Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month – no shame, rocks are cool sometimes – you’ve probably been hearing quite a bit about this year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament. Even if you typically pay approximately zero attention to sports – looking at you, my NTP co-author – the names Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese likely ring a bell, if only because a fashion account you saw on Instagram was posting about their WNBA draft night fits a few days ago. But maybe you actually watched one of their March Madness games this year. Maybe you were one of the 18.7M that tuned in for the 2024 women’s final just under two weeks ago. Maybe you’ve heard the assertions – which would’ve been remarkably hard to imagine just a few years ago – that the women’s college basketball game currently has more icons than the men’s. Either way, one thing seems pretty clear: women’s sports are having a moment.

Can I ask you a personal question?

Today’s game

Let’s circle back to that 18.7M figure mentioned above. Not only does that level of viewership make the 2024 NCAA women’s basketball tournament final the most viewed women’s March Madness game of all time – in fact, the top three such games took place consecutively during this year’s tournament – but it also handily surpassed the viewership of the men’s final, which reached 14.8M. And this didn’t come out of nowhere. Numbers have been up across the board for women’s collegiate basketball this year.

And the women’s side of the NCAA is not alone in this rise. The WNBA saw some of its strongest viewership numbers yet in the 2023 Finals, even when competing for attention with some of the nation’s largest men’s sports leagues like the NFL and the MLB. Last fall, the world record for attendance at any official women’s sporting event worldwide was broken at a regular season college volleyball match, as over 92k fans packed Nebraska’s football stadium to see their team play against Omaha. When Coco Gauff claimed her first major singles title over Aryna Sabalenka at the 2023 US Open, 3.4M looked on, nearly 50% more than the 2.3M who tuned into the men’s final featuring Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. Everywhere you look in women’s sports, it seems, people are paying more attention than ever.

But other numbers are also making the rounds. Numbers that tell a slightly different story. In the past week, you may have heard some variation of the statistic illustrating that Caitlin Clark, the all-time leading scorer in women’s and men’s NCAA basketball history who was just drafted first overall by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, will make 137 times less than the NBA’s top pick next year (~$76.5k vs ~$10.5M – Clark’s salary comes in just over Indiana’s median household income). So, let’s dive a little deeper and take a look at how we got to where we are today.

Leveling the playing field

Just over 50 years ago, then President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 into law, codifying that “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 education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” The bill’s sponsor, US Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii, stated the following at the time: “So long as any part of our society adheres to a sexist notion that men should do certain things and women should do certain things and then begin to inculcate our babies with these certain notions through curriculum development and so forth, then we’ll never be rid of the basic causes of sex discrimination.” In the realm of sports, the bill soon faced intense pushback from colleges and their athletic departments, with the NCAA even suing to challenge Title IX’s legality in 1976. But women pressed on, soon surpassing men in overall college attendance while programs across the country began investing in women’s sports teams, scholarships, and facilities.

On a more global stage, world no. 1 American tennis star Billie Jean King took up the fight for women’s equality in sports and beyond around the same time that Title IX went into effect. In 1973, King faced off against – and defeated – former top men’s player and self-proclaimed male chauvinist Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes. Prior, Riggs claimed that even someone as out of their prime as himself would have no problem beating any woman at the top of the game. Drawing an estimated 90M viewers worldwide, it still stands as the most watched tennis match of all time. Following her victory, King said, “I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match. It would ruin the women’s [tennis] tour and affect all women’s self-esteem. To beat a 55-year-old guy was no thrill for me. The thrill was exposing a lot of new people to tennis.” She is widely credited as a key figure in driving national and international participation in women’s sports.

Over the next few decades, women’s progress continued. In 2012, for example, American women won 58 medals at the London Olympics, surpassing the medal count of their male counterparts (45) for the first time in history. “Had the American women been their own country, they would have finished fourth in the medal count. At every Olympics since, save for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, American women have won more medals than American men.” But progress has not been without its challenges. In 2016, five of the biggest names in international sports, all members of the wildly successful US women’s national soccer team – Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan, and Megan Rapinoe – filed a federal complaint against US Soccer, alleging wage discrimination that resulted in them earning as little as 40% of what the (much less successful) men’s team earned. Years later, they would finally settle with US Soccer, with the organization paying a total of $24M to past and former players, but throughout this time, “players, teams and even athletes in other sports reached out to the American soccer players and their union for help as they sought better pay and working conditions.”

