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Discuses the issues on why women’s teams get overlooked

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when will women's sports get the same attention as men? - cnn

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The real March Madness: When will women's teams get equal buzz?

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As March Madness rages on, we wondered what it will take for women's sports to get the same TV coverage, salaries and number of fans as the men get.

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Article discussing the physical differences between men and women and the body

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Physiological Differences Between Male and Female Athletes

The physiological differences between men and women are so great that elite male and female athletes rarely compete with each other. These differences generally give men a competitive edge in sports that reward absolute strength, acceleration and speed. However, these differences are easily overstated, and in a few cases, female athletes are the ones who have the advantage over male athletes because of their particular physiological characteristics.

Cardiovascular Fitness

Athletes' cardiovascular fitness is measured by their maximum oxygen consumption, also known as VO2max, which measures their capacity to transport and use oxygen during exercise. This is measured by calculating the point at which an athlete's oxygen consumption remains steady despite an increase in an exercise intensity. Elite male athletes have a higher oxygen carrying capacity than women, which allows them to reach their maximum training peak earlier. This is probably due to women's lower hemoglobin levels and men's larger body size. Maximum oxygen consumption is directly related to body size.

Bones and Ligaments

Male athletes have longer and larger bones, which provide a clear mechanical advantage over female athletes. The increased articular surface and larger structure of male bones provide them with a greater leverage and a wider frame on which to support muscle. Similarly, the ligaments of female athletes are generally more lax and fragile than those of their male counterparts. This gives male athletes an advantage in sports that involve throwing, kicking and hitting, and explains the higher incidence of musculoskeletal injuries among female athletes. On the other hand, female athletes have a wider pelvis and a lower center of gravity, which provides excellent balance.

Strength

Male athletes have a higher ratio of muscle mass to body weight, which allows for greater speed and acceleration. This explains why female speed records in running and swimming are consistently 10 percent slower than men's, and why, on average, they have two thirds of the strength of men. However, when you factor out the larger muscle mass in men and compare muscular strength relative to cross-section area of muscle, the strength of male and female athletes is nearly equal.

Endurance

Endurance is largely determined by a body's efficiency when converting calories into energy. Female athletes are more efficient than male athletes at converting glycogen to energy. Glycogen is a secondary source of fuel you use when glucose levels drop. This is why female athletes excel in ultra-long-distance sports and rarely hit the wall during long races. It also explains why ultra-running, which includes races longer than a marathon, is one of the few sports where elite female and male athletes regularly compete together, and in which female athletes sometimes win.

About the Author

Andrew Latham has worked as a professional copywriter since 2005 and is the owner of LanguageVox, a Spanish and English language services provider. His work has been published in "Property News" and on the San Francisco Chronicle's website, SFGate. Latham holds a Bachelor of Science in English and a diploma in linguistics from Open University.

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Physiological Differences Between Male and Female Athletes

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The physiological differences between men and women are so great that elite male and female athletes rarely compete with each other. These differences generally give men a competitive edge in sports that reward absolute strength, acceleration and speed.

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Article that discusses how men and women differ in athleticism

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Athletic differences between men and women have much to do with innate characteristics determined by genetics and hormones. These include height, weight, muscle mass, body fat and aerobic capacity. As a group, women do not run, jump or swim as fast as men. Women are also more prone to certain types of athletic injuries than men.

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How Do Men and Women Differ Athletically? | Livestrong.com

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Athletic differences between men and women have much to do with innate characteristics determined by genetics and hormones. These include height, weight, muscle mass, body fat and aerobic capacity. As a group, women do not run, jump or swim as fast as men.

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Video on why men and women should both compete in the same sports

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Why Girls And Boys Should Compete With Each Other In Sports | John Brenkus | TEDxUniversityofNevada

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Article 5 (Discussing the differences between men and women’s sports)

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When it comes to sports, men and women don't play on the same fields

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The difference in stadium locations for men's and women's sports carries both financial and symbolic consequences.

