Coverage of Women's Sports

In this article, it discusses the unfair representation women get when it comes to being covered by the media and games being broadcast. The article is written in an interview fashion where the author of the article is interviewing Tara VanDerveer, a championship basketball coach at Stanford. VanDerveer discusses only remembering the media covering Billie Jean King as a child and says she “always felt there would be something more, eventually, for women.”

Within the interview, VanDerveer brings up a good point about women’s sports game coverage. She says that the people running these companies and making decisions for the most part did not grow up watching females play sports. I never really thought of this aspect and now hearing this I feel this is one of the main problems with women getting coverage on television. With more women playing sports now more than ever, one would think they would begin to get more coverage. However, there is a generational issue that is holding us back. I think as the years progress and now that women are getting a little bit more coverage than they used to, this younger generations will grow up watching women on television. This will hopefully become something of the “norm” and women will one day see equal representation in the media.

VanDerveer also states she has problems with the phrase “women in sports.” She says that while men playing sports is simply “sports,” women have a label. I think this is also a valid point VanDerveer is making in that when people hear the word sports, they automatically assume that there is just on kind of sports going on and that’s men’s. Getting beyond this problem comes down to a generational thing once again. I think that once new generations of men and women ones that have seen women playing sports from birth come into decision-making positions, things will most definitely change.

I really enjoyed reading this article and it really has helped me shape my perspective on women and the reason why they are not getting equal representation on television and in the media.


-Emily Gregorio
May Intersession 2011