Further to go

This brief history brings us to where we are today, though many other individuals and events have undoubtedly been omitted from our quick account. Despite the significant progress made, men’s sports often still dominate public discourse and capture the majority of the public’s attention. The NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB generally steal the show. There are professional leagues for women’s ice hockey and softball, but you (like me) probably hadn’t heard of them before now. Globally, women’s soccer viewership has grown closer to that of men’s, but the World Cup prize pool in recent years has still been hundreds of millions of dollars (USD) smaller for women. Though WNBA viewership has increased considerably in the last year as we saw above, more Americans still, on average, tuned into regular season NBA games last year than viewed the WNBA finals. And then come the salary discrepancies. The four-year contract value of the top ten first round draft picks in the NBA currently range between $20M and $50M. For the WNBA? Those numbers are in the mid-$300k range. But that raw number comparison isn’t completely fair – the NBA “brings in $10 billion a year in revenue, compared to a reported $200 million for the WNBA.” For athletes in the WNBA, the real problem lies in their collective bargaining agreement, which currently affords them roughly 10% of league revenue, compared to NBA players’ 50%.

Taking another look at women’s collegiate basketball specifically, major discrepancies between the NCAA’s treatment and support of its women’s and men’s programs remained a focal point in recent years. Interestingly, women only account for about 40% of coaches of women’s collegiate teams, 3% of coaches of men’s collegiate teams, and 11% of Division I athletic directors. In 2021, a video shared by Sedona Prince of the Oregon Ducks very clearly showing the dramatic difference in weight room equipment available to the women vs. men at the NCAA tournament went viral (though even classifying what the women were provided with as a “weight room” seems like a stretch). An investigation of the association by a law firm – which was hired by the NCAA itself as a result of criticism following posts like Prince’s – found that its revenue model "prioritizes and rewards investment in men’s basketball” and “significantly undervalu[es] women’s basketball as an asset.” 

But soon after, things really started changing for the NCAA. In the summer of 2021, along came NIL. As The Athletic explains, “NIL stands for ‘name, image and likeness’ and has become the universal shorthand for college athletes’ ability to become paid endorsers and monetize their success outside of their school-funded scholarships and benefits.” (NIL has been a hotly debated topic for years due to its potential to turn the college sports world upside, but we won’t get into all of that here). Ever since, investment in women’s college athletes has taken off. A report by SponsorUnited found that “of the top 100 athletes based on number of NIL deals in 2023, 52% are women and 48% are men,” up (for women) from 38% and 62% respectively in 2022. While women’s basketball accounts for roughly a third of women’s NIL deals, gymnastics (18%) and volleyball (15%) also claim a considerable portion. The biggest names in women’s college sports have NIL valuations in the seven-figure range: Caitlin Clark’s Nike, Gatorade, and State Farm deals, among others, put her around $3M while Angel Reese’s sponsorships from Reebok, Sports Illustrated, and more bring her to $1.8M.

However, it’s worth noting that the significant majority of collegiate athletes do not enjoy NIL deals, especially not the larger ones that generate hundreds of thousands of dollars. (And female athletes that more closely fit societal beauty standards and have been able to successfully market themselves on social media have sometimes seen more deals than those known strictly for their athletic prowess.) Nonetheless, the rise in viewership of women’s college sports seems to have tracked quite closely with the rise of NIL deals. As millions pour into the space, so too has the attention of the American public. And the athletes aren’t the only ones benefiting: some reports estimate that Clark, who played at the University of Iowa, indirectly contributed $50M to the state’s economy. Clarkonomics might just be the new Swiftonomics.

All eyes on her

Finances aside, female athletes also face challenges unique to their experience as women in the sports world. The trash talk and taunting that many fans have come to love in the men’s games have also been known to draw sharp criticism when it comes from a woman on a court or field. You don’t need to look any further than the “you can’t see me” gesture made by Reese towards Clark in last year’s NCAA tournament, or more accurately, the response to that gesture to see that double standard. When a woman does it (especially a Black woman), it suddenly becomes “classless” and “unsportsmanlike.” Emotion in the arena can also be perceived considerably differently when it comes from a female athlete rather than a male athlete. Take the 2018 women’s US Open Final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, for example. Famously, displays of frustration from Williams resulted in a series of controversial code violations from the male umpire, dramatically shifting the tone, tension, and arguably outcome of the match. In response, Billie Jean King remarked, “When a woman is emotional, she’s ‘hysterical’ and she’s penalized for it. When a man does the same, he’s ‘outspoken’ and there are no repercussions.”

