21 Media, Tickets, and Pay: How Sports Perpetuate Gender Norms

Keywords: Sports, equality, media,

Sports have always been at the forefront of social entertainment. Spectators appreciate sports as a wholesome form of competitive entertainment while others get personally invested and view it as a form of ‘war’ – but sports have never the less always brought people together. Historically, women’s participation and accomplishments in sports have been marginalized. While women’s rights have come a long way, sport today continues to be a hyper-scaled sphere skewed in favour of male dominance. So, why does this happen and why does it continue to be this way? This article will utilize a critical lens to dive into some of the gender perception problems that accompany sports, the role of sports media and how society at large perpetuates gender differences. 

“You throw like a girl” is a phrase that we have all heard at some point in our lives. The phrase has been used in the context of an insult regardless of whether it is applied to a woman or a man. The derogatory nature of the phase makes it seem that any girl throwing a ball would be substandard as compared to the throw of a boy. But what are the origins of this sexist judgment? To answer that question we must look at how we generally frame sports and gender as a society. There is a historical separation between boys and girls, most significantly, within sports. Sports are often not viewed as a ‘womanly’ pursuit and so the number of opportunities for girls to even play sports were limited. “In the 1800s women were encouraged to participate only in recreational sports such as horseback riding and swimming.”(Georgia State University 2022). Thus, not only was the number of female participants less, each sport was divided strictly along gender lines. As a result, we rarely see co-ed sports being incorporated into our athletic sphere growing up. This may also be because there are very few co-ed sports at a professional level. This creates a divide at a young age where it becomes acceptable to criticize an athlete’s performance strictly based on their gender.

It would be far too simplistic to blame males for the perpetuation of gender stereotypes in sports (Canadian Women’s Foundation, 2014). While males do account for a lot of gender discrimination, it is clear that there is room for improvement for both genders in erasing stereotypical judgments and language. From a young age, we begin to see the world around us act and enforce gender roles. Thus, we start to define what is and what is not within our gendered sphere. “She’s like one of the guys” is another phrase that is often used when describing the merits of letting a girl participate with a group of boys. As discussed shortly, media also contributes to these enduring beliefs through the choices made by media in its portrayal of the ‘perfect’ feminine body. 

The image of female athletes as being less capable than men has led to the development of different standards for the sexes, even within the same sport. Some examples of rule changes based on gender include: in Grand Slam tennis tournaments, women play best of three sets while men play best of five; in cross-country skiing, men’s mass event starts at 50 kilometres and women’s start at 30; in Olympic hockey, women must wear a face mask when men do not need to (Chamberlin 2019). These types of differences continue to help push the divide. The original rules have been shaped or altered to accommodate the less capable female athletes. Many people argue that these changes are for biological reasons, but what is the scientific basis for concluding that female athletes cannot play best of 5 tennis? Or that their facial skin is more susceptible to injury than a man’s? The idea that we feel the need to change how the event takes place based on gender associated biological reasons is exactly why the narrative that women aren’t “as strong” as men has developed. 

When we are comparing athletes and men vs women, we often forget we are looking at a hyper-successful group of people. Instead of celebrating the success of these athletes universally we often dilute it down to one factor, men vs women. Again, there is often no objective standard to warrant a diminishment of female athletic accomplishments. The average female softball player can throw a softball at speeds up to 77 mph (Wikimedia 2022) when most average people could only hope to throw a ball at 50 mph. In the 100m dash in the Olympics, Usain Bolt holds the male record for the 100m sprint at 9.58s, while Florence Griffith Joyner, an American female sprinter holds the record for women at 10.49s. Do these fractional differences justify gendered divides concerning athletic performance? And if numbers are the sole driver for respect, why is Christine Sinclair not as widely respected as Cristiano Ronaldo or Leo Messi? As of September 6, 2022, Christine Sinclair had scored 190 goals in 317 games to become the soccer player with the most international goals, male or female (Wikimedia 2022). Behind all this, our society hides behind biological factors to create a narrative that there is an inherent difference between gender.  

Much of our perception is driven by the media and the choices they make regarding coverage. “‘Over the past 30 years, we have not seen meaningful change in the amount of coverage female athletes receive,” said Cheryl Cooky, a professor of interdisciplinary studies at Purdue University.” (Purdue 2021). Historically, men’s sports have been at the focus of sporting channels airtime. This is for a multitude of reasons such as the “holy trinity”. The “holy trinity” is a concept by Steven Jackson that states that for nationalistic masculinity there are three aspects: alcohol, masculinity and sport. Sports have always been a way for beer companies and others to reach out and target a male audience. The companies know that they can count on having a large, captive male audience to receive their pitch. Because of the size of the potential audience, sports channels can charge a higher amount for advertising space – the sheer economics mean that the sports media have a vested interest in providing wide coverage of men’s sports. 

