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The participation of women and girls in
sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can ...
, physical fitness and
exercise Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic s ...
, has been recorded to have existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, and stage of economic development. While initially occurring informally, the modern era of organized sports did not begin to emerge either for men or women until the late industrial age. Until roughly
1870 Events January–March * January 1 ** The first edition of ''The Northern Echo'' newspaper is published in Priestgate, Darlington, England. ** Plans for the Brooklyn Bridge are completed. * January 3 – Construction of the Broo ...
, women's activities tended to be informal and recreational in nature, lacked rules codes, and emphasized physical activity rather than competition. Today, women's sports are more sport-specific and have developed into both amateur levels of sport and
professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...
levels in various places internationally, but is found primarily within
developed countries A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastru ...
where conscious organization and accumulation of wealth has occurred. In the mid-to-latter part of the 20th century, female participation in sport and the popularization of their involvement increased, particularly during its last quarter. Very few organized sports have been invented by women. Sports such as Newcomb ball,
netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
,
acrobatic gymnastics Acrobatic gymnastics is a competitive gymnastic discipline where partnerships of gymnasts work together and perform figures consisting of acrobatic moves, dance and tumbling, set to music. There are three types of routines; a 'balance' routine ...
and tumbling, and possibly
stoolball Stoolball is a sport that dates back to at least the 15th century, originating in Sussex, southern England. It is considered a "traditional striking and fielding sport" and may be an ancestor of cricket (a game it resembles in some respects), b ...
, are examples. More recent examples include Pamela Frey's sport of BasKua in Argentina, and the game of
Crokicurl Crokicurl is a Canadian winter sport invented by Liz Wreford and Leanne Muir of Public City Architecture in 2016 and first played in Winnipeg, Canada. The game is a large scale hybrid of curling and the board game Crokinole. Crokinole is a game i ...
by Liz Wreford and Leanne Muir in Canada. Sports involvement by women is more observable in well-developed countries and is often attributed to the presence of gender parity feminism, a
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
ideology popularized in the
United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Today the level of participation and performance still varies greatly by country and by sport. Despite an increase in women's participation in sport, the male demographic is still the larger of the two. These demographic differences are observed globally. Female dominated sports are the one exception. Girls' participation in sports tend to be higher in the United States than in other parts of the world like Western Europe and Latin America. Girls' participation in more violent contact sports is far less than that of their male counterparts. Two important divisions exist in relation to female sporting categories. These sports either emerged exclusively as an organized female sport or were developed as an organized female variant of a sport first popularized by a male demographic and therefore became a female category. In all but a few exceptional cases, such as in the case of
camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men only ...
, a female variant, or "women's game" uses the same name of the sport popularly played by men, but is classified into a different category which is differentiated by sex: men's or women's, or girls or boys. Female variants are widely common while organized female sports by comparison are rare and include team sports such as
netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
,
throwball Throwball is a non-contact ball sport played across a net between two teams of nine players on a rectangular court. Throwball is popular in Asia, especially on the Indian subcontinent, and was first played in India as a women's sport in Chenna ...
, artistic (née synchronized) swimming, and
ringette Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on ice hockey rinks using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organiz ...
. In female sports, the supposed benefits of gender parity, gender equity, and gender equality feminism are controversial. Men dominate the top elite spots in the vast majority of sports worldwide due to their biological advantages and the deliberate exclusion of male athletes prevents male participants from dominating for that reason. The conscious exclusion of male athletes from female sports has enabled them to produce an elite level of female athletes rather than male. In addition, female sports provide women and girls with a unique advantage by affording them the opportunity to feature as the sport's primary athletes rather than have to compete with males for attention, an achievement undermined by the inclusion of males. The Canadian sport of ringette, created in 1963, is the last team sport in history to have been created exclusively for the female sex. Today, female sports which have not yet become Olympic sports are blocked from
IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
acceptance due to the fact that they must meet the IOC's gender parity quotas. Because the large majority of organized sports are first developed by and played predominantly by males, IOC gender parity strictly favours female variants despite their inability to pioneer an original sports model. Female sports by comparison face direct discrimination from the IOC due to the fact that female sports have a predominately female athlete base. As a result, they face IOC rejection regardless of their numbers because they are considered to be inadequate due to their female oriented programs, meaning they "do not have enough men", despite men dominating organized sports internationally. The IOC's
Olympic Charter The Olympic Charter is a set of rules and guidelines for the organisation of the Olympic Games, and for governing the Olympic movement. Its last revision was on the 17th of July 2020 during the 136th IOC Session, held by video conference. Adop ...
currently rejects any sport that isn't widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on 4 continents, and by women in 40 countries and on 3 continents. Due to the IOC's gender parity quotas, sports with a predominately male participation rate rather than female are automatically given priority status by the IOC. In addition, the Charter puts pressure on female sports federations to campaign for the inclusion of more male players rather than female, incentivizes male participation opportunities rather than female, and shuts female dominated sports like
netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
out. Except in a few rare cases like women's professional
tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
, professional women's sport rarely provide competitors with a livable income. In addition, competing for media coverage of the women's variant of a sport which is primarily popular among males, creates complex barriers. More recently, there has been an increasing amount of interest, research, investment and production in regards to equipment design for female athletes. Interest and research involving the identification of sex-specific injuries, particularly though not exclusively among high performance female athletes, has increased as well, such as in the case of concussions and the female athlete triad, "Relative energy deficiency in sport", (RED-S). At times female athletes have engaged in social activism in conjunction with their participation in sport. Protest methods have included playing strikes, social media campaigns, and in the case of America, federal lawsuits on grounds of inequality, usually as it relates to gender parity principles, American law and
Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educa ...
. Public service oriented promotional campaigns for girls in sport involve a variety of media campaign styles.


History


Ancient civilizations

Before each
ancient Olympic Games The ancient Olympic Games (Ὀλυμπιακοὶ ἀγῶνες; la, Olympia, neuter plural: "the Olympics") were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and were one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. ...
a separate women's athletic event was held at the stadium in Olympia, called the Heraean Games and was dedicated to the goddess
Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...
. In ancient Greek mythology there was the belief that Heraea was founded by Hippodameia, the wife of the king who founded the Olympics. According to E. Norman Gardiner: Although married women were excluded from the Olympics even as spectators, Cynisca won an Olympic game as owner of a chariot (champions of chariot races were owners not riders), as did Euryleonis, Belistiche, Zeuxo, Encrateia and Hermione,
Timarete Timarete ( el, Τιμαρέτη) (or Thamyris, Tamaris, Thamar; 5th century BC), was an ancient Greek painter. She was the daughter of the painter Micon the Younger of Athens. According to Pliny the Elder, she "scorned the duties of women and p ...
,
Theodota Theodota (also spelled Teodote or Theodote) was a Byzantine noblewoman, most notable for her association with the Lombard king Cunipert (688-700). The Plutei of Theodota are named after her. A biography of her appears in Book 5 of Paul the Deac ...
and Kassia. After the classical period, there was some participation by women in men's athletic festivals. Women in Sparta began to practice the same athletic exercises that men did, exhibiting the qualities of Spartan soldiers. Plato even supported women in sports by advocating running and sword-fighting for women. Notably, cultural representations of a pronounced female physicality were not limited to sport in Ancient Greece and can also be found in representations of a group of warrioresses known as the
Amazons In Greek mythology, the Amazons ( Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'', via Latin ''Amāzon, -ŏnis'') are portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules ...
.


Early modern

During the
Song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
, Yuan, and
Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...
dynasties, women played in professional
Cuju ''Cuju'' or ''Ts'u-chü'' (蹴鞠) is an ancient Chinese football game. Cuju is the earliest known recorded game of football. It is a competitive game that involves kicking a ball through an opening into a net without the use of hands. Descripti ...
teams.


Modern era


Late 17th century

The educational committees of the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...
(1789) included intellectual, moral, and physical education for both girls and boys. With the victory of
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
less than twenty years later, physical education was reduced to military preparedness for boys and men. In Germany, the physical education of GutsMuths (1793) included girl's education. This included the measurement of performances of girls. This led to women's sport being more actively pursued in Germany than in most other countries. When the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale was formed as an all women's international organization it had a German male vice-president in addition to German international success in elite sports.


