Elevating Women's Sports in the Media
Participation in sport helps middle school girls maintain confidence, promotes physical fitness, has mental health benefits, and much more. For this reason, Play Like a Girl is committed to helping girls stay in sport and reach their full potential.
By the age of 14, girls drop out of sport at twice the rate of boys.
Part of the reason for this disparity is the lack representation of females in sport media. Only 4% of sports media coverage features women. The failure of mainstream media to highlight more female athletes is a large contributing factor in girls’ declining participation past middle school.
By the time middle school ends, the lack of exposure to female athletes, compared to male athletes, takes a toll. This results in the declining sports participation among girls. Yet, girls benefit psychologically from exposure to successful female athletes. Girls demonstrate increases in motivation, confidence, and levels of overall happiness when exposed to female role models.
Former Stanford University Soccer Player Haley Rosen is looking to increase female representation within sports coverage with her new website and brand Just Women’s Sports.
Haley is teaming up with other elite female athletes including Hilary Knight, Kerri Walsh Jennnigs, Kelley O’Hara, and others to offer a more comprehensive representation of women in sport media.
Just Women’s Sports is hoping to “change how women’s sports are covered. No more pink and glitter. No more ‘give us a twirl.’ Just sports.” The initiative strives to spotlight the aspects of female sport that traditional media lacks. These aspects include women in nontraditional sports such as rugby and football. It also includes focus on the routines and training habits of female athletes.
Along with its website, Just Women’s Sports is putting out regular podcasts and newsletters. These feature exclusive interviews with female athletes and highlighting those who are really changing the game. The website also helps users easily find the schedules for women's professional sports and where to watch games. This is useful, as mainstream networks do not air most of them.
Just Women's Sports is one of many initiatives opening the door for increased participation and success among girls and women in sport.
Elevating the platform, voices, and performance of empowering female athletes helps influence the next generation of women. Girls internalize what they see on the screen and in the media, so seeing more successful women in sports only reinforces the message that girls have a place on the field.
Check out Just Women's Sports at https://www.justwomenssports.com.
