For as long as time, women’s sports have had notoriously less viewers than any men’s sport. There was a large breakthrough with the 2016- and 2020-women’s world cup, but it’s nothing compared to what’s happening right now. Collegiate athletes – kids in their 20’s – are breaking glass ceilings all across the country and we get a front row seat to it.
According to Forbes, this year’s women’s March Madness tournament saw a 65% increase in viewers from last year, and early figures from the AP are showing that this year’s final was the most watched basketball game in the past five years. The reason for this: five players drafted four years ago changed everything.
Caitlin Clarke is by far the most recognizable name in all of basketball right now, and the crazy amount of attention she got only started a reaction chain. Her competitors began to be recognized, her teammates and coaches began to be recognized. Names like Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, Paige Bueckers, Hannah Stuelke, Camila Cardoso, Hailey Van Lith, all part of the first group of collegiate female athletes to be recognized and idolized globally.
The impact this will have on the sports world is unmeasurable. When I was growing up and playing youth basketball I had no female role models to look up to. Finding a girl’s basketball shoe was impossible. Do you know how frustrating it is to find a men’s size six basketball shoe? Or how about a uniform with shorts that didn’t go to my shins and a jersey that didn’t show my whole sports bra? I vividly remember being 10 years old going to every shoe store in a 30 mile radius from my house trying to find a single pair of basketball shoes that fit. The employees at the shoe stores almost seemed shocked everytime my dad said he needed shoes for me, not him. It was almost like a female basketball player was unheard of. A long day of rejections and failures ended with me in tears in the back of dad’s Volkswagen on the way home. I eventually settled to just play in my high top converse since my dad said he played in them in his time. It made me feel a little better that they were at least once a basketball shoe, but It was still heartbreaking to watch your brothers walk into a shoe store and be able to pick any shoe they wanted while I had to make due with my school shoes.
When I graduated high school, I picked up a job at a shoe store. It had been eight years since my basketball-shoe-breakdown in my dad’s Volkswagen, and absolutely nothing had changed. My heart broke for all the little girls who came in with their parents asking for basketball shoes. My heart broke more for the little girls who came in with their parents and their brother, and their brother walked out with shoes but she walked out feeling sad and forgotten by the sports world. Until this draft class, the world expected female basketball players to just figure it out. If they wanted to play they had to jump through tons of obstacles to get there, while boys just walked on the court like it was nothing. This change is going to be big. I hope there’s girls and women’s basketball shoes in every store everywhere. I hope this next generation of girls doesn’t have to feel forgotten while they watch their male counterparts do everything they want to.
The most powerful impact of this draft class is that women are starting to not be seen as the inferior athletes. This is the first time I’ve ever heard guys talk about a woman in such a positive light, especially a woman athlete. Yes, there is still negative because there will always be the men whose egos feel threatened by powerful women, but for the most part, men idolize her and her game. When I hang out with a group of dudes, whether it be family, friends, classmates, whatever, if we’re talking about athletes, it would always be men. NFL, NBA, NHL, even MLS and international soccer leagues. March Madness lasts about three weeks. In the last three weeks I haven’t heard a single thing about the men’s tournament or the men’s players. Every time March Madness was brought up whether I was with my female friends or my male friends, it was about the women’s tournament. That is truly groundbreaking. We can only hope that this equality and recognition of women spreads to things other than sports. To our homes, our classrooms, our workplaces, etc. We can all do our part by continuing to hold these conversations.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 