19th and early 20th centuries

Few women competed in sports in Europe and North America before the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although women were technically permitted to participate in many sports, relatively few did. Those who did participate often faced disapproval. Early women's professional sports leagues during the early part of the 20th century foundered. Women's sports in the late 1800s focused on correct posture, facial and bodily beauty, muscles, and health. Prior to 1870, activities for women were recreational rather than sport-specific in nature and emphasized physical activity rather than competition. Sports for women before the 20th century placed more emphasis on fitness rather than the competitive aspects we now associate with organized sports. In 1916 the
Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It ha ...
(AAU) held its first national championship for women (in swimming), In 1923 the AAU also sponsored the First American Track & Field championships for women. Earlier that year the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) held the first WAAA Championships. Bicycling became a popular activity among women in the
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for women's suffrage, the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in part ...
era. "Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world,"
Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to so ...
said. "I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride on a wheel. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance."


The Olympics and women

The first Olympic games in the modern era in 1896 were not open to women. Since then the number of women who have participated in the Olympic games have increased substantially. The modern
Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
had female competitors from 1900 onward, though women at first participated in considerably fewer events than men. Women first made their appearance in the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900. That year, 22 women competed in tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian, and golf. The
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
founder
Pierre de Coubertin Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (; born Pierre de Frédy; ...
described women's sports "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and we are not afraid to add: incorrect". However, the 6th IOC Congress in Paris 1914 decided that a woman's medal had formally the same weight as a man's in the official medal table. This left the decisions about women's participation to the individual international sports federations. Concern over the physical strength and stamina of women led to the discouragement of female participation in more physically strenuous sports. In response to the lack of support for women's international sport the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale was founded in France by Alice Milliat. This organization initiated the Women's Olympiad (held
1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in Brazil. ** The Spanish liner ''Santa Isabel'' break ...
,
1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...
and 1923) and the
Women's World Games The Women's World Games were the first international women's sports events in track and field. The games were held four times between 1922 and 1934. They were established by Alice Milliat and the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (F ...
, which attracted participation of nearly 20 countries and was held four times (
1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...
, 1926,
1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...
and
1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a m ...
). In 1924 the
1924 Women's Olympiad The 1924 Women's Olympiad (formally called ''Women's International and British Games'', French ''Grand meeting international féminin'') was the first international competition for women in track and field in the United Kingdom. The tournamen ...
was held at Stamford Bridge in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
began to incorporate greater participation of women at the Olympics in response. The number of Olympic women athletes increased over five-fold in the period, going from 65 at the
1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...
to 331 at the
1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics ( German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad ( German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi ...
. Amateur competitions became the primary venue for women's sports. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, Communist countries dominated many
Olympic sports Olympic sports are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2020 Summer Olympics included 33 sports; the 2022 Winter Olympics included seven sports. Each Olympic sport is represented by an international governing bod ...
, including women's sports, due to state-sponsored athletic programs that were technically regarded as amateur. The legacy of these programs endured, as former Communist countries continue to produce many of the top female athletes. Germany and Scandinavia also developed strong women's athletic programs in this period. File:Bronze figure of a running girl, Greek, about 520-500 BC, Found at Prizren, Serbia, Winning at the ancient Games, British Museum (7667206370).jpg, A
Spartan Sparta (Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referred t ...
woman running. The bare right breast is indicative of her being an athlete File:1900s Girls Broomball Team, Canada.jpg, Early 1900s: Girls
broomball Broomball is a both a recreational and organized competitive winter sport, winter team sport played on ice or snow and is played either indoors or outdoors, depending on climate and location. It is a ball sport and is most popularly played in Ca ...
team in Canada File:Womenplayinghockey.jpg, Between 1888 and 1893: women playing
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
in Canada File:1912 Fraulein Kussin Mrs Edwards boxing.jpg, 1912: Fraulein Kussinn and Mrs. Edwards
boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
File:Camogie Team, Waterford, 17 October 1915.jpg, 1915:
Camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men only ...
team in Ireland posing with their hurleys/camáns File:The High School Magazine. Montreal, Canada (1916) (14779954132).jpg, 1915–1916: Girls Junior
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
team in Canada File:Bw 1920 competition medals.jpg, : young women wearing
swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
competition medals File:1910 to 1920 Sibyl Marston holding foil.jpg, Between 1910 and 1920: fencer Sibyl Marston holding a foil File:Time Cover in 1924-08-25.JPG, 1924: Edith Cummings was the first woman
athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-deve ...
to appear on the cover of
Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published Weekly newspaper, weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New ...
, a major step in women's athletic history File:Lenglen Wills Match of the Century 1926 2 (instant) (cropped).jpg, 1926:
tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
players
Suzanne Lenglen Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen (; 24 May 1899 – 4 July 1938) was a French tennis player. She was the inaugural world No. 1 from 1921 to 1926, winning eight Grand Slam titles in singles and twenty-one in total. She was also a four-time World ...
and Helen Wills during the Match of the Century File:Precision Skating - Hockettes.jpg, C. 1956: The "Hockettes", the very first precision skating team File:Manon_Rhéaume_cropped.jpg, Manon Rhéaume,
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
goalie, first woman to play in a men's North American pro league File: Atlantic Attack Ringette Team.jpg,
National Ringette League The National Ringette League (NRL), ''(french: Ligue Nationale de Ringuette, LNR)'', is the premier sports league for the sport of ringette in North America and Canada's national league for elite ringette players aged 18+. All of the NRL's eli ...
, first winter team sports league in North America where elite players are exclusively female


20th Century United States to the present


Implementation and regulation of Title IX


Overview

In 1972 the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...
passed the
Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educa ...
legislation as a part of the additional Amendment Act to the
1964 Civil Rights Act The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
. Title IX states that: "no person shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participating in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance"; Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in schools receiving federal funds through grants, scholarships, or other support for students. The law states that federal funds can be withdrawn from a school engaging in intentional sex-based discrimination in the provision of curriculum, counseling, academic support, or general educational opportunities. Contrary to popular belief, Title IX initially had nothing to do with sports and would not include interscholastic or varsity sports until later. Today the law from the Education Act requires that both male and female athletes have equal facilities and equal benefits. The equal benefits are considered necessities such as equal equipment, uniforms, supplies, training, practice, quality in coaches and opponents, awards, cheerleaders and bands at the game. Important changes regarding athletics and sport occurred in 1975: In 1979, there was a policy interpretation that offered three ways in which schools could be compliant with Title IX in regards to athletics and sport; it became known as the "three-part test". # Providing athletic participation opportunities that are substantially proportionate to the student enrollment. This prong of the test is satisfied when participation opportunities for men and women are "substantially proportionate" to their respective undergraduate enrollment. # Demonstrating a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex. This prong of the test is satisfied when an institution has a history and continuing practice of program expansion that is responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex (typically female). # Accommodating the interest and ability of the underrepresented sex. This prong of the test is satisfied when an institution is meeting the interests and abilities of its female students even where there are disproportionately fewer females than males participating in sports. Schools only have to be compliant with one of the three prongs. ;Compliance standards A 1999 study by Sigelman and Wahlbeck found many schools were "nowhere near compliance". Many schools attempt to achieve compliance through the first prong; however, in order to achieve that compliance schools cut men's programs, which is not the way the OCR wanted compliance achieved. Equity is not the only way to be compliant with Title IX; athletic departments need to show that they are making efforts to achieve parity in participation, treatment, and athletic financial assistance. According to research done by the National Women's Law Center in 2011, 4500 public high schools across the nation exhibited high rates of gender inequality and were considered to be in violation of the Title IX laws.Wong, A. (2015, June 26). Where Girls Are Missing Out on High-School Sports. Retrieved January 23, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/girls-high-school-sports-inequality/396782/ Further research done by the Women's Law Center in 2017 found schools with a high number of minority students and a higher number of people of color, mainly found in the southern American states, had a much higher rate of gender disparity. A large disparity gap regarding sport-related scholarships for men and women, with men getting 190 million more in funding than women, was also found.Wallace, K. (2016, March 14). The real March Madness: When will women's teams get an equal buzz? Retrieved January 23, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/30/living/feat-march-madness-womens-sports-attention-money-men/ Despite an increase in participation in sports by girls and women, this pattern persists. Most colleges focus on their male athletics teams and invest more money into those already successful programs. This disparity is presented by some feminist ideologues as a phenomenon illustrating a cause and effect link between race and gender, and how it plays a significant role in the hierarchy of sports.


