Throughout the 2020s more attention has been put on women’s sports in the media, allowing fans to have more access to watch their favorite women’s sports.. With the four major league sports, baseball, football, hockey and basketball being dominated by men, it becomes extremely difficult for female sports to get equal screen time. Since 2019, the amount of attention on women’s sports in the media has almost tripled. During the last few years, the 16% increase has allowed millions of people to finally experience the importance of women’s athletics.
Women’s basketball has been one of the focal points of sports within the decade. The WNBA has increased its viewership by about 165% and is totalling around 1.2 million viewers since 2023. In the past two years the sport has gained the most attention it has ever received since its start in 1996. This huge leap was a result of the attention women’s college basketball was getting during Caitlin Clark’s time at The University of Iowa. The star point guard was a huge part of the women’s college basketball championship, which ended up having more viewership than the men’s championship. When Clark was drafted to the Indiana Fever in 2024, merchandise purchases for the WNBA increased by 500%.
Not only did women’s basketball increase their viewership by an impressive amount, but between 2023 and 2024, viewers spent a total of 1.3 billion minutes watching women’s college volleyball on ESPN. The past two years have truly been the time for college volleyball with the women’s NCAA tournament breaking records during both the regionals and semifinals for most-watched women’s college volleyball games ever. With the increased coverage the sport was receiving during 2023, the University of Nebraska’s volleyball team was able to rally 92,003 fans to Omaha. This game not only set the record for most attended women’s volleyball game, but set the record for most attendance at any women’s sports event.
Continuing on with the trend, the 2024 Olympic sports had an even split between male and female competitors for the first time in history. This ratio resulted in the most media coverage for women’s sports that the games have ever seen, including rugby, track and field, gymnastics, tennis, rowing and surfing.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was founded in August 2023 to allow women’s hockey players to have an opportunity that extends past college hockey. Despite this being a huge opportunity for women’s hockey players, their pay is much less than the majority of professional athletes. Compared to male NHL players, the PWHL’s average salary is around 80,000 with the average starting salary for NHL players being around 750,000. However, the league’s viewership will continue to grow as they add more teams over time.
With the increase in coverage of collegiate and professional women’s sports, more and more girls are inspired to get involved in athletics. Wrestling was the fastest growing high school sport for girls in 2024, alongside volleyball and hockey, which had a massive increase in participation. By seeing that women are capable of succeeding in professional sports, many young girls have been inspired to achieve their goals in athletics.