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study that shows men being more involved in sports then women in England

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video on the competitive nature between men and women in sports

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Closing The Gap - Women Vs. Men in Sports

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Article 4

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when will women's sports get the same attention as men? - cnn

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The real March Madness: When will women's teams get equal buzz?

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As March Madness rages on, we wondered what it will take for women's sports to get the same TV coverage, salaries and number of fans as the men get.

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Article 3

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Questions About Sex in Sport and Sports Policies

These data and comparisons explain why competitive sport has traditionally separated biological males (people with male bodies) from biological females (people with female bodies), and also why legal measures like Title IX in the United States require institutions to set aside and protect separate and equal funding, facilities, and opportunities for women and girls.

Still, society is being pushed in this period to reconsider both importance of separate sport compared to other values, and the way the girls' and women's category is protected. As a result, the conversation includes four general categories of policy options:

1. Keeping girls' and/or women's sport only for females.

2. Keeping the two categories but allowing males to compete in girls' and women's events (a) where they identify as girls and women, and/or (b) because they want the opportunity for some other reason, e.g., they are swimmers and their high school has a girls' but not a boys' swim team.

3. Keeping the two categories but allowing males to compete in girls' and women's events only if they identify as such and they transition their testosterone levels to within the female - ovarian - range.

4. Erasing the categories - no divisions by "male" and "female" however these are defined - and featuring only "open" sports and events where everyone competes together, or else in sports and events based on different classifications like height or weight.

Our goal in developing and presenting the data and comparisons in TABLES 1- 4 is to provide some of the facts necessary to evaluate these options and to help answer the overarching question: what would happen if we stopped classifying athletes on the basis of sex or else allowed exceptions to that rule? More specifically, we hope that the data and comparisons are useful as people think about the following questions:

How important is sport, its particular events, and goals?

Should societies and sports governing authorities continue to be committed to equal sports events and opportunities for boys and girls, men and women?

Are there good reasons to ensure that biological females (people with female bodies) are included and visible in competitive sport, and if so, does it matter how they are visible? For example, is it enough that they are given an opportunity to participate at some point in development sport, or is it important that they are competitive for the win so that we see them in championships and on the podium?

In general, the goals of the identity movement are to ensure that people who are trans and intersex are fully and equally included in society's important institutions on the basis of their identity, not their (reproductive) biology. In cases of conflict between the goals of the identity movement and sports' traditional goals for girls' and women's sport, what should our priority be: equal opportunity in sport for girls and women or the ability of each individual to participate in sports on their own terms?

Should our priorities depend on the sporting context, for example, is or should the priority be different in elementary school, junior high school, high school, college, and professional sport?

If we want to have it all - to respect everyone's gender identity and still to support girls' and women's sport by making a place for athletes with female bodies in competition - what's the best way forward? What's the best compromise position? Ultimately, this is the most important question for sports policymakers in this period.

A. Is it acceptable to include everyone but still to classify on the basis of sex, like we do already on the basis of weight in wrestling and boxing? For example, could the Olympic Committee have required Bruce Jenner - before he became Caitlyn and transitioned physically - to compete as a man in the men's decathlon?

B. Would it have been more or less acceptable to have required Jenner to compete in the men's decathlon, but not to prescribe how she expresses her identity as a woman?

C. If Jenner before her physical transition had wanted to compete in the women's heptathlon, would it have been acceptable for the Olympic Committee to have required her first to transition physically, at least her testosterone levels, so that - although she would still be competing with a lot of developed male traits useful for athletics - all competitors would compete on equal footing in terms of steroid levels?

D. If none of these options strikes the right balance between the two important competing interests, is there another option that does?