Effect of Title IX on women's sports

Title IX has had a positive effect on women's sports in America and aided their participation. American female athletes now have grounds to help support the stance that women athletes deserve a higher level of respect and consideration that is necessary in order for their participation. Additionally it has enabled their sports programs and competitive athletes to be taken seriously just as their male counterparts long had. While the mandate did not immediately go into effect it had been publicized to such an extent that it enabled the general public to sense its future implications. There had been great anticipation for the bill prior to its passage which helped it gain media coverage in time for when the bill was mandated to be followed.


Post Title IX

The involvement in women's sports spiked after Title IX was put into place, mostly in high school level sports as well as collegiate. Title IX's effect on women in sport was observed to have far reaching implications that were not restricted to those who were participating in a professional or intermediate way. Girls and women who did not see themselves in a more "serious athlete" light felt increasingly empowered to participate and compete. The bill allowed for the equal treatment of female athletes to become a part of the larger sports institution and culture and is considered to have played an important role in increasing the popular view in America that female participation and competition in sport was a valid part of society and life.


Participation in America

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educa ...
is American law. The purpose of the Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 was to update Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requ ...
, which banned several forms of discrimination in employment but did not address or mention discrimination in education. Contrary to popular belief, the creation of Title IX had nothing to do with sports. Women's sports were not considered a relevant issue within educational organizations at the time. It wasn't until later that Title IX involved a new objective to ensure equal treatment in organized sports and schools regardless of sex, in a federally funded program. However, Title IX is most commonly associated with its impact on American athletics and more specifically the impact it has had on women's participation in athletics at every age. Since Title IX became law, records have illustrated an increasing number of opportunities in American educational institutions in a variety of sports for women and girls. As of the 2007–2008 school year, females made up 41% of the participants in college athletics. In 1971–1972 there were 294,015 females participating in high school athletics and in 2007–2008 there were over three million females participating, a 940% increase in female participation in high school athletics. In 1971–1972 there were 29,972 females participating in college athletics and in 2007–2008 there were 166,728 females participating, a 456% increase in female participation in college athletics. In 1971, less than 300,000 females played in high school sports. After the law was passed many females started to get involved in sports. By 1990, eighteen years later, 1.9 million female high school students were playing sports. American studies have investigated whether or not there is a strong correlation between female participation in sport and positive outcomes in women's education and employment later on in life. A 2010 study found that the changes set in motion by Title IX explained about 20 percent of the increase in women's education and about 40 percent of the rise in employment for 25-to-34-year-old women. This is not to say that all women who are successful later on in life played sports, but it is saying that women who did participate in athletics received benefits in their education and employment later on in life. In 1971, fewer than 295,000 girls participated in high school varsity athletics, accounting for just 7 percent of all varsity athletes; in 2001, that number leaped to 2.8 million, or 41.5 percent of all varsity athletes, according to the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education. In 1966, 16,000 females competed in intercollegiate athletics. By 2001, that number jumped to more than 150,000, accounting for 43 percent of all college athletes. In addition, a 2008 study of intercollegiate athletics showed that women's collegiate sports had grown to 9,101 teams, or 8.65 per school. The five most frequently offered college sports for women in America are, in order: (1) basketball, 98.8% of schools have a team, (2) volleyball, 95.7%, (3) soccer, 92.0%, (4) cross country, 90.8%, and (5) softball, 89.2%. Since 1972, women have also competed in the traditional male sports of wrestling, weightlifting, rugby, and boxing. An article in the ''New York Times'' reported lasting benefits for women from Title IX, citing a correlation between participation in sports and increased educational opportunities as well as employment opportunities for girls. Furthermore, the athletic participation by girls and women spurred by Title IX was associated with lower obesity rates while other public health program failed to claim similar success.


Participation in leadership roles

Although female participation in sports has increased due to Title IX, there has not been a similar effect in terms of women holding coaching or other managerial positions in sports. Most sport teams or institutions, regardless of gender, are managed by male coaches and managers. For example, according to 2016 data, 33% of WNBA teams are led by women coaches or managers. The International Olympic Committee also consists of 20% female members. The data presented also showed that 15% of athletic directors in colleges nationwide were females, and that number is much less in the southern states. There are various reasons that have been suggested to account for this trend. Messner and Bozada-Deas (2009) suggest traditional gender roles may play a role and that society's historical division of labor leads to men volunteering as team coaches and women volunteering as team "moms". Everhart and Chelladurai (1998) show that this phenomenon may be part of a larger cycle --- girls who are coached by men growing up are less likely to view themselves as coaches when they are adults, and so the number of female coaches decreases, meaning more girls are coached by men.


Canada

Organized sports hold a high priority status in Canadian culture, The growth of female participation in sport in Canada has historically been slower than that among males. One notable exception is the female sport of
ringette Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on ice hockey rinks using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organiz ...
, which is not a variant of a popular men's sport and whose players are predominantly female. Different arguments exist as to why there are less female participants in sport in Canada and what factors are and should be considered most relevant.


Academic prejudice

In most cases, Canadian studies involving female participation in sport fail to involve methodologies that account for and make observable the difference between participation rates in exclusively or predominantly female sports such as artistic (née synchronized) swimming and
ringette Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on ice hockey rinks using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organiz ...
in comparison to sports involving male and female categories of the same sport, such as
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
. Popular prejudice against sports which are mainly popular among females is often exacerbated by gender equity feminists whose goal it is to portray female sports excellence as merited only within the context of competition with men. As a result, sports which involve both a male and female category are viewed as legitimately successful due to the manufactured struggle between the two sexes, despite the reality of male dominance in sport due to natural biological assets.


Canadian feminists in sport

In Canada, the majority of feminist ideologues in sport claim slow growth in participation in girls' and women's sports programs (with male and female categories) are due to a number of factors. While both girls and women have historically had low levels of interest and participation, sports feminists in Canada have contended that these differences are largely due to
patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males ...
and the fact that there are fewer women than men in leadership positions in academic administration, student affairs, athletics, and coaching. In Canada as well as in other societies worldwide, organized sports have been used and viewed as a traditional way to demonstrate and develop masculinity. With an increasing number of girls and women with a serious interest in sports, the cross-cultural divide between the sexes began to narrow with the male sports establishment becoming actively hostile. During the 1960s with the arrival of second wave feminism, a number of feminists dismissed female sports and thought of them as an unworthy cause and one in no need of their support. Among other feminists, women's progress in sport involved the belief that their needed to be an effort to counter a common and unfounded notion that vigorous physical activity was dangerous for women. These notions where first challenged around 1900. These women, called, "new women", started with bicycling. By the 1920s, a marked change for women occurred involving young working-class women in addition to the pioneering middle class sportswomen. However, more recent scientific research in the sport sciences, particularly
sports medicine Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since th ...
have shown differences between men and women in terms of types of sports injuries, their rate of occurrence, and injury recovery times. Female athletes participating in contact and combat sports are an area of particular concern, especially in the case of concussions. Concern also involves consequences to women during pregnancy.


Differences in codes

Historically, regional differences in Canada are recorded to have existed in regards to codified rules in sport involving male and female programs. One such example involves the Eastern provinces of Canada which for a time included a different game code for the female category of basketball, while the Western provinces opted for a simplified identical rules structure in relation to both sexes. This disparity is claimed as evidence of sexism among the more radical feminist polemicists in Canadian sport.


First elite all-female winter team sports league

Canada is home to the first elite all-female winter team sports league in North America, the
National Ringette League The National Ringette League (NRL), ''(french: Ligue Nationale de Ringuette, LNR)'', is the premier sports league for the sport of ringette in North America and Canada's national league for elite ringette players aged 18+. All of the NRL's eli ...
(NRL). The league was established for the sport of
ringette Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on ice hockey rinks using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organiz ...
in Canada in 2004. The league recruits the best ringette talent in North America, largely from Canada, but some players originate from Finland or the United States. The league's players are unpaid as the league is not a professional one and acts as a showcase league instead.
Ringette Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on ice hockey rinks using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organiz ...
was created exclusively for females in Canada in 1963 and excluded male athletes. As a result, the elite level of the sport consists entirely of players who are women. Because the sport has developed a female category, and a male category does not exist, the league has no opportunity to form a partnership with a male league counterpart. However, it does not have to compete with the men's sports leagues themselves, unlike professional women's soccer leagues, the
Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...
(WNBA) which must contend with the men's
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
or the North American women's Premier Hockey Federation (formerly the
National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and h ...
or NWHL) which must contend with the men's
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
.


