Six Signs of Progress for Women’s Sports

The movement for greater opportunity, visibility, and fairness for women in sports has yielded impressive gains over the decades. While full equality is still very much an uphill battle, in recent years we’ve seen notable milestones, from increased endorsement deals for women to primetime coverage of key matches. There’s no question that every improvement has been the result of women athletes and their allies organizing, advocating, speaking out, and making personal sacrifices. In 2023, we continued to see signs of progress. Here are a few examples.

Growing Audience

In defiance of the unfounded notion that there’s no audience for women’s sports, broadcasters and advertisers have found that when they give audiences a chance, they eagerly show up. According to recent research, the share of sports coverage that goes to covering women has increased in the past few years from about 5% to 15% — a small number, but a significant increase.

• The NCAA basketball final between Louisiana State University and the University of Iowa in April was the most-viewed women’s college basketball game in history, drawing 9.9 million viewers. This was an increase of 103% from the 2022 finals viewership. According to the NCAA, the total in-person attendance for the tournament also set a new record of 357,542.
• For the 2023 WNBA season, TV viewership was up 21% and in-person attendance 16%, compared to the 2022 season. A finals game between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces drew an in-person audience of 17,143 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn — the largest attendance for a finals game in WNBA history.
• In August, the University of Nebraska women’s volleyball team broke the world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event when more than 92,000 people attended its match against Omaha at the university’s football stadium.
• In July, the LPGA set viewership records for women’s golf, as the third and final rounds of the U.S. Women’s Open as well as the final round of the Dana Open were each watched by more than 1 million viewers.
• The softball Women’s College World Series attracted an average of 1.6 million viewers, matching the viewership for the baseball College World Series.
• A total of nearly 2 million people attended the 64 matches that made up the 2023 Women’s World Cup, held across 10 stadiums in New Zealand and Australia, shattering the previous high of 1.2 million.

Sports Bars

A phenomenon made possible by having women’s sports on TV is the women’s sports bar — establishments that play only women’s sports on their many screens. The phenomenally successful Sports Bra, the first of its kind, opened in Portland, Oregon, in 2022, followed later that year by Rough & Tumble in Seattle. In 2023, it was announced that A Bar of Their Own, a new women’s sports bar, will open this spring in Minneapolis. Perhaps the success of these enterprises will inspire mainstream sports bars to institute screen parity.

Movements for Pay Equity

While the United States Women’s National Team achieved its landmark equal pay agreement in 2022, the team entered the Women’s World Cup as the only national soccer team with such a deal. But the movement for equal pay and conditions has continued to gain momentum.

FIFA, soccer’s worldwide governing body, offers women’s teams a fraction of the prize money that it gives to men’s teams. But in 2023 FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced FIFA’s “ambition” and “objective” to offer equal prize money in the 2026 and 2027 men’s and women’s World Cups. Meanwhile, in 2023 the organization added $80 million to the prize money available for women’s federations (a 300% increase) and improved amenities, accommodations, and facilities for women.

This is not close to parity, but women players from every region of the world continue to push for equal pay and conditions, and the movement is growing in strength and support. Last year’s competitive Women’s World Cup offered an opportunity for more people to get excited about the sport and rally public pressure.

Players for teams from Canada, Japan, France, and Chile, among others, have continued to press their federations for better pay and working conditions. And in March, FIFRO, the global professional players union, sent a letter signed by 150 players from 25 national soccer teams calling for equal conditions and pay in World Cup competition. In November, the Australia team reached a deal with its federation that resulted in a substantial pay increase and affirmed existing commitments to equal benefits and working conditions.

In tennis, while the U.S. Open marked 50 years of equal pay last year, other major tournaments, such as the French Open and Wimbledon, didn’t follow suit until decades later. Many lower-level tournaments still offer far less prize money to female players, and women players and their allies have been advocating for equal pay for years. In June, the Women’s Tennis Association announced a plan to institute equal prize money for men and women in most big tournaments by 2027.

Solidarity for the Spain Soccer Team

One of the most notorious stories in women’s sports last year was the ordeal endured by the Spain women’s soccer team leading up to and in the aftermath of their August victory in the Women’s World Cup. During the post-match medal ceremony, Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales kissed team forward Jenni Hermoso on the lips, a kiss Hermoso has insisted was nonconsensual. In the midst of widespread condemnation, Rubiales apologized but refused to step down until forced to do so weeks later. Meanwhile, players had been speaking out about untenable working conditions under coach Jorge Vilda — 15 players in 2022 announced that they would no longer play under his leadership.

Why does this series of events represent a sign of progress? Because of the extensive outrage throughout the soccer world and beyond, including by Spain’s prime minister, which forced unprecedented accountability from the offenders.

• Rubiales was suspended by FIFA, the governing body for soccer worldwide.
• Vilda was fired by the Spanish federation the week before Rubiales resigned.
• More than 80 Spanish players signed a letter saying they would refuse to play on the team with current leadership in place, and the entire coaching staff under Vilda resigned.
• Professional players — male and female — throughout the world showed their support for Hermoso by holding signs and donning apparel with the message “Contigo Jenni” (“With you, Jenni”).
• Prosecutors are in the process of bringing charges against Rubiales of sexual assault and coercion.

There is still a lot of work to do to improve conditions for women in soccer worldwide — and it must be noted that Jorge Vilda was subsequently hired to coach the Morocco national team — but the outcomes were the result of the power, organizing, and unity of the global women’s soccer community, and helped to galvanize resistance to abusive and unequal conditions in women’s sports.

Women’s Professional Leagues

• According to Bloomberg, the 26-year-old WNBA was on track to bring in as much as $200 million in revenue in 2023. In July, the league announced that it is planning to add two new franchises next year.
• Under the auspices of Billie Jean King Enterprises and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter, plans for the new six-team Professional Women’s Hockey League were announced in June. The league, the third women’s league begun in the last 18 years, will succeed the now-defunct Premier Hockey Federation. Supporters are hopeful that this new enterprise will have staying power, starting with an eight-year collective bargaining agreement with the players union. The first games are being played this week.
• In 2022, a major investigation documented “widespread misconduct” and abusive behavior by coaches and managers in the NWSL. In consultation with the players union, the league initiated significant reforms, and 2023 was a year of rebuilding. Regular season attendance totaled more than 1.2 million, an increase of 26% over 2022 attendance. The league also announced a 25% increase in teams’ salary cap; the addition of two new franchises in 2024; and a new four-year media rights agreement: This year 118 games will be televised or streamed, compared to 30 in 2023.

Investment in Women and Girls in Sports

Corporate investment in women’s and girls’ sports — in the form of individual sponsorships, public education campaigns, support for women’s and girls’ leagues, ad dollars for national coverage of women’s sports, and investment in new teams and leagues — is increasing. Adidas, Mattel, Athleta, Nike, and many other brands are expanding their financial support. In 2022, Ally Bank made an ambitious pledge to equalize its paid media spending on women’s and men’s sports within five years. By the end of 2023, they had reached a 60/40 split.

***

Looking ahead to 2024, the Paris Olympics will be the first with gender parity, with the same number of female and male athletes competing. As women athletes and allies continue to push for inclusion and fairness, we can expect to see more barriers broken and milestones achieved in the coming years.