Sources of Information and Further Reading

For the IAAF's results databases, sortable by multiple categories, see:

For an example of the different competition requirements for men/women and boys/girls for events requiring specific equipment - for example, for the hurdles, shot put, etc. - see:

For more information on the goals of Title IX and girls' and women's sport we recommend:

For more information on the role of testosterone in sex differentiation, the male and female testosterone ranges, the role of testosterone in athletic performance, the goals of sport, and sex testing in sport, see:

Doriane Lambelet Coleman, Sex in Sport, 80 Law & Contemporary Problems 63 (2017), available at https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol80/iss4/5

Joanna Harper, Race Times for Transgender Athletes, 6 Journal of Sporting Cultures and Identities 1 (2015), available at http://jrci.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.301/prod.4

Gina Kolata, Men, Women and Speed. 2 Words: Got Testosterone?, N.Y. Times, Aug. 22, 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/news/22iht-22testosterone.15533354.html

There's been a lot written about the inclusion of intersex and trans athletes in sport which doesn't acknowledge (or flatly rejects) the facts of biological and competitive sex differences. If you'd like to read more from others who accept these facts, we recommend:

Richard J. Auchus, Endocrinology and Women's Sports: The Diagnosis Matters, 80 Law & Contemporary Problems 130 (2017) (explaining the biology of intersex athletes as it's relevant to sport), available at https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol80/iss4/6/

Erin E. Buzuvis, Challenging Gender in Single-Sex Spaces: Lessons from a Feminist Softball League, 80 Law and Contemporary Problems 155 (2017), available at https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol80/iss4/8/

Erin E. Buzuvis, "On the Basis of Sex": Using Title IX to Protect Transgender Students from Discrimination in Education, 31 Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender and Society 29 (2016), available at https://hosted.law.wisc.edu/wordpress/wjlgs/files/2014/07/Buzuvis-Article.pdf

Shasta Darlington, Transgender Volleyball Star in Brazil Eyes Olympics and Stirs Debate, N.Y. Times, March 17, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/world/americas/brazil-transgender-volleyball-tifanny-abreu.html

Joanna Harper, Athletic Gender, 80 Law and Contemporary Problems 139 (2017), available at https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol80/iss4/7/

There's also been a lot written recently about male-to-female trans kids who are competing and winning in girls' high school sport in the United States. For discussions and stories on this issue, see:

Karma Allen, Trangender Teens Outrun Track and Field Competitors but Critics Close Behind, ABCNews.com, June 13, 2018, https://abcnews.go.com/US/transgender-teens-outrun-track-field-competitors-critics-close/story?id=55856294

Katie Barnes, They Are the Champions, ESPN.com, May 29, 2018, http://www.espn.com/espnw/feature/23592317/how-two-transgender-athletes-fighting-compete-sports-love

Jeff Jacobs, No Easy Answers When it Comes to Transgender Athletes, C.T. Post, June 4, 2018, https://www.ctpost.com/highschool/article/Jeff-Jacobs-No-easy-answers-when-it-comes-to-12967306.php

Cyd Zeigler, As Trans High School Athletes Win State Titles, Parent Petition to Ban Them, Outsports Blog (June 14, 2018, 7:48 AM), https://www.outsports.com/2018/6/14/17458696/trans-athlete-connecticut-high-school-ban-petition

Here are some links to stories about (cis) boys who are competing on girls' teams and in girls' events for different reasons:

Caroline Crosson Gilpin, Should Girls and Boys Sports Teams Compete in the Same League?, N.Y. Times, May 12, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/learning/should-girls-and-boys-sports-teams-compete-in-the-same-league.html

Nancy Haggerty, The Politics of Boys Playing a 'Girls' Sport, USA Today, Sept. 3, 2015, http://usatodayhss.com/2015/the-politics-of-boys-playing-a-girls-sport

Karen Crouse, Girl Defeats Boys to Win Girls Swim Title, N.Y. Times, Nov. 19, 2011, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/sports/broderick-wins-massachusetts-girls-swim-title-against-field-including-boys.html

Karen Crouse, Boys Swimming on Girls Teams Find Success, Then Draw Jeers, N.Y. Times, Nov. 18, 2011, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/sports/boys-swimming-on-girls-teams-find-success-then-draw-ire.html

If you'd like to read more about how puberty affects boys and girls differently in terms of their athletic capacities, and whether sex segregation is necessary before puberty, see:

Matthew Futterman, America's Next Great Running Hope, and One of the Cruelest Twists in Youth Sports, N.Y. Times, June 8, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/sports/katelyn-tuohy.html