Germany

Female athletic dominance grew during the
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbourin ...
period in Germany with several factors contributing to this new era. Many opportunities made it possible for women to join sports programs and push boundaries within society. These included the enrollment of women in German universities, the rise in female employment, as well as involvement in war industries. All of these are examples of economic changes due to World War I. Women's fashion reflected the changes that women perceived in themselves. Women's magazines showed them in sporting outfits as they were motivated to create an appearance that featured them as healthy and fit. The same women were known at night in more fashionable outfits, displaying
femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered f ...
. Women were becoming more competitive in sport. The competitive sports that women began participating in, included swimming, ski-jumping, and soccer. Participation in masculine sports including boxing and weightlifting, drew the attention of the press. The growing participation of women in sport also sparked a rise in satirical exaggerations of women that downplayed their role in the athletic world. Pictures of women in sporting attire were produced with the intention of publicizing a negative image of their bodies as a consequence of their participation in sport. As issues surrounding women's sexuality began to grow in the public sphere, women also gained more publicity and attention in relationship to their place in sports.


United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has produced a range of major international sports including:
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who primarily use their feet to propel the Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular field ca ...
, rugby (union and league),
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by s ...
,
netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...
,
darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard. Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the ...
,
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping w ...
,
tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
,
table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
,
badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...
, squash, bowls, rounders, modern rowing,
field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...
,
boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
,
snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...
,
billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...
, and curling. In the 19th century, women primarily participated in the "new games" which included golf, lawn tennis,
cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...
, and field hockey. Now, women also participate at a professional/international level in soccer, rugby, cricket, and netball. Since the late 1980s, Women in Sport, a non-profit organization based in London, has hoped to transform sport for the benefit of women and girls in the UK. The
Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the three ...
, more recently allowed women to compete at this prestigious rowing race. Although the benefits that men receive at this race versus what women receive is still drastically different, there is progress within allowing women to compete competitively.


1960s to 2010s

In the early 1800s women romped, skated, played ball games and some even boxed. The early half of the 1900s saw an increase in interest in regards to the development of physical education programs for public schools for both sexes as well as developing public recreation programming and facilities ( parks and recreation) which became a new emerging field. After the civil war wealthy women started playing country club sports such as golf. Beginning in the 1970s, women's
tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...
grew as a popular professional sport and provided the occasion for a symbolic " battle of the sexes" between
Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...
and
Bobby Riggs Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on Decembe ...
, which King won. However, due to the age of Riggs who was also out of shape, the contest was strictly for show. Nevertheless, the competition gained media popular media exposure thus enhancing the profile of female athletics. The later success of Serena and
Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She ...
helped raise the profile of women's tennis again, but faced hostility once in the media spotlight. They were critiqued for their personal upbringings, their muscular builds, and the clothes they wore. James McKay and Helen Johnson described them as "Ghetto Cinderellas". Women's professional team sports began to achieve prominence in the 1990s, particularly in
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
and
football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...
. The WNBA was formed and the first Women's World Cups and women's Olympic soccer matches were held. In 1999, at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final in
Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...
, after scoring the fifth kick in the
penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
to give the United States the win over
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
in the final game, Brandi Chastain celebrated by spontaneously taking off her jersey and falling to her knees in a
sports bra A sports bra is a bra that provides support to the breasts during physical exercise. Sturdier than typical bras, they minimize breast movement and alleviate discomfort. Many women wear sports bras to reduce pain and physical discomfort caused b ...
. While removing a jersey in celebration of a goal was common in men's soccer, it was highly unusual in women's football at the international level. The image of her celebration has been considered one of the more famous and controversial photographs of a woman celebrating an athletic victory. In 2019, it was announced that a statue of Chastain's celebration would be displayed at the Rose Bowl to commemorate the twenty-year anniversary of the team's win. Girls' participation in more violent contact sports is far less than their male counterparts. In sports of these type, boys overwhelmingly outnumber girls, particularly football, wrestling, and boxing. Leagues for girls do exist in such sports such as the Utah Girls Football League and
Professional Girl Wrestling Association The Professional Girl Wrestling Association (PGWA) is an America women's professional wrestling promotion. The aim of the PGWA is to preserve and promote "Old School" Women's professional wrestling. Based in North Carolina, the organization freq ...
.
Katie Hnida Katharine Anne Hnida (; born May 17, 1981) is a former American football player who became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A game, college football's highest level. She accomplished this as placekicker for the University of New Mexi ...
became the first woman ever to score points in a Division I NCAA
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
game when she kicked two extra points for the
University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...
in 2003.
Heather Watson Heather Miriam Watson (born 19 May 1992) is a British professional tennis player. A former British No. 1, Watson has won nine titles over her career, including the mixed-doubles title at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships partnering Henri ...
and Fu Yuanhui were considered to have challenged a taboo in women's sport when both openly admitted they were menstruating, Watson after a self-described poor performance in a tennis match in 2015, and Fu at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.


Female sports

"Female sports" are rare and have been created specifically for the female sex and are not variants of popular men's sports. While sports which involve female participation are often collectively called, "women's sports", the overwhelming majority are not, and are in fact ''"female variants"'' "the female equivalent" of sports which were first played by and popularized by men and boys, making these two sporting groups distinct. Some female sports can be traced back to a single inventor while others cannot and are difficult to identify. Some female sports are or can be attributed to a variety of individuals who helped contribute to its early development instead. Below is a list of female sports.


Professional sports


Overview

Professional sports refers to sports in which athletes are paid for their performance. Opportunities for women to play professional sports vary by country. Some women's professional sports leagues are directly affiliated with a men's professional sports league like the WNBA. Others are independently owned and operated like the Premier Hockey Federation, formerly the National Women's Hockey League. While women today do have the opportunity to play professional sports, the pay for
women's professional sports Women's professional sports are a relatively new phenomenon, having largely emerged within the latter part of the 20th century. Unlike amateur women athletes, professional women athletes are able to acquire an income which allows them to earn a ...
is significantly lower than it is in men's professional sports. An American feminist theory known as the gender pay gap in sports is an attempt to explain the causes behind these differences. It isn't uncommon for professional athletes hold second jobs in order to supplement their income due to low salary. Female professional athletes often play in smaller lower-quality facilities than male professional athletes due to low attendance. Women's professional sports are rarely broadcast regularly on live television. New developments in digital technology have created an opportunity for female leagues to live-stream competitions and events on social media platforms such as
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
or
Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
instead. Women face increasing challenges once they look to enter the business side of sports. Some research suggests that women occupy leadership positions in the sports industry at a lower rate than men however, the majority of these are positions are in men's professional sports rather than women's. When women do occupy the same positions as men, they may be paid less, although some research has shown revenue-specific variables may be more relevant than gender-specific variables when examining compensation levels. Although several professional women's sports leagues have been established throughout the world in the post-Title IX era, they are generally behind in terms of exposure, funding, and attendance compared to the men's teams. However, there are notable exceptions. The 2015 Women's World Cup final was the most-watched soccer game ever in the United States. And in 2017,
Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Unit ...
of the
NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federati ...
had higher average attendance than several men's professional teams, including 15
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
teams, 13
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
teams, and 1
MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
team. The Thorns' 2019 season saw an even higher average attendance of 20,098. This was higher than all but one of the 30 NBA teams in the 2018–19 season, all but three of the 31 NHL teams in the 2018–19 season, 15 of the 24 MLS teams in the 2019 season, and 6 of the 30 MLB teams in the 2019 season.


