Amanda Paull

WR#12 TA#2
COMM231- 0101
Oct. 22, 2015
A#2 Mainbar: Women in Sports

Women in sports tackled by Shirley Povich Center Panelists

Issues of gender inequality shown through women in sports
Panel discusses present and future of female athletes
Imagine a world of screaming fans packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a stadium thundering
with support. Outside the stadium, ticket scalpers all scream over each other, offering the limited
number of tickets at a high rate. Inside the stadium, the local WNBA team competes against their
rival, the game of the century. Now, imagine the same local NBA team is playing next door, and
their scarce stadium offers free admission to passers-by, hoping for more fans. Hard to imagine
this world right?
During a presentation on October 13, the Shirley Povich Center convened a panel to
discuss female athletes and womens sports, and how all women in this field go through a
separate set of challenges than men. At the discussion, the panelists discussed women journalists
compared to men, and the support of female sports compared to male sports.
Analyzing the present
In 2015, womens sports are very different than mens sports. To begin, the support of
womens sports through funding, number of fans, and media coverage are very different.

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A. Paull, W/R#12 TA#2, A#2: Mainbar Women in sports p. 2

As discussed in the panel, women get a significantly lower amount of money allocated
for their league and as a result, women get paid significantly less than men. According to the
Womens Sports Foundation, for a WNBA player in the 2015 season, the maximum salary was
$109,500, while in the NBA the maximum salary was $16.407 million (Pay Inequity in
Athletics 2015).
Kelly Mehrtens, the Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Operating Officer at the
University of Maryland said It goes back to the commitment behind the money. The leagues
need to see things through.
Media coverage is also drastically different for men versus women.
Female athletes typically have more human interest stories about them because that is
what sells, said David Meeks, USA Todays sports editor. The
public likes to read about their personal lives, while the male
athletes are the ones who receive more articles about their playing
ability.
Female athletes are not the only ones suffering because of
this social disconnect. Female journalists are also affected. It is
not yet commonplace to see a locker room full of female
journalists.
Christy Winters-Scott, professional basketball
commentator said, As a female reporter, you have to work to gain respect while males are
usually given respect as soon as they walk in the locker room.
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Junior journalism major Emily Olsen is a female reporter for D.C. United who deals with
issues because of her gender. Olsen said, I often face criticism and pressure from other
journalists simply because I am a girl. It is a challenge I deal with on a daily basis.
Striving for a better future
While there is a lot that needs to be done, there has also been steps in the right direction.
EA Sports video game FIFA has recently released female players, making this one of the first
sports video games which includes women.
The main way to increase support of womens sports all goes back to media coverage.
The disconnect between male athletes coverage and womens coverage lessens the support of
the females.
Mehrtens said, Women in sports media is an outlet that helps drive perceptions and
views. Change will happen if media can position womens sports in the mind of the consumer.
Agreeing with Mehrtens, Lindsay Simpson, director of digital content at D.C. United said
The first step to changing the perception of women in sports begins with their coverage in the
media. The media has a big microphone.

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Christy Winters-Scott explains the differences between

men and women reporters
Credit: Amanda Paull

References

Pay Inequity in Athletics. (2015). Retrieved October 24, 2015.