Marnee McKay & Joshua Burns, When it Comes To Sport, Boys 'Play Like a Girl', The Conversation, Aug. 3, 2017, http://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-sport-boys-play-like-a-girl-80328

Joel M. Stager and Andrew C. Cornett, Sex Differences in Childhood Athletic Performance (2012), available at https://secure.edweek.org/media/sexdifferences-blog.pdf

Espen Tønnessen et al., Performance Development in Adolescent Track and Field Athletes According to Age, Sex and Sport Discipline, PLoS ONE (June 4, 2015), http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0129014

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Comparing Athletic Performances: The Best Elite Women to Boys and Men

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by Doriane Lambelet Coleman and Wickliffe Shreve Download PDF version If you know sport, you know this beyond a reasonable doubt: there is an average 10-12% performance gap between elite males and elite females. The gap is smaller between elite females and non-elite males, but it's still insurmountable and that's ultimately what matters.

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Example video on Sports and Men and Women in them

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Women and men are equal in whichever sport they play | Vera Pauw | TEDxEde

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Article 2

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Authors: Travis Scheadler, Audrey Wagstaff, Ph.D., MJE

Corresponding Authors:
Travis Scheadler
tscheadler@wilmington.edu
(937) 751-5799
6811 Oakland Rd
Loveland, OH 45140
Wilmington College

Audrey Wagstaff, Ph.D., MJE
audrey_wagstaff@wilmington.edu
(937) 481-2253
1870 Quaker Way
Pyle Box 1221
Wilmington, OH 45177
Wilmington College

Exposure to Women's Sports: Changing Attitudes Toward Female Athletes

ABSTRACT
Many sports fans argue that women's sports are boring compared to men's sports. Simultaneously, women's sports, compared to men's sports, are rarely broadcasted in the media. Therefore, could the media be making sports fans believe that women's sports are less desirable by giving them less coverage? Using the Agenda-Setting Theory, Framing Theory, and Mere Exposure Effect, an intervention was developed to promote women's sports to sports fans. Half of the participants received watched highlight films of women's sports each week for 4 weeks. Results indicate that the intervention decreased prejudice towards female athletes after 3 weeks but had no effect on interest towards women's sports. Future studies should immerse participants into the live action of women's sports rather than highlight footage.

KEYWORDS: women's sports; sports media; gender discrimination

INTRODUCTION
Women have been fighting for equality all throughout history. In sport, specifically, women were once not even permitted to watch the Olympic Games (11). After finally being permitted to participate in sports, women had to undergo gender testing to make sure they were not men trying to cheat the system (62). Furthermore, the coverage of women's sports did not supersede coverage of dogs and horses until 1992 (42). To this day, female athletes still experience significantly less and different media coverage than their male counterparts. The purpose of this study is to examine how increasing exposure to women's sports impacts attitudes towards women's sports.

Improvements in Gender Equality in Sports
Although women have faced many challenges throughout history, they have come closer and closer to achieving gender equality and those advances cannot be ignored. The US Congress passed Title IX of the Omnibus Education Act of 1972, for example, mandated equal federal funding opportunities towards male and female students in higher education (38), which encouraged more girls and women to participate in sports. This increased accessibility to sports sparked a change of less than 32,000 intercollegiate women and 300,000 high school girls that participated in sports prior to 'Title IX' to 200,000 intercollegiate women and three million girls that participated in sports in 2010 (34).

Title IX has made it possible for women and girls to become more involved, and thus, more competitive in sports. The London 2012 Olympic Games featured, for the first time in history, an equal number of sports for women as for men (25). Upon this expansion of women's sports, many countries such as the US experienced a large growth in the number of female Olympians - so large that female US Olympians outnumbered male US Olympians (25) and went on to earn more medals, including more gold medals, for the US (12). The 2012 Games provided opportunities for more than just the US, though. Every single country participating, for the first time ever, had at least one female participant (12). Sports fans, too, are seemingly becoming more interested in the push for gender equality by watching more women's sports. More and more people watch the Women's Final Four of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball every year, consistently breaking viewership records (3).