Active women's professional leagues and associations


Battle for equality

Equal representation in organized sport for girls and women is commonly referred to as the "battle for equality" and includes a variety of competing feminist ideologies. Worldwide, the dominant representative sex in sport is male both financially and globally except in the rare case of sports created specifically for girls and women and certain sport disciplines. Sports dominated by women instead of men are few and the majority of organized sports dubbed "women's sports" or the "women's game" were created as the female equivalent of sports which were first popularized by men and male athletes. Over time there have been gradual and increasing efforts by different groups, individuals and lobbies in different countries to find ways which enable women to gain equal representation and support like their male counterparts. This change can be witnessed at the national level in different countries and in women's professional leagues. In terms of finding ways to acquire better pay and better funding, efforts largely began in the 20th century. A significant historical marker occurred during the
2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
where it became the first Olympic games in which women competed in every sport. In some areas, sex and gender can serve as a selective and primary factor in terms of determining if women's sports should receive the same treatment as men's. Whether or not women are as able-bodied as men can serve as the basis of decision making criteria. Gender-based characteristics associated with masculinity and femininity can become the deciding factor for individuals in terms of their potential sports participation, but can also affect organizing sporting bodies where this has been held as a justifiable dismissal of sports equity for female participants. Although there are various goals and reasons behind organized team sports participation in Western cultures, one perspective claims that sport is principally organized around the political project of physically and symbolically elevating men over women. One study has claimed that notions of audience interest or preference were based on personal beliefs and assumptions rather than evidence or research and that in some cases these beliefs and assumptions were the reason why coverage of men's professional sports is prioritized. ;Pay gap The pay gap in women sports is a controversial issue. Women athletes, in their respective sports, are often paid far less than their male counterparts. The difference between the American men's and women's soccer teams' salaries has been used as an example regarding pay inequality. Women on the U.S national team earned $99,000 per year, while men earned $263,320 if they were to win 20 exhibition matches.WALTERS, J. (2016, April 1). TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT THE GENDER PAY GAP IN SPORTS. Retrieved January 23, 2017, from http://www.newsweek.com/womens-soccer-suit-underscores-sports-gender-pay-gap-443137 There is a substantial gap in rewards in regards to winning the
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...
. The German men's national team earned 35 million dollars, while the American women's national team earned 2 million dollars after winning the World Cup. The battle in equality for fair pay divulges in to other sports in which men earn far more than women. Golf is another sport which has a significant rising female presence. In 2014, the
PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
awarded US$340 million in prize money for men's tournaments, compared to 62 million dollars awarded to the LPGA Tour. Basketball is another sport which has surged in popularity in the last few decades and has significant female presence. In the United States, the
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
organizes top-level professional basketball competition for both sexes, with men playing in the NBA proper and women in the WNBA. As of 2021, a WNBA player's minimum salary is $57,000, while an NBA player's minimum salary is $898,310. An average NBA player makes over $5 million while an average WNBA player makes $72,000. In September 2018, the World Surf League announced equal pay for both male and female athletes for all events, contributing to the conversation in the world of professional sports surrounding equality. ;Social media The advent of
social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...
has had a positive impact on women's sports by providing more platforms for advertising and conversation. It has created more opportunities to increase the promotion of women's sports and helped form the establishment of communities both online and offline around women's and girls sports, including access to women's sports news. This pattern is expected to continue into the future and has been presented as a powerful tool to help offset the issues of gender bias and other disparities.


Australia

In September 2015, the Australian women's national soccer team (nicknamed the Matildas) announced that it had canceled a sold-out tour of the United States due to a dispute with the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) over their pay. Their salary was below
minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. B ...
levels in Australia. The Matildas requested health care,
maternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and ...
, and improved travel arrangements, as well as an increased salary. The players also said that their low salaries forced them to remain living at home, since they could not afford rent, and their strict training schedule meant they were unable to get another job. In September 2017, a new pay deal was announced for players in Australia's national soccer league, the W-League. The deal included an increase in wages, an increase in the salary cap, improved medical standards, and a formal maternity policy. Some commentators have attributed the success of the new W-League deal to the Matildas' boycott in 2015. In November 2019, the FFA announced a new contract with the union Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) in which the Matildas and the men's national team (the Caltex Socceroos) will receive equal shares of total player revenue and equal resources. In addition, the guaranteed minimum salary for a player on the Matildas will increase as a result of this deal.


China

One of the earliest examples of women's sports in modern China was
Qiu Jin Qiu Jin (; 8 November 1875 – 15 July 1907) was a Chinese revolutionary, feminist, and writer. Her courtesy names are Xuanqing () and Jingxiong (). Her sobriquet name is Jianhu Nüxia (). Qiu was executed after a failed uprising against the Q ...
. Qiu Jin, a Chinese revolutionary during the late 1800s and early 1900s, trained women to be soldiers alongside men in sports societies. They were taught fencing, riding, and gymnastics. According to Susan Bronwell, the most important moment for women's sports in China came in 1981 with a Chinese victory in the 1981 FIVB Women's World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. This victory made the female volleyball players household names in China, though the victory was portrayed as the work of leading male government officials like Ma Qiwei,
He Long He Long (; March 22, 1896 – June 9, 1969) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and one of the ten marshals of the People's Liberation Army. He was from a poor rural family in Hunan, and his family was not able to provide him with any formal ...
, and Zhou Enlai, who helped contribute at various stages to the success of the team. The victory symbolized a growth of women's sports in China after the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
of the 1960s and 1970s, wherein many athletes were suppressed: Contemporary Chinese sports teams are noted for their wide breadth of participation by female athletes, specifically in the
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
. A Herfindahl Index (a measure often used in economics to show the degree of concentration when individuals are classified by type, and a lower number indicates higher diversity) showing Female Participation in the
2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...
indicated China's female Olympic delegation, the fourth largest present, to be the second most spread out across all events at 0.050, compared to higher numbers from over 190 other delegations. The same index showed the ratio of women to men to be 7 to 10. 213 total female athletes participated. In total, approximately 60% of Chinese Olympic gold medals were earned by female athletes over the last 8 Olympic games. Challenges to equality remain such as media representation. According to Yu Chia Chen, female Asian athletes receive much less coverage than their male counterparts. Another report indicates Chinese girls and women are also less likely to be exposed to sports programming on television.


Ireland

In October 2017, the
Irish Rugby Football Union The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) ( ga, Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ...
(IRFU) advertised an available position for head coach of the Irish women's national rugby team. The job was advertised as "part-time", "casual", and available on six-month basis. Players expressed their disagreement with the decision, believing it was a sign that the IRFU was disrespecting and not prioritizing the women's game. In response to this announcement, the players highlighted what they perceived as the IRFU's lack of commitment to the long-term development of the women's game by wearing bracelets with "#Legacy" written on them for games with their club teams in the All Ireland League.


Jamaica

The Jamaican women's national soccer team (nicknamed the Reggae Girlz) participated in the
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...
. This was the first Women's World Cup the country had qualified for, and the country was also the first Caribbean country to ever qualify. However, in September 2019, members of the team, including
Khadija Shaw Khadija Monifa "Bunny" Shaw OD (born 31 January 1997) is a Jamaican professional footballer who plays as a forward for FA Women's Super League club Manchester City and the Jamaica women's national team. She is Jamaica's all-time top goalscore ...
and Allyson Swaby, posted a graphic on
Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
with captions stating that they had not been paid by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) for nine months of work. They announced that the team would not participate in any future tournaments until they received payment. JFF President Michael Ricketts later announced that the team would be paid by the end of September. In October 2019, the Reggae Girlz began playing again, and they won their group in the Qualification Tournament for the 2020 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Competition. The Jamaican national netball team (nicknamed the Sunshine Girls) is ranked fourth in the world, as of July 2019. However, the team has not been well-funded, and had to resort to
crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
to attend the
2019 Netball World Cup The 2019 Netball World Cup (also known as the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the INF Netball World Cup. It was held from 12–21 July 2019 at the Liverpool Arena in Liverpool, England with match ...
. After receiving support from sponsors, the Sunshine Girls were able to go to the tournament, where they placed fifth overall.


