The State of Womens Sports

1
The State of Womens Sports
36 Years After Title IX
2

• A Big Picture View

3
Title IXthe catalyst

• No person in the United States shall, on the
  basis of sex, be excluded from participation in,
  be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to
  discrimination under any educational program or
  activity receiving Federal financial
  assistance.
• United States Congress, June 23, 1972
• Omnibus education law
• Pre-Title IX options for women caretaking
  professions
• Impact on sex role stereotype

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
4
Title IXthe catalyst

• Impetus for public education
• Violent reaction of sports establishment
• Created media platform for benefits to girls
  message
• Father-led movement
• 68 of public supports Title IX 66 even if it
  means cutting opportunities for men 70 say
  strengthen it or leave it alone (2003 NBC
  News/Wall Street Journal Report, USA Today Poll,
  1-7-03)
• 87 parents say sport equally important for
  sons/daughters (WSF Wilson Report, 1988)

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
5
Slow progress of social change

• Title IX educated
• Dinosaurs still in existence as decision-makers
• 60 yrs/3 generations for social change
• 18-34 active female has reached critical mass
• First generation of moms coaching their daughters
• Eclectic multi-sport/multidimensional unlike
  males, not restricted to macho sports
• Post-Title IX children have gender neutral view
  disappearance of negative views toward women in
  sport
• Families with daughters grandma and grandpa

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
6

• Sowhat happens when women are given the
  opportunity to participate in sport?

7
Womens Sports Markets Created

• 1. Active female consumer
• 2. Male and female fans of womens sports
• Pro womens sports
• College and open amateur
• 3. Female fans of mens sports
• Waiting to be tapped
• Corporate sponsorship of womens sports more than
  triples 92-00 to 1 billion
• Sport receives 2/3 of 31 billion spent by US
  firms for promotion/sponsorship

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
8
Active Female MarketUSA

• 55 million women regularly participate
• Women represent 55 of all volleyball players,
  43 of all runners and
  41 of all soccer players
• In USA, more females than males participate
• in sports/fitness

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
9
Grassroots Participation

• More are coming
• 31 million girls play team sports
• 41 of high school girls play varsity
  
• sports 2 in 5 girls
• 1970 1 in 27
• Boys participation is 1 in 2

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
10
High School Participation
Male
Female 1972-73 3,666,917
294,015 2006-07 4,321,103 3,021,807
15.1
928 Girls 41 Girls in H.S.
49 Between 2006 and 2007, increases were Girls
- 68,452 Boys - 114,554
Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
11
NCAA College Participation

• Male Female
• 1972-73 170,384 29,977
• 2005-06 228,106 170,526
• 34 469
• Women 43
• Women in College 57
• Between 2005 and 2006, increases were
• Females - 3,798 Males - 5,268

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
12
NCAA Womens Teams Growth by Sport 1981 - 2005
Soccer 1,041 Golf 286 Lacrosse
151 Cross Country 125 Softball
119 Outdoor Track 65 Volleyball
63 Basketball 45 Tennis
44 Swimming 41 Field hockey
-4 Gymnastics
-35 4-24-06 NCAA News
Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
13
Womens Pro Leagues

• 17 pro leagues
• WNBA average attendance 8,000
• WPS re-launching in 2009
• WTA top of game
• LPGA groundbreaker international expansion
• Softball pro league in place
• Baseball and ice hockey on the horizon
• Business model is the challenge not public
  interest
• Lack of TV rights fees and exposure barrier to
  maximum growth

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
14
WTA Tour Prize Money...
Millions
Title Goes here
June 2008
15
LPGA Tour Purses...
Millions
Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
16
Corporations Embracing Female Athlete Role Models

• Rejecting male athlete risk
• Shows respect for female consumer
• Affordable family entertainment compared to
  corporate mens sports
• Women react positively to seeing selves portrayed
  as competent/knowledgeable
• Fickle nature of corporate support
• Big is television driven