It is important to keep women and girls participating in sports and exercise because sports have many benefits for men and women regardless of gender including decreased social loafing later in life with a history of participating in team, rather than individual sports (16); improved respiratory and cardiovascular health (58); enhanced muscle and bone strength and reduced hip fractures, vertebrae fractures, and cancer diagnoses (2, 66); reduced risk of Type II diabetes (22); decreased risk of depression (39); improved grades (51); and in children who participate in team sports, increased self-concept and self-esteem (55).

Gender Inequality in Sports Still Exists
Despite the improvements towards reaching gender equality in sports, female athletes still face numerous obstacles. The media, for example, present sports as if there are masculine (e.g., football and ice hockey) and feminine (e.g., gymnastics and figure skating) sports, aligning with traditional expectations of male and female athletes (36, 44), which makes it more difficult to break traditional gender barriers and allowing women to participate in masculine sports and men to participate in feminine sports. In fact, many female athletes are only accepted by society and receive coverage in the media if they participate in traditionally feminine sports (12). If a woman dares to participate in a masculine sport, their sexuality is immediately questioned (7). The media tends to ignore, which devalues, women's athletic accomplishments by focusing on their physical appearance (60), private lives (4, 29, 31), and femininity and sexuality even if they achieve more impressive athletic feats (21).

Not only does the media focus on different features of a female athlete opposed to a male athlete, but some researchers analyzed media coverage of female athletes and reported that women receive poorer quality of technical production, less overall coverage, and are demeaned as "girls" while men are portrayed as "strong and powerful men" that are "historically important" (18). Television networks even choose different shots and angles for at least female beach volleyball players (4) and track and field athletes (26), exploiting their bodies. The emphasis on their bodies and sexuality could be putting women and girls at risk for anxiety and fear (49). Females who experience the media's emphasis of attractive qualities are more likely to also experience anorexia, bulimia, body dissatisfaction, and a drive for thinness (5). In addition, such anxiety is related to quitting sports (24, 53), experiencing less enjoyment in sports (53, 57), and suffering impaired performances (28, 68, 32, 48, 63). Therefore, the unequal attention given to female athletes may lead to many negative consequences for women in addition to protecting male privilege in sports (13, 35).

This unequal attention may seem minimal to some, but is discrimination nonetheless. Even if women and girls do not interpret the inequality as discrimination, it can still cause negative consequences because then any kind of negative outcome (i.e., lower ticket sales compared to male athletes) can be internally attributed (i.e., self-blame) which will result in reductions in motivation, self-esteem, and future expectations for achievement (67).

Media Exposure of Women's Sports
Gender inequality, as noted, has many negative consequences for female athletes. In addition to the unequal type of coverage that female athletes receive, they also receive less overall coverage (8, 19, 30, 47, 56). Women's sports are also perceived as less exciting and slower than men's sports (40). In that same study, participants reported that they had minimal experience with women's sports and only watched women's sports if that is what was on television. The media, though, does not give women's sports much coverage, minimizing the frequency of which sports fans view women's sports. In fact, less than 10% of sports media covers women's sports and less than 2% of sports media covers women's sports that are deemed masculine (37). Unfortunately, news staff are less likely to recognize this difference than viewers (41), meaning that news staff may not realize that they are arguably discriminating against female athletes.

Even though the Olympic Games are now offering the same number of sports for women as they do men as previously noted, the Olympic Games also displays unequal coverage through their networks. For example, the US women's basketball team won their fifth consecutive gold medal in 2012, but received less than half of a minute in prime-time coverage whereas the men's team who won their second consecutive gold medal received approximately half of an hour of prime-time coverage (12). Notably, though, the 2012 Olympic Games, for the first time ever, also provided more coverage of women's sports than men's sports on NBC; however, this coverage was primarily for women's sports deemed feminine (e.g., gymnastics) (12).

A study examining ESPN's SportsCenter and three Los Angeles networks discovered that only 1.4% of SportsCenter's coverage and 1.6% of the local networks' coverage were of women's sports, the lowest in at least 20 years (47). Although this study was conducted earlier than 2012, it provides evidence that women are still receiving less coverage in sports outside of the summer Olympics.

