From the professional sports world to our high school teams, mens athletics receive better support and more attention than womens. Over time, womens sports have progressively gained more press and support, but it is nowhere close to being equal. Why?
In 1972, Title IX leveled the playing field for high schoolers, mandating equal funds for mens and womens athletics. As a result, women’s sports flourished.
But that renaissance for women’s sports has since stagnated, if not declined. An estimated twenty million people watched the women’s World Cup Final in 2015. Although that number seems massive, the men’s World Cup Final in 2014 was viewed by a whopping one billion people. But why is it that we watch mens sports more than we do womens?
What most people say is that men are simply harder, better, faster, stronger—that they are at a different level. Men play at a faster pace, are more aggressive and appear to be more capable than women athletically. This, of course, is a gross generalization, but it is usually accepted as truth.
However, the need to see the biggest and strongest specimens compete is not the real reason we are drawn to sports.
The real things we like to watch are the stories, the character, the team work, the passion of the game—that’s what we really want to see. Fans love players with great back stories. Women have equally incredible back stories as men—sometimes even more spectacular. Kerri Walsh, 3-time Olympic Gold Medalist, is a mother of three and won one of her three medals while pregnant! That is something that male athletes will literally never be able to achieve. Walsh illustrates the character and resiliency of women athletes.
And that is what we truly want out of sports—facts of overwhelming courage and commitment—something to shock and inspire us all. It doesn’t matter if the participant is male or female; in some ways, we should look at women athletes more because they have to work even harder in order to overcome the patriarchy. From girls high school athletics all the way up to the professional level, women deserve more attention in the world of athletics.