Victoria Stavish | Baltimore Sun (TNS)
Women’s sports have been making headlines throughout 2023. Viewership of women’s games, the pay of female athletes and the diversity of sports that female athletes participate in are all higher than in decades past, but gender gaps still exist and some gains may look impressive until they’re put in perspective.
High school girls’ participation in some traditionally male-dominated sports is growing in Maryland.
Between 2014 and 2022, overall participation in high school sports in Maryland declined among both girls and boys. More girls are participating, however, in some traditionally male-dominated sports like wrestling, golf, ice hockey and football. Though their numbers are growing, girls playing those four sports represented only 1.7% of all roster sports held by girls during the 2021-22 school year.
More than four in 10 NCAA athletes are women.
After making up 30% of NCAA athletes in 1982, women have seen their representation increase more than 10 percentage points. Women haven’t made up less than 43% of NCAA athletes since at least 1995.
Yet leadership opportunities for women in sports are lacking.
The percentage of athletic directors who are women has been growing slowly since at least 1995. However, many women who held leadership roles at their schools when the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed women’s sports were demoted when the NCAA took over in the early 1980s.
When women do hold more leadership roles, those roles often go to white women. From 2012 to 2022, the share of athletic directors who are women of color grew just one percentage point — from 3% to 4% — while white women’s representation grew from 17% to 20%.
The average pay for women’s college basketball head coaches in major conferences and at other competitive schools in the 2021-22 season was less than a fourth that of their men’s college basketball counterparts.
Brenda Frese, the head coach of the University of Maryland’s women’s basketball team, was paid $1.4 million in the 2021-22 season. That’s the sixth-highest pay of all women’s basketball coaches that year, and pay is increasing. The highest-paid women’s basketball coach 10 seasons ago was Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, who made just under $2 million or $2.4 million if adjusted for inflation. Today, the highest-paid women’s coach is Geno Auriemma, who made $2.9 million in the 2021-22 season.
At least 11 women’s coaches made $1 million or more in total pay and three women’s coaches made over $2 million. Two of those three coaches are women.
While all of the 10 highest-paid men’s basketball coaches are men, just five of the 10 highest-paid women’s coaches are women. The highest-paid NCAA women’s basketball coach was paid a little over 25% of what the highest-paid NCAA men’s basketball coach was paid in the 2021-22 season.
Women’s NCAA basketball championship game viewership is growing
The 2023 matchup between Louisiana State University and Iowa State is the most-viewed women’s college basketball game on record. From players’ ability to profit off themselves through name, image and likeness deals to skyrocketing social media followings, attention on the game and women’s players is growing.
To begin LSU’s NCAA tournament run, All-America forward and Randallstown native Angel Reese strung together totals no other NBA, WNBA or Division I basketball player from the past 20 years has reached over three games: 76 points, 51 rebounds, 12 blocks and seven steals.
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