rim”. She said lowering the rim isn’t just about the dunk; it’s also about the future of the game. Many feel that lowering the rim would cheapen or degrade the women’s game, because some women have been playing successfully on 10 foot rims. But Delle Donne said when they shortened the 3-point line for women, it didn’t cheapen the game.

Loyola Marymount University Women’s Basketball Coach Taja Edwards agreed, and said there is not much to lose by trying the rim at 9.5 feet.

Youth coach Castillo said she noticed that lowering the rim makes a difference in youth sports. She said she coaches in a league with a girls basketball team and a co-ed basketball team; the co-ed team plays on 9-foot rims, and the girls teams play on 8-foot rims. She said most of the young girls couldn’t shoot on 9-foot rims, so they lowered them, but in the co-ed league, they kept the rims at nine feet.

“Would people want to pay money to come watch something that they can dunk on themselves?” former college athlete Arielle Green asked. But LMU Coach Edwards says lowering the rim in the WNBA and women’s basketball, from 10 feet to 9.5 feet, would hardly be noticed by spectators, but would make it easier for more athletic women to get above the rim.

Still, rule changes don’t address the underlying issue of gender discrimination, and the refusal to properly market and advertise women’s sports to make them profitable, and easier for consumers to find and watch.

“There’s strength in numbers,” Wilson said. She said women’s sports needs advocates—male athletes and owners who will show their support during women’s games, and use their platform to open up the space for women in their respective sports.

Green pointed out that the media make sure to feature the many celebrities who show up at NBA games, like Snoop Dogg, Spike Lee and Jack Nicholson. She said that would benefit women’s sports if it had the same coverage. Late NBA star Kobe Bryant was one male athlete who showed a lot of support for women’s sports and women’s professional teams.

Lastly, women’s sports are often scheduled at times that make it difficult for an audience to tune in. Castillo said the Women’s World Cup Final was scheduled the same day as the Copa América final; she wanted to watch both games, and she knew other fans had the same dilemma.

She said it comes down to owners, leagues and federations communicating better, to give women’s sports an equal opportunity to be supported by fans.

Moderator: Brittany Smith

Producer: Cindy Rodriguez

Anchor: Amari Martin

Social Media Editor: Sayaka Yoshii

Reporters: Alex Guerrero, Amari Martin, Cindy Rodriguez, Brittany Smith and Sayaka Yoshii