Such misrepresentation of women's sports has been argued to be responsible for the lack of interest in women's sports from sports fans (9, 14, 15) and reinforces the public's general negative attitudes towards women (61). As previously argued, this lack of coverage of women's sports may be holding sports fans back from developing interest in women's sports and adapting fan affiliations with women's sports teams and athletes (27). The same study also noted that societal expectations also promote divisions between boys and girls during youth, arguing that this issue is more than just an issue with the media. The media, however, may play an important role in changing the inequalities women face in sports.

Theoretical Considerations
The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media, also known as the Agenda-Setting Theory (45) argues that the media tells the audience what to think about by giving a topic or issue with higher importance more coverage. Therefore, women's sports, in the eyes of the sports fans, may be experienced as less important than men's sports because it consistently receives less media exposure with the exception of the 2012 Olympic Games (12).

Framing Theory (23) similarly argues that frames, or mental schemas, facilitate information processing, thus shaping what the audience knows about a topic and what they should think about a topic based on the inclusion, exclusion, and prominence of the frames the media presents (20). In other words, "the audience is thought to adopt the frames of reference offered by journalists and to see the world in a similar way" (46, p.557), thus, shaping the opinions of sports fans when women's sports are de-emphasized.

The Mere Exposure Effect (69), adds more to these theories, simply arguing that the more an individual is exposed to a stimulus, the more favorable they perceive it. Therefore, when sports fans are not exposed to women's sports, they comprehend the lack of exposure as if they should not care about women's sports (10, 15, 17). Additionally, when the media places an emphasis on women's sports that are feminine opposed to masculine, sports fans begin to believe that women and girls should only be participating in feminine sports and not masculine sports (12).

If the media plays such a large role in shaping attitudes and values in regards to women's sports, why does the media continue? For starters, as previously mentioned, the media, especially male members of the media, may be unaware of the vast differences in portrayals of women and girls versus men and boys in sports (41). Additionally, sports fans are continuing to watch sports because it allows eustress, boosts self-esteem if a favorite team or athlete performs well, offers a way to 'escape,' entertains them, provides an opportunity to gamble, is aesthetically pleasing, commits one to a larger group affiliation (e.g., sport fan of a specific team), and brings families together (64). Perhaps, given all of these potential benefits, sports fans continue to watch sports in an attempt to reap more of the benefits, which unintentionally leads the media to believe that their audience likes what they are watching, reinforcing the emphasis on men's sports and the de-emphasis of women's sports.

Athletes such as Danica Patrick and the German National Women's soccer team, amongst many others, though, often sexualize themselves, despite other feminists claiming the media is the culprit (50). The same article argued, though, that these female athletes feel obligated to sexualize their bodies in an effort to promote their respective sport.

Female athletes and marketing organizations that sell sex believe that it is the most powerful way to advertise and increase sales, ratings, and sponsorships (33). This method, however, does not increase interest or respect for women's sports and women and girls, the primary fans of women's sports, react negatively to it (1, 33).

What method could work, then, to generate interest and respect for women's sports if selling sex does not work? The present study uses the provided information and theories to deduce some hypotheses. For example, because the Mere Exposure Effect argues that increased exposure to a stimulus can generate more favorable attitudes towards the stimulus and because sports fans have indicated that they may watch more women's sports if they were more accessible, the researchers hypothesized:

H1: Individuals who are exposed to a 4-week intervention of watching women's sports
will be more interested in women's sports.

H2: Individuals who are exposed to a 4-week intervention of watching women's sports
will be less prejudiced towards women in sport.

METHODS
College students were recruited from various courses related to psychology, sociology, and sport sciences at a Midwestern institution. The participants were divided in half for the control and experimental condition. Although 89 individuals started the study, 58 (65.5% females; 32.8% males) completed all 4 weeks of the study (Mage = 20.0 years). The control group completed a survey each week while the experimental group watched various highlight footage of masculine women's sports (e.g., soccer, hockey, etc.) each week. Highlight footage of women's sports that had athletes competing on behalf of the US was purposefully selected in order to foster a connection to the athletes of the respective footage. The researchers chose this method because identification with a sports team is associated with emotional responses toward the competition (6, 4, 65) and because the present study was conducted within the US.

