Gender Stereotypes in Sports

After finishing a readthrough of the article “Female Athletes, Women’s Sport, and the Sport Media Commercial Complex: Have We Really ‘Come a Long Way, Baby?’” by Janet S. Fink (2013), I would like to further explore the concept of gender stereotypes regarding women in sport. Specifically, the impact of the highly differential media coverage between male and female athletes, which frames issues that impact “how the public perceives reality,” reinforce stereotypical gender roles, and provide a negative impact on the perception of women’s capabilities in sport (Fink, p. 2).

At the time of this article’s publishing, the 2012 Olympic Games in London had recently been held with what was perceived to be new and groundbreaking numbers. Hailed as the “Year of the Woman,” for the first time in Olympic history, every participating national delegation sent a female athlete to compete, while 44.4% of all participating athletes were women (Fink, p. 3). Although this may seem like an incredible feat for female athletes everywhere with sport participation among women being at an all-time high, this was not the case; despite these numbers, women’s sport coverage during these Olympic Games were drastically different and disparaging compared to the coverage of men’s sport, with no increase found in coverage women’s sport despite these record-breaking participation numbers and performances.

The concept of “gender marking” is evident in media coverage of women’s sport, even to this day. Take for example the official titles of several different women’s championships in sport: the Women’s NCAA Final Four, the Women’s World Cup, and even the United States Women’s Open Championship. In doing this, female athletes and their competitions are presented in the media as being “secondary status,” while men’s sports are presented as being the norm (Fink, p. 4). This creates a divide among viewers as men’s sports are established in the media as being the standard over women’s sports, which in turn shapes how the public perceives reality, in this case how they perceive gender roles in sport. So, although female athletes are competing in record numbers, their coverage in the media does not reflect this progress whatsoever.

An outside example of this concept could be an article published by Purdue University titled “Overlooking Her Shot: Women’s Sports Need an Assist as Coverage Remains the Same as 30 Years Ago” (McCarter, 2021). In the article, McCarter describes how women’s sports receive essentially the same amount of news coverage as they did in the 1980s. Specifically, in a study done in 2019, they found that coverage of women’s sports on all televised news and highlight shows, including SportsCenter, totaled a measly 5.4% of all airtime, increasing only 0.4% from the 5% recorded in 1989 (McCarter, p. 1). When female athletes are covered in sport media, the study found that the coverage is “lower in technical quality and production value” when compared to the coverage of men’s sports (McCarter, p. 1).

By looking at these examples of the lack of women’s sport coverage in media, and the lack of quality or equality thereof, it is obvious the marketing of female athletes is still an ongoing issue that has changed very little within the last 30 years despite major advancements in females’ competing and the performances they give. In conclusion, the media’s portrayal of women’s sports has created a perception of female athletes that only reinforces gender stereotypes and negatively impacts the way women are thought of as competitors regarding what they can accomplish in comparison to men. If the media is unable to do a better job of providing fair, non-misgendered coverage of women’s sports, the progress of female athletes in sport will only continue to be downplayed and ignored as time goes on.