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
17
Media Support

• All womens mags have health/fitness editors
• 3 womens TV channels
• Male/female appeal of traditional womens sports
• NBCs success/Olympics marketing to women
• Newspapers after female readership
• Female viewership will increase as digital
  creates an appointment viewer environment
• Womens mags/TV still rejecting sport in favor of
  fitness (reflect older viewers)

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
18
Summer Olympics Participation
Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
19
Summer Olympics Countries With Female Athletes
Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
20
Winter Olympics Participation
Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
21
Spectators of Womens Sports

• 50-50 male/female audience
• separate audience from mens sports
• families with daughters who play
• grandma and grandpa with granddaughters who play
• affordable entertainment
• embraces womens values

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
22
Women as Fans of Mens Sports

• 35-45 of spectator television viewing audience
  (45 of NFL TV audience)
• 88 of women are sports fans (79 in 1994)
• mens pro sports marketing units targeting
  females
• licensed merchandise (NFL licensed line of
  apparel for women)
• future 50/50

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
23
Further Womens Sports Expansion...

• Popularization of womens participation in
  formerly predominantly male sports
• Pole vaulting
• Wrestling
• Baseball
• Football
• X sports
• Olympic sports ski jumping, Nordic combined
• Co-ed sports

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
24
Need to Positively Position Gender Differences

• Not a zero-sum game
• Not a macho contest who is better, mens or
  womens sports
• Different is not less than
• Different is not the same as
• Public wants positive not conflict
• Dont pour women into mens moldshe doesnt fit
• Fathers are leading the girls sports movement
  they wont disappearand mom is now here

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
25

• Challenges

26
Equitable Treatment?

• Athletic scholarships (44)
• 1.32 billion a year
• Females 617MM
• 148MM less than males

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
27
Equitable Treatment?

• Participation (41)
• 1.3 million less high school opportunities
• ME, NH, PA within 2.5 of H.S. female
  enrollment
• TN, LA, AL, DC 14-17 gaps
• Receive only 42 of college opportunities

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
28
Equitable Treatment?

• Operating budgets (38)
• 1.17 billion less spent on females
• Male
  Female
• Div. I 66 34
• Div. II 59 42
• Div. III 59 42
• FB and BB 74 of mens sports budget

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
29
Equitable Treatment?

• Recruiting budgets (33)
• 43 million less spent on females
• Male
  Female
• Div. I 67 33
• Div. II 64 35
• Div. III 66 34

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
30
Equitable Treatment?

• Quality Coaches
• Average salary Head Coaches
• Womens Division I-A 90,300
• Mens Division I-A 153,266
• Average salary Assistant coaches
• Womens Division I-A 43,000
• Mens Division I-A 88,000
• Higher the Division, higher the salary, less
  likely coach is female
• 2-3 of coaches of male teams are female 43 of
  coaches of female teams are female
• 
  
  
  NCAA Gender Equity
  Report, 2003-2004

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
31
Equitable Treatment?

• Promotion/Marketing
• 88 of all sports coverage male
• 6.9 female
• Inspirational role models who can drive girls
  participation
• Keys to pro sports success
• Keys to new collegiate revenues
• Conference contracts

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
32
College Sports Leadership

• Position Male Female
• Athletic Directors 78.7 21.3
• Head Coaches W Teams 57.2 42.8
• Head Coaches M Teams 98 2
• F-T Head Athletic Trainers 72.7 27.3
• Sports Information Dir. 88.7 11.3
• Higher status/salarylower female
• Women of Color double jeopardy
• Acosta and Carpenter, 2008

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
33
Sports Industry Executives

• Sports-related corporate careers Female
• Big 4 leagues 12.6
• Other leagues/teams 17.1
• Sports marketing agencies 28.3
• Broadcast/media 8.3
• Stadium/arena/track 17.5
• Corporations/manufacturers 21.7
• 
  SBJ 2002 Salary Survey

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
34
Sports Industry Diversity

• Sports-related corporate careers Persons of
  Color
• Big 4 leagues 7.6
• Other leagues/teams 6.6
• Sports marketing agencies 6.6
• Broadcast/media 4.2
• College 9.3
• Stadium/arena/track 5.3
• Corporations/manufacturers 17.4
• 
  SBJ 2002 Salary Survey

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
35
Diversity

• Women of color underrepresented in athletics
  double jeopardy
• College Students College
  Athletes
• Women 55 42
• Women of Color 25
  15
• Men 45
  58
• Men of Color 22
  22
• Note Male athletes proportionally
  represented impact of overrepresentation in FB,
  BB and TF
• Male and female athletes of color markedly
  underrepresented in 20 of 25 NCAA sports

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
36
Why is progress so slow?

