Something that really struck me from the reading that we did not quite get to touch on in class was the lack of women's sports coverage. I will be the first to admit, I don't really care much when it comes to sports besides football & the Olympics. However I found an interesting journal article entitled "Gender Bias in American Sports: Lack of Opportunity, Lack of Administrative Positions & Lack of Coverage in Women's Sports."An important factor to remember is the definition of gender bias, which is the favor one of the sexes specifically because of gender. One point that particular stuck with me through this article is that women have always been seen as only being suitable for specific sports that focus on aesthetics like cheerleading, ice skating, gymnastics, etc. Although it makes sense that women are not physically built the same as men to compete in a sport like American football, it is unfair that we are forced to pick up an alternative sport which is not necessarily equal. Women should be allowed to play the exact same sports men are. Even though they are given their own leagues, coverage lacks on their games. Titles are also an interesting point to bring up. Why must the women's basketball association be called the WNBA? Shouldn't that mean that men's basketball association should be MNBA? Instead they are just the "National Basketball Association." Sports are affected by the media coverage in that sponsors are not as openly available to women sports as they are men. The article points out that this is directly because of viewer ratings and women sports in general do not have the same viewer ratings as men, meaning less sponsors. The article is very extensive so I would recommend to anyone who is interested in the topic to read the entire thing. It goes into way more depth than I could ever get into. Nike even promotes the idea that it must be women vs. men in one of their commercials.
Overall I think it's important to note that women have been making significant changes to women's sports, it has just been a very slow pace of change. Just want to leave this post with a quote from the article by Erik F. Pearson "Women's sports is caught between a rock and a hard place. If they advocate for stronger pay, men come in and take over the coaching positions. If they ask the public to look at their athletic skills, there will be no fan base. If they ask us to look at other parts of their bodies, they are thought to be prostituting themselves to the highest bidder, all in the name of recognition."
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