Underfunded & Under the Radar: The Continued Undervaluation of Women in Sports

During the 2021 March Madness Tournaments, University of Oregon forward Segona Prince posted a now-viral TikTok of a comparison between the men's and women's weight rooms. Around the same time, Stanford University’s sports performance coach Ali Kershner posted an Instagram photo comparing the weight room set-up. The male players received a high-quality, designated room that was filled with training machines and equipment comparable to those created for professional teams. In contrast, the female weight room consisted of a rack of weights and a few yoga mats. These posts created a different type of “March Madness” as players, fans, and advocates quickly took to social media to express their anger at what is described as discrimination and disrespect towards the female teams. The seemingly simple comparison of weight rooms is just a small sliver of the inequities female athletes face in sports despite progress within the field. To understand the disparities that exist within athletic participation within schools, it is important to acknowledge the history of Title IX and how the work of this Education Amendment is not done.

Title IX in relation to sports participation:

In passing Title IX of the Education Amendments in 1972, Congress intended to give girls and women opportunities equal to those offered to boys and men in all education programs receiving taxpayer dollars. Before Title IX, schools limited the participation of women and girls with quotas. Female athletics programming generally consisted of cheerleading and with the exception of historically black colleges and universities, virtually no college offered women athletic scholarships. Title IX was designed to be a strong and comprehensive measure that would tackle all these forms of discrimination and more. Title IX specifically states that:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

20 U.S.C. § 1681

Women’s and girl’s increased participation in sports, advances in summer and winter Olympic Games, and the creation of nationally televised professional women’s basketball and soccer leagues demonstrate Title IX’s success. But these successes are not necessarily what Title IX is all about. Rather, the quest for equal opportunity in sports has always been about the physiological, sociological, and psychological benefits of sports and physical activity. Women still face scrutiny and stereotyping because of social norms, which define women as being fragile, less capable, and passive. Additionally, sports have always been viewed as a masculinized entity, and therefore, women are perceived as intruding on male boundaries.

Research studies have found that girls who play sports enjoy greater physical and emotional health and are less likely to engage in a host of risky health behaviors (i.e., drug use, smoking, and drinking) than nonparticipants. Other studies have linked sports participation to reduced incidences of breast cancer and osteoporosis later in life. Yet compared to boys, girls enjoy 30% fewer opportunities to participate in high school and college sports and are twice as likely to be inactive. Much distance remains between the current status of women and girls in sports and the ultimate goal of gender equity.

Although the resources and benefits allocated to female athletes have improved significantly with the passing of Title IX, they still fall short of what equity requires. Even 50 years after the passing of Title IX, the gap is still significant and closing too slowly due to institutions not exercising restraint on men’s sports expenditures while women’s sports try their best to catch up. While women make up more than half the population of NCAA athletes, male athletes at Division I-FBS schools receive 2.5 times the funding women receive at the same level. The numbers are wildly disproportionate: females receive just 28% of athletic money, 31% recruitment funding, and 42% of the scholarship money.

Recommendations for Institutions:

Given the absence of equal opportunity for women in sports after 50 years, there is a continued need to enforce and bolster Title IX policies within the college athletic sector. Some recommendations for school athletic administrations:

• Develop a comprehensive enforcement plan that includes conducting compliance reviews in areas where inequalities persist

• Designate at least one person as Title IX coordinator to organize efforts to comply with Title IX and to investigate Title IX complaints

• Inform students and notify staff of the people responsible for Title IX compliance and provide notice of nondiscrimination materials readily available for athletes”

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