Does Title IX cover all aspects of gender equality?
Does Title IX cover all aspects of gender equality? Many who
hear this question would answer yes because it has been proven that Title IX
has greatly enhanced equal opportunity for men and women in school and sports.
However, looking at recent news articles there is one aspect, which Title IX
does not help enhance gender equality. It has been 40 years since Title IX was
first implemented, and there has been a large growth of women participating in
sport. However, at the recent 2012 Sports and Entertainment Law Conference held
at the University of Oregon, it was found that gender equality has not reached
the television market.
Allan Brettman, a journalist for The Oregonian newspaper,
covered the Conference and wrote an article based on the conference’s main
discussion. Peg Brand, an academic professor at the university asked the
question, “What percentage of TV sports coverage is devoted to women’s
athletics?” (Brettman, 2012). No one in the audience stated the correct answer.
In 1989 the answer was 5% and rose as high as 8.7% in 1999, but in 2009 the
number dropped to 1.6%. Brand
stated that the fall of TV coverage could have happened because ESPN executives
are “too old school” to start broadcasting women’s sports more often. However,
Brand believes that the numbers are low because woman’s sports do not generate
as much revenue as men’s sports. She found this to be true even if a women’s
program is more popular than the men’s, for example the University of Portland
women’s soccer team won the NCAA Championship in 2002 and 2005 and has
generated more revenue than the men’s program. Another speaker as the audience
if they watched this summer’s Women’s World Cup of soccer and nearly every hand
was raised in the building.
There are many questions that this article brings to light
on the subject; does Title IX cover all aspects of gender equality? One
questions is, why has the percentage of women’s TV coverage in sports decreased
drastically over the past 10 years? Another questions to ask is would viewers
begin to watch more women’s sports if coverage was increased? The last question
that could be asked is, if the Women’s World Cup was one of the largest events
viewed over the past year, is women’s TV coverage on the rise again?
In my opinion, Title IX doesn't cover all aspects of gender equality because of the statement of media coverage. I think the reason for the decrease over the last 10 years in women's TV coverage is because of the simple reason that it won't bring as much revenue as would a male sport being televised would. There are exceptions though, whenever there is a major tournament going as such as the Women's World Cup, tennis women's championship matches, WNBA finals, those are some of the events that will draw a larger viewing audience because of the significance of the event.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a poll given to people in the U.S on if they thought women's coverage on TV will rise again because of the recent Women's World Cup success I believe most people would say no and I would be included in that. I feel it'll take a lot more than one major Women's event that had great TV ratings. Men's sports would need to be drastically reduced in terms of how sports fans view the sport. An example is how the NBA has been going down in American's most popular sports category and if the NBA kept getting less respect than that would be a time where the WNBA could find a market in TV coverage.
I would agree with Dane's comment how women's sports only seem to be televised during major championship tournaments. I find it odd that ESPN claims to be such a leader in sports coverage when they are missing out on a large portion of the sports within the broadcasting field. In ESPN's defense they do cover the entire Women's NCAA tournament; however, they give little to no coverage of Women's basketball before the tournament. One would think they would want to promote the teams that will be playing in the tournament. Even if it's as simple as having one night covering two key matchups a week. They already do this with Men's basketball and the NBA. You can't honestly say that they get more viewership in covering billiards than having teams such as, Tennessee, UConn, Texas A&M, Baylor, etc.
ReplyDeleteI thought Alli brought up some good point about ESPN, and the Women's World Cup in '99. I think it will be interesting to see in this upcoming summer Olympic Games how the coverage is. In years past NBC has done a great job in covering both men's and women's events equally in my opinion. I think when it comes to the Olympics people don't care as much to who's participating, either way it's entertaining because they are the best athletes in the world going head-to-head. I personally enjoy the Olympics and think it is the best sporting event to watch, I myself don’t mind who’s competing I watch based on my interest in the event!
-Tony Fritsch
I also have to agree with Dane's comment on the lack of women sports coverage in the media. Also I'd like to back up Tony's comment about how odd it is that ESPN, the "world-wide leader in sports" doesn't even show WNBA, women's college basketball, women's tennis, or any other women's highlights on SportsCenter. They never even have information on women's sporting events at the bottom of the screen on the ticker from what I remember. I feel as though women's sports would increase it's popularity if it were shown on ESPN more often. More exposure would only help the cause.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though the only time women's sports are mentioned on ESPN is if there is a fight during one of the events, or if they talk about the attractive women athletes such as Danica Patrick or Maria Sharapova, and even then the coverage is at a minimal. However, there is an exception to this statement. The Women's World Cup. The only time ESPN will cover a women's sporting event for more than two or three minutes is if it is on the Women's World Cup. To answer Alli's question however, I don't think the World Cup will result in higher TV coverage in women's sports. I say this while looking at the past decade. Every four years, the Women's World Cup is a big deal while it is going on. When the Women's World Cup is over, soccer fever goes away on ESPN and in America, and the interest in women's sports goes with it until the next World Cup.