Measures
Prejudice. The 12-item Prejudiced Attitudes Survey (59) was used to measure prejudice, a preconceived negative affect toward another individual or group based on their identity (e.g., gender). Items consisted of single words (i.e., hostility, hatred, disliking, disdain) on a 10-point Likert-type scale (0 = No hostility at all; 9 = Extreme hostility). Total prejudice was calculated by averaging the scores for each item. Scores were tracked each week of the study along with the change of scores throughout the study.

Interest. The Interest Questionnaire (52) was adapted (the topic was changed from biochemistry to women's sports) to assess interest in women's sports. It consisted of 12 items (i.e., "I am very interested in women's sports"; "I always look forward to watching women's sports because I enjoy them"; "later in my life I plan on watching more women's sports.") on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = Not true at all; 5 = Very true for me). Total interest was calculated by averaging the scores for each item. Scores were tracked each week of the study along with the change of scores throughout the study.

RESULTS
Means and standard deviations for all variables can be found in Table 1. Prior to the primary analyses, Pearson's correlations were determined between all of the variables (see Table 1). Table 1 depicts many significant correlations. For example, the initial prejudice measure was consistently and positively correlated with future prejudice scores and was consistently and negatively correlated with the change in prejudice over time. The initial interest measure, on the other hand, was consistently and positively correlated with further interest scores and was negatively correlated with the third and final prejudice scores and the change in the interest from week one to week three.

A factorial two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tested the effects of the intervention (Control versus Experimental) and Gender (Male versus Female versus Other) on prejudice, interest, and the changes of prejudice and interest over time as they relate to female athletes and women's sports, respectively. There was not a statistical significant model for gender, F(16, 92) = 1.598, p = .085; Wilks' Λ = .612, partial η2 = .218. There was also not a significant model for the combination of gender and intervention, F(8, 46) = 1.668, p = .132; Wilks' Λ = .775, partial η2 = .225. There was, however, a significant model for the intervention, F(8, 46) = 2.713, p < .05; Wilks' Λ = .679, partial η2 = .321. The model suggested that the intervention had a main effect on the change of prejudice towards female athletes after three weeks, p < .05. The data does not support H1, but does provide limited support for H2.

DISCUSSION
The main goal of the present study was to explore how increased coverage towards women's sports changes attitudes towards women's sports and female athletes. The passage of Title IX supported a dramatic increase in the number of women and girls participating in sports over the past 40 years (34). As women and girls are increasing their sport participation, sports fans are becoming more interested in women's sports (3). While more women and girls are participating in sports than ever before and sports fans are becoming more interested in women's sports, many sports fans and critics argue that women's sports are just boring; they complain that women's sports are not nearly as exciting as men's sports (61).

Perhaps, sports fans are not interested in women's sports because they are covered significantly less than men's sports, indicating that they are less important and less interesting than men's sports and other topics that are covered more frequently in the media, some researchers hypothesized (9, 14, 15). Using theoretical frameworks from Agenda Setting Theory, Framing Theory, and the Mere Exposure Effect, we hypothesized that increased awareness and exposure to coverage of women's sports will increase interest in and decrease prejudice towards women's sports and female athletes. Increased coverage of women's sports should arguably create an impression that women's sports are important. Additionally, this increased coverage should lead to increased exposure to women's sports. Because the more someone is exposed to a stimulus, the more favorable reactions they have to it (69), the more someone is exposed to women's sports, the more favorable attitudes they should have towards women's sports and female athletes.

Despite these theoretical conceptions, our hypotheses were not supported with our intervention. Prejudice towards female athletes, however, did significantly decrease after 3 weeks, but did not decrease after 4 weeks, when exposed to increase coverage of women's sports. Therefore, increased coverage of women's sports does improve favorable attitudes towards women's sports and female athletes but does not necessarily increase interest towards women's sports. Perhaps, prejudice was not decreased after 4 weeks of the intervention because of the lack of interest and motivation to continue participating in the study considering 31 participants dropped out of the study.

