By Imaan Hafesji
Edited by Tasmiyah Randeree & Imaan Moosa
Addressing meaningful change needs to start with fairer media coverage for women sports teams and athletes.
Muslim activist & athlete Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir. Photo: Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir.
The gender pay gap in the sports industry is not new news. Only 0.5 per cent of sponsorship dollars are reserved for women in sports, with men’s sport taking the lion’s share of 61.1 per cent. To add insult to injury, researchers have found that women’s sports coverage, across both print and broadcast media, only averages around 4%.
However, writer Anya Alvarez, who focuses on gender and politics in sport, sought to challenge the root cause behind this shockingly disproportionate statistic for an article in the Guardian, saying: “There is systemic sexism in sports that leads to unequal pay which starts with how women are marketed by their own leagues.”
Looking into the direct promotion and marketing of women’s sports teams was never something I heavily considered as part of the problem, but a little bit of digging had me wondering how I never had.
Take one of the most prolific case studies in women’s football – the US women’s football world cup win in 2015. It was reported that players were paid a quarter of what their male counterparts earned, in spite of making $20m more that year.
A team that generated more money than the US men’s football team still earned less money and received less recognition for the year. If bog-standard outright sexism wasn’t reason enough to justify how this doesn’t make an ounce of sense, perhaps this might:
The women’s national team proceeded to file a gender discrimination lawsuit against their employer, the US Soccer Federation, in 2019 over “institutionalized gender discrimination”.
Caitlin Murray, a defined voice in US soccer reporting, identified the lawsuit alleges that the federation made more compensation available overall to the men as well as the men’s team benefiting from “more marketing and higher ticket prices” compared to women.
Alvarez notes in an article for the Guardian that a clear argument is apparent here: women’s sports teams are allocated a far lower marketing budget and less adequate promotion in comparison to men. This can, and most likely does, lead to lower attendance rates and overall less sales across tickets and merchandise.
She goes on to make a staggering point. The root of the problem isn’t solely to do with the amount women athletes are paid but rather the “lack of foundation that they have to build from, to capitalize on their talent”.
Steadily, the paradigm is starting to shift. Take the newly founded sports media company Togethxr. Togethxr, created by four women Olympians, describes itself as the "intersection of lifestyle, culture and sports", which hopes to grab the attention of young women by elevating their voices.
Togethxr founders. Top left to bottom right: Simone Manuel, Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Sue Bird. Photo: The New York Times.
The stars behind the organization are US national team footballer Alex Morgan, snowboarding Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim, two-time Olympic gold medalist for swimming Simone Manuel and pro-basketball player Sue Bird.
Togethxr has already started building a presence on social media with bigger-scale projects in the pipeline, including a show about 17-year-old boxer Chantel Navarro and more long-form content for distribution on streaming platforms.
Similarly, Tiktok saw the hashtag #WomenInSports trending with 401.8 million users getting involved. Posts highlighted creators across the industry sharing insights, from “tips for first-time wheelchair tennis players” to renowned football TV presenters, such as Alison Bender, shedding light on how they prepare for big games to “ways to land sports jobs that no one’s told you about.”
Flipping the switch to a more grassroots, community-led initiative ASRA club, founded by researcher, writer, and running coach Sahra-Isha, creates a “safe and inclusive space centering Muslim women in sports with the aim to unlock their inner athletes”.
Isha, drawing on her own personal experience of feeling split seconds of intimidation on the running track due to its male-dominated nature, goes on to say that ASRA aims to be a space for women where explanations and justifications for being there are not needed. The only criteria are a shared interest in running, wellness, and sisterhood.
Photo: ASRA Club.
Initiatives such as a Togethxr, ASRA, and viral trending movements much like TikTok’s #WomenInSports have an opportunity to truly amplify and elevate women’s voices in sports.
Creating the spaces and environments for female athletes to feel empowered, understood and recognised is an effort that could lead to a larger ripple effect within the wider industry and sports culture.
The inclusion of culture when discussing women’s sports is a vital move in achieving long-standing influence. Australian football journalist Samantha Lewis observes that the sports economy is a “by-product of sports culture”, which isn’t something instantly able to change.
She suggests that given the long-term exclusion of women’s prominence in sports, there hasn’t been an opportunity to fairly integrate women into sports culture quite like male sports.
Lewis goes on to say that the dominance of women’s sports is still in its “adolescent stages … fighting to be taken seriously”.
Over time, if media outlets and social media feeds give way to champion women athletes and sport organisations, this has a chance to reach greater heights and evolve into something far more rooted, leading to a redesign of the industry and culture surrounding it.
Much is yet to be done with respect to equal pay, but equal emphasis needs to be paid to destigmatizing interest in women in sports by developing strategic tactics and doing without aimless puff promotion.
Meaningful impact starts with enhancing visibility that seeks to respect and elevate the sport and its players as ones to watch, support, and admire.