For years, many female sports have been regarded as “not entertaining” and “unimportant” by the general public. These disrespectful terms have created negative stereotypes about female athletics, making them viewed as less important than male sports.
The average National Basketball Association (NBA) salary is $10 million, whereas WNBA players only receive an average of $120,000 annually. The average WNBA wage is lower than the average men’s NIL, or college players salary of $171,000 per year. Similarly in the NHL players get around $3.5 million whereas in the PWHL average is only $58,000. Professional women and men athletes put in the same amount of time and effort into their sport. It takes serious dedication and discipline to get to this level; however, they do not receive the same level of appreciation and pay.
“It’s disappointing. The women around our league deserve the same amount of respect. People should not be using my name to push those agendas,” Indiana Fever point guard Caitlyn Clark said in a 2024 interview with CBS Sports.
Women make up 40% of participants in professional sports; however, the University of Southern California and Purdue University found that women’s sports received only around 5% attention on television and the web. The lack of coverage for female athletes discourages younger athletes from wanting to continue to pursue a career in sports. It fosters the idea that sports are only designed for male participation and female sports are less competitive, intense and entertaining to watch. The stigma around female sports has to be broken with athletes receiving increased pay, more attention and more support; this can start here at Walpole High School (WHS).
In recent years at WHS, girls field hockey, lacrosse, softball, basketball and cheer have all won a Bay State League championship. Girls cross country placed second at divisionals in 2024 and girls basketball made it to the Elite Eight in this season’s playoffs. Still, through all of this, the attention given to the female teams is not nearly the same as given to that of the men’s teams. Boys football, hockey and basketball teams receive significant student support at all of their home games, along with away games and playoffs. All girls sports games, no matter how important the game is, do not receive nearly the same amount of support that an average boys home game would.
“As much as I do think that we are treated equally as a female sport overall, I don’t know that the support is there equally,” softball coach and WHS math teacher Rachel Sprague said.
At WHS, boy’s football, hockey and basketball games draw large crowds and typically always have a student section to support no matter how far away the game is as they are viewed as a way to bring students together. At games, the student section creates chants and dresses in different themes for each game. However, very few female games at WHS sports games receive anywhere near the same amount of student support. Home games may have some student support from players’ friends, but nowhere near the capacity of a boy’s game. Even female state championship games do not receive as much student support as an average in season football game.
“My players work really hard and we have had a lot of success over the years and we are so happy with the support that we get at games, but then to turn around and see a baseball game with an entire student section, and we don’t have any student support,” Sprague said.
Walpole’s football team’s “Friday Night Lights” attracts large amounts of student attendance here at WHS. Whether the attraction is due to the team’s capabilities or the sport itself, it mainly stems from how the games are regarded and talked about by students and even the public.
“The argument that girls’ sports just aren’t as good or don’t compete at a high level doesn’t make sense because there are female teams at our school that perform at a high level compared to their opponents. So it’s not like the games are unwatchable, it just needs to be exposed more,” WHS sophomore football player Mebastion said.
New Athletic Director David St. Martin, has attended many of both the girls and boys sporting events for Walpole and has noticed a major difference in crowd scale.
“When I go to the games there are definitely a lot more people that go to the boys games then the girls games. The players feed off the energy; when you’re in an empty gym and empty rink I think it’s harder to participate, but I think when the students and their friends are there and they are cheering everyone on it definitely helps,” St. Martin said.
Softball, a sport which has been Bay State champions and has won state, gets little student attention and support. In comparison to baseball, the lack of support is upsetting to all of the athletes and does not go unnoticed. Grace Todd has been on the WHS varsity softball team since her freshman year and feels that the lack of student attendance at games is frustrating.
“If more people come then it definitely feels like motivation to do better,” Todd said.
Freshman varsity athletes hope to see a change in this by their senior year. Ainsley Kelleher, who has played on varsity soccer, hockey and lacrosse and has big expectations for her senior year and the future of female sports.
“I would like to see the mindset shift so people don’t see girls as a sport less exciting or less competitive. Girls work just as hard and deserve the same recognition. By the time I’m a senior I hope supporting girls sports is just normal, not something people have to push for,” Kelleher said.
St. Martin has been holding a Captains Counsel to help create better leadership skills in the captains once a month. He has been using this opportunity to try to promote attendance at female sports games by bringing more focus and attention to the games. He focuses on promoting the female games in hope the attendance will increase. St. Martin also focuses his attention on supporting all athletes no matter gender and trying to foster a more supportive community at WHS.
“Our girl sports are as good as any town’s sports. Some of the girls teams are better than some of the boys teams, it’s too bad because I really think our girls’ sports are really good,” St. Martin said.
St. Martin has recognized that the female sports at WHS are underappreciated and often less talked about. He is currently planning on using the app “Snap! Raise” to promote student attendance at all high school events. The app increases student attendance by giving prizes to students when they reach their schools donation and attendance goals.
“I feel like other people don’t care for it as much as they should because at the end of the day, we’re all representing our school,” Mebastion said.
Female athletes in general and at WHS are overlooked and underappreciated. The one way to see a change and fix this divide is to treat and discuss female sports the same way as male sports. This can start right here at WHS with more student support.
