International Women’s Day was Sunday March 8th and with the exception of the NHL, we noticed the sports world was a little shy of women. The NHL celebrated by having an all-female crew broadcast and produce Sunday’s game, which matched the St. Louis Blues against the Chicago Blackhawks.
But otherwise if you were looking to celebrate International Women’s Day in the sports world, you couldn’t.
Women in sports by the numbers.
There are:
- 60 million female sports fans in the U.S. alone (we see you, Canada.)
- 40% of professional athletes are women.
- 95% of sports content is about men.
- Stories about female athletes are 50% shorter than about their male counterparts.
Because:
- Only 9% of sports editors are women.
- Only 11% of sports stories are produced by women.
On any given day, if you scroll through ESPN, Bleacher, CBS Sports, or Yahoo Sports, you’ll be hard pressed to find a story about a female coach, athlete or executive on the homepage, or the first few tabs.
On International Women’s Day:
- ESPN’s homepage had three stories about women (one of which was about Steph Curry)
- Bleacher’s homepage had one woman.
- Yahoo Sports had three stories about women (one of which is “Most Attractive Weather Girls”)
- CBS Sports had not one woman on its homepage.
So while women have made huge strides in the world of sports, when it comes to issues like equal pay and representation there is still much work to do. The USWNT continues its fight for equal pay and gender equality. And ESPN still allocates just 2% of its airtime to covering women in sports. Is it lack of interest or lack of coverage?
Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of interest and very little coverage. So clearly when it comes to sports, women need a lot more than day. And, we need a lot more than very little coverage.
Interested in more women crushing it in the sports world? Click here.
