The Advancement of Women's Sports

There is no denying that women have made huge strides in the field of sport. Over the past hundred years, women have gone from being limited in sport by men to resisting the limitations that men had put on them to slowly creeping towards gender equality in sport. I am writing this piece tonight to tell you that, while women have made huge strides in recent years, the world of sport is nowhere near equal in terms of men's and women's representation. I do not know this for sure but I would guess that 20 years ago you would be hard pressed to find a Tuesday night Big Ten Conference women's basketball game being broadcasted on national television but many women's games are indeed broadcasted on national television on a nightly basis. Some would say that, because of the statement that I just made, women's sports are on equal footing with men's sports. Just because women's sport has gone from men fearing about a women damaging her reproductive system while engaging in sport to women's sports being televised on national television like the men, the two are not equal. Much more emphasis is put on men's sports than women's sports. A recent example that would be applicable in this case would be the UCONN women's basketball record winning streak. The question of if the UCONN women's team broke the UCLA men's record would it be as meaningful or should the streak be put into separate categories because the UCONN team was female is a perfect example of the way in which society still views women that participate in sport to be lower than men.