This increase in airtime for men’s sports also gives room to celebrate these athletes and their accomplishments outside of the sport. Many male athletes use their profiles to also promote worthy charitable causes – which become indirectly supported by the sports media which gives the male athletes more airtime. At the same time, female athletes are largely kept out of the spotlight without giving them the space to celebrate accomplishments and use them to gain a following. In terms of actual airtime, there have been next to no changes to how much women’s sports get shown in the media. Purdue found that in 1989 women’s sports made up 5% of sports channels’ airtime while in 2019 it made up 5.4%. The same study found that taking the World Cup (soccer) out of it decreased women’s airtime by 3.5%. The available airtime is substandard with lower budget productions with fewer commentators, less editing, lower quality and less excitement. Building this excitement is the job of these media companies and they are routinely failing women’s sports. (Purdue 2021)

Creating and offering more prime time slots for women’s sports on television is extremely important. Not only would it assist in creating a social wave that could create a wider audience attracted to watching women’s sports, but there are also massive benefits that come along with it. One of the biggest reasons to show and celebrate women’s sports more is to create role models. Young women need athletic role models, and while male athletes can still be role models for female athletes, it is important to show young women role models that are a reflection of themselves. Accessibility to female athletes and their accomplishments is key to driving excitement and respect for female athletes.

The lack of more fulsome media coverage is generally attributed to the fact that women’s sports do not generate the same ticket sales as men’s and cannot generate the same large audience thus, advertising revenues are less. The failure to significantly promote female sports in the media leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy since if women’s sports are shown less, the audience will always be less. This has led, not only to a significant difference in public profile but also a tremendous pay gap for the athletes.

The pay gap has always been a part of gendered suffering. In 2020, based on average non-sports annual earnings, men earned about 29% more than women in Canada (Pay Equity Office Ontario). In sports, this is made exponentially worse. Adelphi University in New York took a look at the 2019 averages for certain sports. Basketball is a wildly popular sport in North America with both a men’s league and a women’s division of the NBA known as the WNBA. However, the average men’s NBA player earned approximately $8,321,937 (Adelphi University 2021) while the average women’s WNBA player earned approximately $75,181 (Adelphi University 2021). This does not take into consideration the fact that many athletes have the opportunity to increase their earnings through sponsorships – which are more readily available to men than women. Further, the prize winnings for tournament placements are often far larger for men than women. In 1973, Wimbledon equalized the prize money for men and women but it took until 2007 for the other Grand Slam tennis tournaments to catch up (Tignor 2021) – and tennis remains an anomaly compared to most sports. A big part of this pay gap comes from massive endorsements through media that athletes sign. If women’s sports don’t get publicity, people won’t watch, they won’t attend the events, and big companies won’t see them as a worthy investment.

While men are generally blamed for the lack of focus on female sports, we must look at the deeper societal problems that have contributed to this form of gender discrimination. In terms of viewership, in a study conducted about viewership done by Shauna Moran at GWI, she found that viewership is a problem for women’s sports because of both genders. Men as well as women tend to watch male-only sports teams, while 25% of men also watch women’s only teams; only 32% of women also follow a women’s only team. While this is can be attributed to media attention for women’s sporting events, it is also to understand that this is not solely a male-driven problem. Women must as well engage in watching women’s only teams. Not only that, it is even more important for women (and men) to be going to women’s only sporting events in person. The more tickets sold, the more popular the event, the more media coverage.

Even if female athletes get airtime, the coverage often has an inappropriate focus. “There is often a focus on women’s sex appeal and femininity rather than their athletic accomplishments” (Prior 2019). We know the media to be such an influential part of how we value and treat certain aspects of our lives. Often, men’s sports and athletes are ascribed this “toughness” and “grit” that comes along with the work ethic of playing a professional sport. However, women’s media and sports media often have a focus on having to be physically and modernly attractive while also having to be an elite athlete – no one requires male athletes to also be attractive. “Negative stigmas are often attached to athletic women, and consequently are used as a mechanism to control and limit women’s participation in sports.” (Chinurum, Lucas & O’Neill 2014). Much is often also made about the fact that a female athlete is a mother – as if it is even more amazing if they have athletic success despite being a parent. Many male athletes are fathers but this is not highlighted as something that contributes to them being a successful athlete. “They [women] are treated as fragile and encouraged to constantly monitor and control their bodies to avoid embarrassment or unattractiveness.” (Barker & Scheele Pg 39). Young women may stay away from these activities due to this “tomboy” look because they wish to avoid the label. This means that while professional women athletes compete, they must also do so in a way that aligns with society’s overall view of femininity. 

