Women’s sports appear to be inching into the spotlight in the bright arena of men’s sports. According to a study conducted by Purdue University in 2021, women’s sports only made up 5.4% of sports coverage in 2019 — similarly low to 5% and 5.1% in 1989 and 1993, respectively.

This trend is apparent to the MVHS community as 70% of MVHS students believe that women’s sports are underrepresented in the media in a survey of 115 students. Junior and Varsity Girls Volleyball server Shannon Yu believes that part of the issue stems from the stereotypical culture around women’s sports.

“There’s definitely some inherent patriarchy to the whole depiction of sports in the media,” Yu said. “A lot of sports are seen as, ‘Oh, you have to be strong. You have to be biologically and physically and mentally tough to play a sport,’ but I feel like people ignore the fact that women can be strong too and that women can absolutely have the power to hit a ball or to throw something or to leap high in the air. I feel like that gets lost in translation way too much of the time.”

To make the problem worse, Cornell University freshman and MVHS alum ‘24 Lillian Wang says that there is a positive feedback loop in which people tend to not watch women’s sports, causing less media coverage of women’s sports games. This, in turn, makes people even less inclined to watch women’s sports.

As a contributor to ESPN’s sports coverage at Cornell, Wang believes that ESPN doesn’t have any significant bias in men’s versus women’s sports coverage at the university due to substantial coverage of both. This differs from the depiction in professional sports. However, they do notice a difference in the fanbase that attends the games. According to Wang, Cornell, known for ice hockey, promotes the men’s sports more than the women’s. 

“There’s a lot of super unique, dedicated chants that are dedicated to the men’s scene,” Wang said. “I didn’t really hear any of that when I was covering a women’s ice hockey game. The stadiums for the men’s games are completely packed with people screaming and sometimes they throw fish or toothpaste on the ice rink, but I don’t think anything like that happens for the women’s teams. There’s definitely less of a culture around the women’s ice hockey team.” 

Senior and Varsity Girls Basketball player Miya Kosakura has personally seen the cultural difference at women’s sports games. She recalls seeing her parents and sister attending a WNBA finals game after getting inexpensive tickets the same day, something she says would not be possible for an NBA game. Along with the societal attitudes surrounding women’s sports, Kosakura believes there is another factor at play: the timing of sports seasons.

“The WNBA season is very short compared to the NBA season,” Kosakura said. “It’s basically just summer, and so it’s during the off-season of NBA sports. So I don’t think many people are even aware of their season and when they’re playing.”

However, Kosakura believes that the narrative around women’s sports has been changing in recent months. She recalls seeing TikTok edits of female basketball players Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark, rallying fans around female athletics. Additionally, Kosakura says the rise in popularity for March Madness has drawn more attention to women’s sports.

Similarly, Yu has noticed that sometimes when opening her social media feed, the first post she sees is related to women’s sports. She believes that thanks to the outpouring of online support by women’s sports fans, progress is being made to combat gender disparities in sports, especially after a world record was set for attendance for a women’s volleyball game in Nebraska in August 2023.

“I am looking forward to really positive outcomes in terms of views and people owning up to the fact that we’ve been focused on male dominated sports for so long,” Yu said. “[In Nebraska], people were filling the stadium and bought every single ticket available just to watch a women’s volleyball game. That made a big impact on me because as somebody who plays that sport and doesn’t see a lot of recognition for the other people who do, it’s amazing that an entire state could come and fill the stadium with viewers and give support to these female athletes.”

Yu believes that the media will continue to play a key role in expanding coverage of women’s sports, especially as social media coverage of women’s sports gains popularity. For student athletes like Kosakura, this media comes in the form of local organizations like 49ers Cal-Hi Sports, which she says provides an important outlet for promoting high school athletics of both genders. Ultimately, Wang believes that more people should take advantage of opportunities to watch women’s sports events, building the recognition and respect these athletes deserve.

“I think women’s sports are actually really interesting,” Wang said. “They’re as interesting as men’s sports, if you really take the time to watch them. I think people should definitely give it a try because I think it’s cool and interesting and there’s not that much of a difference. The fact is that men’s sports are disproportionately more popular for more cultural reasons than anything to do with actual gameplay.”