Muslim world

Muslim women are less likely to take part in sport than Western non-Muslims. This is particularly so for
women in Arab societies The roles of women in the Arab world have changed throughout history, as the culture and society in which they live has undergone significant transformations. Historically, as well as presently, the situation of women differs greatly between A ...
. The traditions of Islamic modesty in dress and requirements for women's sport to take place in a single-sex environment make sports participation more difficult for devout female adherents. The lack of availability of suitably modest sports clothing and sports facilities that allow women to play in private contributes to the lack of participation. Cultural norms of women's roles and responsibilities towards the family may also be a source of discouragement from time-consuming sports practice.Muslim Women in Sport
Soccer Politics. Retrieved on 2015-01-30.
However, Islamic tenets and religious texts suggest that women's sports in general should be promoted and are not against the values of the religion. The Quranic statements that followers of Islam should be healthy, fit and make time for leisure are not sex-specific. The prophet
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mono ...
is said to have raced his wife
Aisha Aisha ( ar, , translit=ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr; , also , ; ) was Muhammad's third and youngest wife. In Islamic writings, her name is thus often prefixed by the title "Mother of the Believers" ( ar, links=no, , ʾumm al- muʾminīn), referr ...
on several occasions, with Aisha beating him the first couple of times. Correspondingly, some scholars have proposed that Muslim women's lack of engagement with sport is due to cultural or societal reasons, rather than strictly religious ones. However, besides religious testaments, there are many barriers for Muslim women in relation to sports participation. A significant barrier to Muslim women's sports participation is bans on the Islamic headscarf, commonly known as the
hijab In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While s ...
. FIFA instituted such a ban in 2011, preventing the Iranian women's national football team from competing. They have since repealed the ban, but other organizations, including FIBA, maintain such regulations. At the same time, many Muslim female athletes have achieved significant success in athletic competitions. Some have also used sports towards their own empowerment, working for women's rights, education, and health and wellbeing. Iranian women were banned from attending a volleyball game and an Iranian girl was arrested for attending a match. Iran was given the right to host the International Beach Volleyball tournament, and many Iranian women were looking forward to attending the event. However, when the women tried to attend the event, they were disallowed, and told it was forbidden to attend by the FIVB. The women took to social media to share their outrage; however the Federation of International Beach volleyball refuted the accusations, saying it was a misunderstanding. This is one of the instances of unfair treatment of women, trying to participate in supporting their teams in Iran. In October 2018 Iran announced that, after 40 years, it would allow women to enter sport arenas. On September 22, 2019, the Iranian authorities assured
FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was foun ...
that women would be able to attend the October qualifier of 2022 World Cup in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most pop ...
, stated
Gianni Infantino Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino (; born 23 March 1970) is a Swiss football administrator with Italian citizenship and the current president of FIFA. He was elected President of FIFA during the 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress in February 2016. He ...
.


Nigeria

In 2016, the Nigerian women's national soccer team, known as the Super Falcons, won the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations. The players alleged that they had not received their earned bonuses from winning the tournament owed to them by the
Nigeria Football Federation The Nigeria Football Federation (known as Nigeria Football Association until 2008) is Nigeria's football governing body. It was formally launched in 1945 and formed the first Nigerian national football team in 1949. It joined CAF in 1959 and F ...
(NFF). The NFF promised that it would pay them, but said the "money asnot readily available at the moment." In response, players engaged in a sit-in at their hotel as well as publicly demonstrated outside Nigeria's
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
. In 2019, the Super Falcons participated in the
2019 Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It t ...
and were eliminated from the tournament in the Round of 16. Following their elimination, the players engaged in another sit-in at their hotel, refusing to leave Paris until the NFF paid them the bonuses and daily allowances they had earned both from the World Cup as well as from other matches played in 2016 and 2017.


Norway

Norwegian sports are shaped by the values associated with them. For example, aggression generally is associated with males and being personable, with females. However, in terms of Norwegian handball, a study done by the Norwegian School of Sports and Sciences shows that gender is disregarded when the sport is covered in the media. The same study revealed that Women's handball is covered and followed as equally if not more than the men's team. In contrast to international handball coverage, the Norwegian coverage of Men's and Women's handball are discussed in the media using the same or similar verbiage. While they are especially noticeable in handball, equality and opportunity in Norwegian sports is not limited to the handball. Many top-female athletes from a number of sports have come from Norway. The act of playing or coaching were described slightly differently but categorized as successful using similar terms despite the gender of the coach or the player. Ada Hegerberg is a highly skilled and decorated Norwegian soccer player, having won numerous Champions League and Division 1 Féminine titles with French club
Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, t ...
. She also won the first-ever women's
Ballon D'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine '' France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (f ...
, a prestigious award given to the best soccer player in the world. However, in 2017, she stopped playing with the Norwegian national team, citing unequal pay and conditions between the women's team and the men's team as her reason for stepping away from the team. She said she would no longer play for the national team until she felt that it was more respected by the Norwegian Football Federation and the culture surrounding women's soccer had improved, which meant she did not participate in the high-profile
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...
.


Philippines

The Magna Carta for Women in the Philippines (Republic Act No. 9710.) mandates equal participation of women in sports among other non-sports related provisions. In the Philippines,
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
which is often referred to as the country's most popular sport is male-dominated although there are efforts to promote the sport to Filipino women. In 2020, the
Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional women's basketball league in Australia. It is currently composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Bask ...
became the country's first professional women's basketball league. Prior attempts to provide female players to play competitive basketball included the semi-professional Women's Philippine Basketball League which ran from 1998 to 1999, and in 2008. In 3x3 basketball, the men's professional league the Philippine Basketball Association, organized the short-lived PBA Women's 3x3 which was controversial for its haircut rules which barred women from sporting a "boy's cut".


South Africa

Between 2004 and 2008, the previously highly successful South African women's national soccer team, known as Banyana Banyana, began to struggle on the field due to a lack of a permanent coach. Members of the
South African Football Association The South African Football Association (colloquially known as SAFA) is the national administrative governing body that controls the sport of football in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) and is a member of the Confederation of African Footba ...
(SAFA) attributed the declining quality of play to the players' "lack of femininity" (Engh 2010), and the players were instructed to take etiquette classes and maintain stereotypical feminine hairstyles, as well as wear more feminine uniforms while playing. In response, players threatened to strike unless they were able to return to their preferred styles of dress. In 2018, Banyana Banyana was not paid the agreed-upon amount owed to them after qualifying for the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON), and they protested by not returning their official national team uniforms. In January 2019, the team was again not paid their stipends and bonuses, despite finishing in second place at AWCON. They threatened to strike by not attending interviews or team practices, as well as not playing in a game against the Dutch national team. However, in May 2019, it was announced that Banyana Banyana would receive equal pay with the men's team heading into the
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...
.


Sweden

In Sweden, public funds are mostly given to men's hockey and football, and the women's team are left without proper funding. In 2016, Al Jazeera published an article bringing the discrimination that female Swedish athletes face to light by mentioning the double standard put on female athletes in terms of having to work double and still not receive the recognition or pay of the men's teams. Sweden is recognized as being a feminist country, however the wage gap is significant between male and female athletes. In 2013, Swedish striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic earned $16.7 million a year playing for Paris Saint-German, whereas Lotta Schellin who played for Lyon in France only earned $239,720. The wage gap is also evident among coaches. The difference in pay is evident in how male athletes and female athletes are able to spend their time between games. Women often have to work between training and games to make a living and to pay for their training camps, whereas men have that time to recuperate and relax; men also do not pay to attend training camps. In August 2019, the Swedish women's national ice hockey team boycotted the team's training camp and the Five Nations Tournament. In a movement they called #FörFramtiden (in English, "For the Future"), all 43 players invited to camp cited lack of equal pay as well as various instances of poor treatment by Svenska Ishockeyförbundet (the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, or SIF) toward the national team, including, but not limited to: * Team travel conditions – traveling by ferry instead of by plane to games; arriving to games one day before a tournament began, without accounting for time differences and jet lag * Team uniforms – players are provided men's clothing by SIF, not women's clothing * Nutrition – players are provided expired products * Lack of development – players allege that SIF has not adequately created a program to foster development of women's hockey at the youth level The
Four Nations Cup The 4 Nations Cup is an annual women's ice hockey tournament, held between four major national teams in the sport; currently, these are Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland. Until 2000, when Sweden joined, the tournament was the 3 Nation ...
, originally scheduled for November 2019, was canceled by SIF due to the players' dispute with the federation. Following the boycott, it was announced in October 2019 that the players had reached a new agreement with the federation, and that the team will begin training in November 2019 and play in a tournament against
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
,
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
, and Germany in December 2019. The new deal includes terms guaranteeing performance-based bonuses and additional compensation.


United States

Women make up 54% of enrollment at 832 schools that responded to an NCAA gender equity study in 2000; however, females at these institutions only account for 41% of the athletes. Before Title IX, 90% of women's college athletic programs were run by women, but by 1992 the number dropped to 42% since Title IX requires that there are equal opportunities for both genders. Many of the issues today often revolve around the amount of money going into men's and women's sports. According to 2000–2001 figures, men's college programs still have many advantages over women's in the average number of scholarships (60.5%), operating expenses (64.5%), recruiting expenses (68.2%) and head coaching salaries (59.5%). Other forms of inequality are in the coaching positions. Before Title IX, women coached 90% of women's teams; in 1978 that percentage dropped to 58, and in 2004 it dropped even more to 44 percent. In 1972, women administered 90 percent of women's athletic programs, and in 2004 this fell to 19 percent. Also in 2004, 18 percent of all women's programs had no women administrators. In 2004, there were 3,356 administrative jobs in NCAA women's athletic programs and of those jobs, women held 35 percent of them. The fight for equality extends to the wallet. On March 30, 2016, five players from the U.S. women's soccer team filed a federal complaint of wage discrimination against U.S. Soccer, the governing body that pays both the men's and women's team. The complaint argues that U.S. Soccer pays players on the women's team as little as forty percent of what it pays players on the men's team. This pay discrepancy exists despite the fact that the women's team has been much more successful in international competitions; the women's team has won four Olympic gold medals and three of the last five Women's World Cups, while the men's team has never won either of these competitions. This case was largely dismissed with the judge noting that the women's team had been offered and rejected the same pay structure as the men's team.