Many female athletes also feel a significant pressure to, as one academic study puts it, “be strong and fit, but also have that feminine look.” According to another, women who had to “wear revealing uniforms, such as bathing suits or leotards, were apprehensive about their appearance. They feared that others would view them as being ‘fat’ or ‘too big’, which led to unhealthy dieting, disordered eating, or excessive exercise in some cases.” Many female athletes surveyed in these studies also described feeling the need to wear makeup or clothing that was overtly feminine in order to avoid judgments around their supposed sexual orientation. Concerns about having overly masculine builds were particularly prominent in sports not traditionally associated with lean, graceful, flexible figures (like figure skating, gymnastics, and beach volleyball). And when it comes to the pressures that shape female athletes’ diet and exercise routines, it can also have a direct impact on their performance and abilities. Pregnancy and motherhood add an entirely different layer of complexity to the situation for many, with many fearing adverse effects on their sponsorship deals, not to mention the work it takes to return to prime competition shape after childbirth.

For female athletes, it is not just the pressure to perform that rests on their shoulders. It is also the pressure to perform while looking a certain way, to perform while acting a certain way, and to perform while paving the way.

Let us know what you think by voting in our poll and leaving an anonymous comment.

  💭 Our two cents

We’ve already thrown a lot at you in today’s post, so we’ll keep this short with two quick takeaways. (1) The hype around women’s sports right now is straight up exciting. With more money making its way to athletes earlier in their careers, at least in the orbit of the NCAA, more brands than ever are publicly amplifying what female athletes are accomplishing, and as a result, more people than ever are recognizing it, too. That said, (2) numerous double standards still exist for women in modern-day sports, as do considerable gaps in their salaries, even as sponsorship deals grow closer than ever. Today’s world of social media is hard enough for peasants like myself, let alone for female athletes on the national and global stage who are scrutinized for everything they do and how their face and body look while doing it. (The comment sections of ESPN or SportsCenter Instagram posts that highlight female athletes are a very scary place.) But regardless, we are watching progress right before our eyes with women’s sports at the moment. And that is pretty cool.

 👀 Also worth a read

 👟 Allyson Felix: My Own Nike Pregnancy Story: I’ve been one of Nike’s most widely marketed athletes. If I can’t secure maternity protections, who can?

🥵 The NCAA Has a Hot Girl Problem: The Cavinder Twins, the emerging oligarchs of women’s college basketball, aren’t the best players. But they might be the best-looking.

🎾 How Motherhood Transformed Tennis Great Naomi Osaka: Naomi Osaka opens up about her challenges postpartum, becoming the face of a new campaign to pass paid leave, and why she's done worrying about what people think of her.

💃 The girls have spoken

Last week, we explored the gender anxiety gap - why anxiety shows up 2x more in women than men (and for the most part, is only getting worse for women). One thing we wondered is whether women actually have more anxiety than men, or are we just diagnosed more by clinicians? Regardless, something’s up. We asked you how often you feel anxious, and a whopping 49% feel anxious every day, followed by 28% who feel anxious most days (but not every day). And while maybe it’s a win that 23% of us “only” feel anxious less than half the week, it’s incredible that not a single person said they feel anxious “rarely.” We’re not really sure where to go from here, but at least the knowledge that you’re not alone should be comforting. As therapy and SSRIs have become more and more destigmatized, our hope is that at the very least, we get the help we need. But of course, larger system-wide efforts need to be put in place to solve the broader anxiety crisis.

💌 Up Next

That’s all for today! If you liked this edition of Not That Personal, we think one of your friends probably will too – refer one (or two or three) below. ;)

Have something to say? We’d love to hear it – reply to this email or leave an anonymous comment here :) 

Up next: So…can you tell me more about being sober curious?

💖 S & J