• Agency charged with enforcement is trying to
  weaken Title IX
• No school in compliance no penalties
• 2002 effort to weaken Title IX
• No OCR initiated investigations since 2002
• March 2005 Title IX giant loophole
• Difficulty of achieving change one lawsuit at a
  time
• No education of parents/athletes
• Fear of retaliation

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
37
Why is progress so slow?

• No high school EADA current efforts underway
• Progress is deceiving
• cheerleading as varsity sport
• artificial inflation of team sizes
• designation of varsity status without support

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
38
New playing fieldsedentary girls

• Unless family has , physical activity not
  accessible
• Youth physical activity system has crumbled,
  putting sedentary youth at great risk
• Inactivity-related diseases account for 1
  trillion spent on health care
• Choice is focus on prevention or pay for health
  care
• Girls at greater risk than boys for inactivity
• Media messaging/encouragement
• Opportunity

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
39
The solution?

• Physical activity intervention - cuts across all
  diseases
• Regular participation in physical activity
  reduces girls health risk for obesity, diabetes,
  heart disease, osteoporosis and breast cancer,
  depression, stress, anxiety and lack of
  self-esteem among others.
• Physical activity during childhood and
  adolescence improves more than physical health
• positive body image, confidence and self-esteem
• improve academic performance and career success

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
40
Whose responsibility?

• Every individual, team and organization
  especially those who are in the sports and
  physical activity industry
• One girl at a time
• Remove the sources of drop outs
• Verbal, psychological and physical abuse abuse
  of power that creates intimidating and unhealthy
  environments
• Loss of JV teams, intramurals, clubs, recess,
  P.E. and fun physical activities in a safe
  place
• Lack of encouragement and role models

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
41
Womens Sports Foundation

• Leading Authority on the participation of women
  and girls in sports
• Advocate for equality
• Educate the public
• Conduct research
• Offer grants to get girls active

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
42
What the Womens Sports Foundation is doing
GoGirlGo!

• Gives girls access to physical activity
• Supports girl-serving agencies in large markets
  where we can reach the greatest number of the
  most underserved girls
• Current GoGirlGo! Communities
• Atlanta
• Boston
• Chicago
• San Antonio
• Add cities till the top 20 markets are reached

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
43
What the Womens Sports Foundation is doing
GoGirlGo! National Goals

• Get 1 million inactive girls to become active
• Make sure 1 million currently active girls do not
  drop out
• Educate 1 million parents and guardians about the
  importance of and how to encourage physical
  activity
• Challenge 1 million girls become peer leaders
  encouraging their inactive friends to become
  active

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
44
What the Womens Sports Foundation is doing
GoGirlGo! National Goals

• Educate 300,000 coaches and program leaders about
  motivating girls to stay physically activity
• Generate 3 billion media impressions about girls
  and womens sports and physical activity
• Award 3.8 million in cash grants 80 to get
  girls active, 75 to girls with multicultural
  backgrounds and 20 for adult women
• Deliver WSF educational materials to 3 million
  women to promote physical activity for females of
  all ages and skill levels

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
45
Do somethingmake change
www.WomensSportsFoundation.org
Status of Womens Sports
June 2008
46
GoGirlGo! Boston

• Launched November 2007
• Technical support to girl-serving agencies
• Education
• Funding -- 200,000 in grants in 2008
• Networking
• Public awareness
• Director, Whitney Post
• WPost_at_WomensSportsFoundation.org
• www.GoGirlGoBoston.org

Status of Womens Sports
June 2008