World conferences

In 1994, the International Working Group on Women and Sport organized the first World Conference on Women and Sport in Brighton, United Kingdom, where the Brighton Declaration was published. The IWG hosted further world conferences every four years, with the result of the Windfoek Call for Action (1998), Montreal Tool Kit (2002) and Brighton Plus Helsinki 2014 Declaration (2014). The conferences pretend to "develop a sporting culture that enables and values the full involvement of women in every aspect of sport and physical activity", by "increas ngthe involvement of women in sport at all levels and in all functions and roles".


Media coverage

Media coverage for women's sports is significantly less than the coverage for men's sports. Substantial research indicates that women's sports and female athletes gain only a small fraction of sports media coverage worldwide. Research that has examined why this is the case suggested this can be attributed to three particular factors that govern sports newswork: the male-dominated sports newsroom, ingrained assumptions about readership, and the systematic, repetitive nature of sports news. In 1989, a study was conducted that recorded and compared the amount of media coverage of men and women's sports on popular sports commentary shows. Michael Messner and his team in 2010 analyzed three different two-week periods by recording the amount of time that the stories were on air and the content of the stories. After recording sports news and highlights, they wrote a quantitative description of what they saw and a qualitative description of the amount of time that story received.Messner, Michael A., and Cheryl Cooky (2010)
"Gender in Televised Sports"
n. pag. Dornsife.usc.edu. Center for Feminist Research, University of Southern California, June 2010.


Feminist patriarchal theory

More often than not, modern research in regards to media and women's sport is focused on comparing women's sport with men's sport. Gender feminists in particular consider the lower levels of media representation in women's sport cause for alarm though this view is not shared among all women in sport, with some circles concerned more about increasing female participation itself. While one group maintains that these two factors, participation and media exposure, are inextricably linked, others disagree with this view and do not consider a media agenda or goal to be of importance. Modern research involving the feminist theory of patriarchy aimed at determining the cause of a perceived lack of media representation is based predominantly upon two driving assumptions: the theory of patriarchy as fact in every case, and the belief that participation in sport by females should also serve a type of feminist agenda in order to be valid.


Recent work

In America, recent work attributed this perceived lack of representation in women's sport to three particular factors that govern sports newswork: the "male-dominated sports newsroom", "ingrained assumptions about readership", and the "systematic, repetitive nature of sports news". In 1989, a study was conducted that recorded and compared the amount of media coverage of men and women's sports on popular sports commentary shows. Michael Messner and his team in 2010 analyzed three different two-week periods by recording the amount of time that the stories were on air and the content of the stories. After recording sports news and highlights, they wrote a quantitative description of what they saw and a qualitative description of the amount of time that story received. During that first year that the research was conducted in 1989, it was recorded that 5% of the sports segments were based on women's sports, compared to the 92% that were based on men's sports and the 3% that was a combination of both. In the late 1900s Women's Sports started to gain popularity in the media because of their talent in the Olympics. In 1999, women's sports coverage reached an all-time high when it was recorded at 8.7%. It maintained its higher percentages until it reached an all-time low in 2009, decreasing to 1.6%. The researchers also measured the amount of time that women's sports were reported in the
news ticker A news ticker (sometimes called a "crawler", "crawl", "slide", "zipper", or "ticker tape") is a horizontal or vertical (depending on a language's writing system) text-based display either in the form of a graphic that typically resides in the l ...
, the strip that displays information at the bottom of most news broadcasts. When recorded in 2009, 5% of ticker coverage was based on women's sports, compared to the 95% that was based on men's sports. These percentages were recorded in order to compare the amount of media coverage for each gender. When researching the actual amount of time that women's sports stories were mentioned, they focused specifically on differences between the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United ...
(NBA) and the
Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...
. They recorded two different time periods: when they were in season and when they were off-season. The WNBA had 8 stories, totaling 5:31 minutes, during their season, which was less than the NBA, which had a total of 72 stories, totaling approximately 65:51 minutes. During the off-season, the WNBA did not receive any stories or time on the ticker, while the NBA received a total of 81, which were approximately 50:15 minutes. When compared, the WNBA had a total of 8 stories and 5:31 minutes while the NBA had 153 stories and 1:56:06 hours. A recent study showed that in July, -The NBA summer league receives more coverage and attention than a regular season game in the WNBA. The actual games had several differences in the way the games were presented. The findings were that WNBA games had lower sound quality, more editing mistakes, fewer views of the shot clock and fewer camera angles. There was less verbal commentary and visual statistics about the players throughout the games as well. The quality of the stories has also significantly changed. In past studies, women were sexualized, portrayed as violent, or portrayed as girlfriends, wives and mothers. Female athletes were often included in gag stories that involved sexual dialogue or emphasized their bodies. In Australia, the wives of the men's cricket team members were given more media coverage than the players on the women's cricket team, who also had won more games than the men's rugby team. In 2009, ''SportsCenter'' broadcast segments called "Her Story", which was a commentary that highlighted women's athletic careers. In newspapers articles, coverage on men's sports once again had a greater number of articles than women's sports in a ratio of 23–1. In 1990, a study was conducted that recorded and compared the amount of media coverage of men and women's sports on popular newspapers. They analyzed four different sports magazines for three months and recorded the number of women's sports stories that were featured and the content of the stories. Women's sports made up 3.5%, compared to the 81% of men's coverage. The lengths of these articles were 25–27% shorter than the length of men's articles. There was an international frenzy in 2012 when the first woman that represented Saudi Arabia in the 2012 Olympics competed in track. That was the most women's sports coverage that there had been in several years. Women played 90 minutes of football, 80 minutes of rugby, 18 holes of golf and ran the same distance in a marathon as men. Exactly 12 months later, the newspapers returned to featuring 4% of articles on women's sports. This same trend can be seen with regards to the FIFA World Cup. The 2015 Women's World Cup Final had an average of 25.4 million American viewers throughout the duration of the match, and peaked at 30.9 million viewers. It was the most-viewed game of soccer ever in the United States–men's or women's–by a margin of almost 7 million viewers. Despite this jump in viewership of women's soccer in the U.S., television broadcasting of the women's professional soccer league in the U.S. remained much lower than that of the men's league. Fox Sports Network (the company that owns the rights to broadcast the National Women's Soccer League) broadcast 3 regular season NWSL games and 34 Major League Soccer regular-season games during the 2016 seasons. The dearth of coverage of women's sports is evidenced by the low number of segments (i.e., stories) in our sample. Of the 934 local network affiliate news segments (over 12 hr of broadcasts), 880 were on men's sports (or approximately 11½ hr), 22 segments (or nearly 18 min) were on gender-neutral sports (e.g., a horse race, coverage of the Los Angeles Amarathon, and a recreational sports event), and only 32 segments (about 23 min) featured women's sports. SportsCenter's numbers were similar. Of the 405 total SportsCenter segments in our sample (nearly 14 hr), 376 covered men's sports (slightly over 13 hr), 16 segments were on gender-neutral sports (just over 20 min), and only 13 segments featured women's sports (approximately 17 min). A recent article from the Wall Street Journal states "from 2016 to 2018, women's games generated about $50.8 million in revenue compared with $49.9 million for the men, according to U.S. soccer's audited financial statements" (Bachman, 2019). These numbers contrasts the idea that women's sports are not entertaining enough for the viewer or typical fan by $1.9 million. This idea stems from the male dominated sports perspective, which constantly undermines the perception of quality, effort, and potential that women's soccer exhibits. However, we can see through the caliber of women's soccer displayed most recently within the Women's FIFA World Cup of 2019 that it was on par if not better than the level of play of their male counterparts. The U.S. Women's National Team scored 13 goals against Thailand in their opening match, the most goals scored in any World Cup match in history. Media outlets though may remain concerned that increased coverage of women's sport will lead to a reduction in audience draw and advertising revenue. Amy Godoy-Pressland conducted a study that investigated the relationship between sports reporting and gender in Great Britain. She studied Great Britain's newspapers from January 2008 to December 2009 and documented how media coverage of men's sports and women's sports was fairly equal during the Olympics and then altered after the Olympics were over. "Sportswomen are disproportionately under-represented and the sheer quantity and quality of news items on sportsmen demonstrates how male athletes are represented as dominant and superior to females." She also documented how women's bodies were sexualized in photographs and written coverage, noting that the women featured were either nude, semi-nude, or wearing revealing clothing. "The sexualization of sportswomen in Sunday reporting is commonplace and aimed at the mostly male readership. It promotes the idea of female aesthetics over achievements, while the coverage of women not directly involved in sport misrepresents the place of women in sport and inferiorizes real sportswomen's achievements." The media has the ability to create or prevent interest in women's sports. Excluding women's sports from the media makes it much less likely for young girls to have role models that are women athletes. According to Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota 40% of all athletes in the United States are women but women's sports only receive about 4% of sports media coverage. This amount of coverage has decreased in the last 20 years although there has been a major increase in women athletes. Media coverage has slightly increased and this is mostly due to social networking. Social media has further exposed women sports out to the public world, and often at a much greater rate than traditional news media. Traditional media has also improved its coverage of women's sports through more exposure time and using better equipment to record the events. Recent research has shown that in the past twenty years, camera angles, slow motion replays, quality and graphics regarding the presentation of women sports has gradually improved.Cooky, C., & Lavoi, N. (2012). Playing but losing women's sports after title ix. ''Contexts,'' ''11''(1), 42–46. However, mainstream media still is far behind in its showcasing of female sports in comparison to that of men's. A study has shown that ESPN, which began airing women NCAA tournament in 2003, aired eleven women tournament segments in comparison to one-hundred men's tournament segments. ESPN and other sports outlets are airing more female-oriented sporting events; however the length of the segments are very small. This representative data is showcases a main part of the minimal interaction the media has with women athletes. Media coverage of women sports in the United States has further justified the divisional hierarchy faced by women athletes in terms of popularity and coverage. Scholarly studies (Kane, M. J., LaVoi, N. M., Fink, J. S. (2013) also show that when women athletes were given the option to pick a photo of a picture that would increase respect for their sport, they picked an on-the-court competency picture. However, when women athletes were told to pick a picture that would increase interest in their sport, 47% picked a picture that sexualized the women athlete. The UK is more representative than the United States with the BBC giving women's sports about 20% of their sports coverage (BBC spokesperson). Many women athletes in the UK do not see this as adequate coverage for the 36% of women who participate in sports. NewsChain is the first commercial publisher totally dedicated to women's sport coverage based in the UK. It is shown that only 5 percent of sports coverage on ''Sports Center'' is of women sport.