In 2009, Bradley Wright wrote an article about the differences in how female athletes are portrayed in media. He uses the example of an ESPN magazine article about an extremely talented female basketball player, Candace Parker, to highlight the differences. Wright writes: “Then I read the article about Candace Parker…[H]ere are its opening lines:…’ Candace Parker is beautiful. Breathtaking, really, with flawless skin, endless legs and a C cup she is proud of but never flaunts. She is also the best at what she does, a record-setter, a rule-breaker, a redefiner.’ Can you imagine any mainstream magazine taking a similar approach to a male athlete? “Baseball player…is a hunk. A complete hunk with chiselled features, rippling biceps, and a larger-than-average penis that he is proud of but never flaunts.” Ah, I don’t think so.” (Wright 2009) It is daunting that in the last 13 years so little progress has been made in addressing media stereotypes of female athletes. “A 2018 study in Body Image (2019) found female Olympic athletes featured in Sports Illustrated issues are most often posed in ways unrelated to their sport (i.e. posed, facing the camera, smiling, tight clothing). In contrast, the magazine portrayed male athletes predominantly in action with their sport or training, highlighting their endurance and strength.” (Turner 2022) There is much work still to be done to ensure that female athletes’ media profiles are not overwhelmingly tainted with sexualization.

While some people may argue that it is more important to address other spheres of gender discrimination, given the pervasive nature of sports there is significant value in taking proactive steps to narrow the gender gap. “Sports are a telling reflection of a society’s values, and they are a significant contributor as well, especially in the United States. Sports impact our culture, our other sources of entertainment and our economy.” (Arkansas State University 2020). Sports crosses all cultures and has the ability during an event to influence a large audience – all of whom are sharing a collective experience. If all participants in sports – athletes, coaches/managers, organizations, and media – made a conscious effort to eliminate the gender divide between female and male athletes and sports, the trickle-down effect on the rest of society could be profound. 

So, how can we begin to address gender discrimination in sports? Just as the problem is multi-faceted, it will take action on several fronts to address the ineqality. Firstly and most importantly, we must reframe how we view female athletes and women’s sports entirely. Scrap the old dialogue of who is better – men or women – and start to celebrate both as separate entities. This starts at a societal level. We have this insatiable need as children, teens, and adults to compare men against women and vice versa in sports to prove the ‘superiority’ of one sex. “With the evolution of gender roles in our society, we have started to see women participate in certain sports that were at one time only associated with one gender. The definition of a female athlete has also changed. Women athletes today are not only seen in a feminine manner, but also as a more emotional and physically empowered individual that younger athletes can look up to.” (Chinurum, Lucas & O’Neill 2014). With this more modern perspective, we can shift societal dialogue – recognizing the sporting accomplishments of all athletes without resorting to a childish playground narrative of which gender is ‘better’ or engaging in juvenile sexist descriptors. 

Secondly, the media needs to do much better in how it portrays female athletes. Coverage needs to be significantly improved – both quantitatively and qualitatively. Language and image choice are critical to changing public perception which will help educate the wider society. Media sources need to put a higher importance on bringing the overall level of quality and excitement around women’s sports up. A good example of how increased exposure can generate excitement comes from women’s hockey in the recent February 2022 Olympics. The women’s final (Canada vs. the USA) was heavily publicized and generated an audience of 3.54 million – making it the second most-watched hockey game in 2019 – male or female. (The Athletic 2022) This demonstrates that female sports can generate an audience when given the opportunity to shine.

Advertisers and sponsors need to make a conscious decision to expend resources on promoting and supporting female athletes. This will be challenging since advertising budgets cannot just exponentially expand and it is hard to ask such big corporations to forego spending all of their marketing resources on the currently much larger audience for male sports. The payoff for investing now is that it will mean a larger audience for female sports in the future – but it can be difficult to get financially motivated companies to view the wider social impact of their actions. Companies may be more inclined to invest in female sports when they can see that their target audience appreciates and supports their investment.

That leads us to the final point in narrowing the gender divide in sports: the consumer. Consumers wield enormous power when they act in a concerted manner. If readers of print media complained every time a sexualized description was used for a female athlete, the publishers would make more of an effort to ensure that articles are appropriately focused on the athlete’s accomplishments, not their gender. If consumers regularly and intentionally purchased the products of those corporations that openly supported female sports, other corporations would start to follow suit. If consumers bought more tickets and attended more female sports, the audience would grow – and the money would follow.  

Sports will always be a massive part of our society but it could do more to help close the gender differences in sports. Patriarchal narratives in sports have diminished the accomplishments of female athletes and created ingrained stereotypes that portray women as less capable or strong. Although daunting, with a concerted effort from all consumers and participants of sports, it is possible to use sports as a vehicle for change. 

References:

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