Furthermore, interest may not have been affected because participants did not have an emotional attachment to the women's sports or female athletes that they were watching. After all, identification with a sports team is highly associated with intense emotional responses to the respective team competing (6, 4, 65). Therefore, because sports fans most easily develop emotional attachments to local and regional teams (54), interest towards women's sports may increase if sports fans can more easily identify and access local teams and athletes. The emotional attachment to such a team and/or athlete will increase interest in watching the team or player and increase investment in women's sports.

Interestingly, significant correlations indicated that, despite the condition a participant was assigned, interest consistently decreased over the 4-week period. Participation in the study then, may have bored participants because they were either watching video links or because they were only taking a survey each week. If participants only took pre- and post-tests and if the intervention included in-person sports competition instead of video links, we may have fostered increased interest towards women's sports.

In addition, prejudice towards female athletes consistently decreased regardless of whether or not participants were exposed to increased coverage of women's sports. Participants may have become self-aware of their negative attitudes towards female athletes by being regularly questioned on them. Because self-awareness of negative attitudes decreases prejudice (70), enhanced self-awareness from responding to the survey likely motivated participants to try to understand and evaluate their own reasons for having negative thoughts and feelings leading to the decrease in prejudice towards female athletes.

CONCLUSION
An intervention on increased coverage towards women's sports decreased prejudice towards female athletes after 3 weeks, but not after 4 weeks and had no effect on interest towards women's sports. While the intervention did not affect interest and only affected the change in prejudice after three weeks, self-awareness of negative thoughts and attitudes may decrease prejudice. The intervention is limited, though, because of the number of female participants compared to male participants and because of the use of video links opposed to live-footage or in-person experiences. In addition, the study featured participants who were college students and not specifically sports fans. Future studies should implement interventions on male sports fans and children which involves watching women's sports in person of local or regional teams relative to the participants. Specifically targeting children, for example, may improve attitudes toward female athletes by molding the attitudes of the next generation.

APPLICATIONS TO SPORTS
All too often, sports fans, athletes, administrators, etc. discriminate against female athletes. Many sports fans are not even interested in watching women's sports. The present study provides evidence for what did and did not work to improve attitudes and increase the likelihood that sports fans will continue to watch women's sports. Researchers should use this information to develop interventions to improve attitudes and the popularity of women's sports. Researchers should, for example, immerse participants into the game by providing them with live access to the competitions rather than providing them with highlight footage. Such interventions can help bridge the gender gap, especially in sports.

The present study not only provides groundwork for future research, but also advises sports personnel (i.e., coaches, sports media broadcasters, administrators, etc.) on how to promote women's sports. Many sports personnel and male athletes reinforce negative attitudes towards women's sports by minimizing and altering (compared to men's sports) their coverage via airtime on television, among many other forms of media communication. The present study offers the idea that these sports personnel and athletes need to focus more equal attention on women's sports in order to improve attitudes towards women's sports.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their great suggestions and continuing support.

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Exposure to Women's Sports: Changing Attitudes Toward Female Athletes

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Authors: Travis Scheadler, Audrey Wagstaff, Ph.D., MJE Corresponding Authors: Travis Scheadler tscheadler@wilmington.edu (937) 751-5799 6811 Oakland Rd Loveland, OH 45140 Wilmington College Audrey Wagstaff, Ph.D., MJE audrey_wagstaff@wilmington.edu (937) 481-2253 1870 Quaker Way Pyle Box 1221 Wilmington, OH 45177 Wilmington College ABSTRACT Many sports fans argue that women's sports are boring compared to men's sports.

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Article 1

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The Gender Equality Debate: A Boost for Women in Sport

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If you're familiar with us at Athlete Assessments, you might know we're big believers in gender equality and are passionate about equal rights, equal pay, equal opportunity, and equal recognition, not only just for female athletes, but for women in general.