Sports equipment for girls and women

Sports equipment designed for the female body is a more recent development in women's and girl's sport. Historically, men's organized sport develops first, often leaving girls and women with the only option of using equipment originally designed for the male body, a common practice to this day. Over time these practices have revealed sports equipment can present design issues for female participants, particularly for those whose participation continues after the onset of puberty. Typically, anatomical differences between male and female bodies do not receive first consideration during the first stage of equipment design since the male body often serves as the base model due to the predominance of male participants and market demand. Women and girls will often use equipment designed for smaller men, or even boys. In some sports these differences are not adversely significant, but can be so in the case of others. Sports equipment can create sizing issues for girls and women and can also affect performance, enjoyment and satisfaction. Designers can also fail to develop equipment made to protective sensitive areas such as female genitalia and the chest area.


Sports bra

One important recent development is the
sports bra A sports bra is a bra that provides support to the breasts during physical exercise. Sturdier than typical bras, they minimize breast movement and alleviate discomfort. Many women wear sports bras to reduce pain and physical discomfort caused b ...
. Commercially available sports bras first came to market in the 1970s.


Female genital protection

Some sports require female players wear a type of female genital protection. The female equivalent of the male
jockstrap A jockstrap, also a jock (male), jill (female), strap, cup, groin guard, pelvic protector (female), supporter, or athletic supporter, is an undergarment for protecting the testes and penis or vulva during contact sports or other vigorous physi ...
is the pelvic protector, essentially a jockstrap for females, known colloquially called a "jill" or "jillstrap".


The Thoren Theory

The recent increase in female participation in sport and the problems female athletes can encounter has been highlighted in the sport of
skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...
. The " Thoren Theory", is named after USA National
Ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partia ...
champion, Jeannie Thoren, noted for her mantra, "Women are not small men". Thoren is also a member of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame.


Sex-specific sports injuries

There are some common sports injuries for which female athletes may be at a higher risk than male athletes.


Female Athlete Triad (RED-S)

One area of interest involves studying the female athlete triad, "Relative energy deficiency in sport", (RED-S).


Knee injuries

Several studies have shown that female athletes are more likely to tear their anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs) than male athletes. According to Dr. William Levine, director of
sports medicine Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since th ...
at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and the head physician for its varsity teams, female athletes are four or five times more likely than male athletes to have ACL tears. There are several different theories about why women are more prone to this injury, including the "Q theory" which highlights specific differences in male and female anatomy and
kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human health ...
. The difference in injury risk may be due to female-specific hormonal changes associated with the menstrual cycle, or due to different skeletal and muscular structures (like a wider pelvis, stronger quadriceps than hamstrings, or more elastic ligaments) that cause women to place more stress on and more easily stretch the ACL than men.


Concussions

Female athletes are also more prone to
concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration, ...
s than male athletes. They exhibit more visible symptoms of a concussion than male athletes and for a longer period of time than male athletes, a phenomenon known as the "concussion gap". However, there is no consensus on the reason women are more prone to concussions than men or experience symptoms differently. Some theories have been that women have smaller, more breakable nerve fibers in their brains, that their necks are weaker and so their brains accelerate more sharply on impact, or fluctuating hormones during menstrual cycles that make them more susceptible.


Further reading

*Dong Jinxia: ''Women, Sport and Society in Modern China: Holding Up More Than Half the Sky'', Routledge, 2002, *Allen Guttmann: ''Women's Sports: A History'', Columbia University Press 1992, *Helen Jefferson Lenskyj: ''Out of Bounds: Women, Sport and Sexuality.'' Women's Press, 1986. *Helen Jefferson Lenskyj: ''Out on the Field: Gender, Sport and Sexualities''. Women's Press, 2003.
The Nation: Sports Don't Need Sex To Sell
– NPR, Mary Jo Kane – August 2, 2011 * Else Trangbaek &
Arnd Krüger Arnd Krüger (born July 1, 1944) is a German professor of sport studies. Krüger earned his BA (English major) from UCLA in 1967 and his PhD from the University of Cologne (Modern and Medieval History) in Germany in 1971. He attended UCLA on a ...
(eds.): ''Gender and Sport from European Perspectives''. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen 1999 * LaVoi, N. M., McGarry, & J. E., Fisher, L. A. (2019). Final thoughts on women in sport coaching: Fighting the war. ''Women's Sport & Physical Activity Journal, 27''(2), 136–140.


See also

*
Women's professional sports Women's professional sports are a relatively new phenomenon, having largely emerged within the latter part of the 20th century. Unlike amateur women athletes, professional women athletes are able to acquire an income which allows them to earn a ...
*
Mixed-sex sports Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...
*
Sportswear Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical sport-specific garments ...
* Sex verification in sports * Timeline of women's sports * Women's Sports Foundation * Major women's sport leagues in North America * WTSN (TV channel) * Misogyny in sports * Participation of women in the Olympics *
Sportswear (activewear) Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical sport-specific garment ...
*
Legends Football League The Extreme Football League (X League) is an American women's semi-professional tackle football league. The league was originally founded in 2009 as the Lingerie Football League (LFL), and later rebranded as the Legends Football League in 2013. ...
*
Cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...
*
Women in WWE Throughout its history, women have served in various onscreen roles in the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. In the 1990s, WWE (then known as the World Wrestling Federation) introduced the term Diva to refer to its female performe ...
*
Janet Guthrie Janet Guthrie (born March 7, 1938) is a retired professional race car driver and the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, both in 1977. She had first attempted to enter the Indianapolis 500 in 197 ...


References


Sources

* https://www.irishtimes.com/student-hub/tackling-gender-barriers-to-sporting-equality-1.2619267


External links


History of Women in Sports Timeline


{{DEFAULTSORT:Women's sports Sports by type