So much has happened in women's sports the past few days.
- The WNBA season began on Friday. By the end of the weekend, the Las Vegas Aces had played their first game, the Los Angeles Sparks (in a rematch of the WNBA finals) had defeated the Minnesota Lynx on a last-second shot, and Holly Rowe had called her first WNBA game (the aforementioned Sparks-Lynx game).
- The NCAA softball tournament began, and the 16 teams in the Super Regionals were decided. Along the way, there were five no-hitters. And if you watched coverage on ESPN,you got to see a preview of some of the talents recently selected in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) draft.
- The NPF began its 15th season as the Aussie Spirit faced the Beijing Eagles. The Eagles won on Saturday, but the Spirit came back to sweep a doubleheader on Monday. The NPF is essentially a league of college softball all-stars, except the league also includes the best players from around the world.
In addition, there were four games in the National Women's Soccer League, Simona Halep (after losing in the finals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia) rose to the No. 1 spot in the Porsche Race to Singapore women's tennis rankings, and Ariya Jutanugarn won the Kingsmill Championship in LPGA golf.
However, as Cheryl Reeve, head coach of the Minnesota Lynx, noted in a tweet from Saturday night, coverage of all this at the top sports sites was scarce.
Tons of women’s sports this weekend - WNBA, National Pro Fastpitch, NCAA softball tournament, NWSL, LPGA tournament, WTA tournament.
Coverage on front page of these sites: @YahooSports - 0
@ CBSSports - 0. @BleacherReport - 1— Cheryl Reeve (@LynxCoachReeve) May 20, 2018
Although front-page coverage at the major websites remains scarce, one could find stories on softball, the WNBA, the LPGA, and women's tennis at ESPNW. One can also find some coverage of the WNBA and women's tennis at Bleacher Report, the story of Maya Moore's amazing new billboard at CBS Sports, and some WNBA coverage at Yahoo! Sports.
But it's clear in looking at the leading sports websites that women's sports is not the primary focus. The vast majority of stories on the front-page of these sites focus on men's sports.
Such an observation is consistent with academic research. As Cheryl Cooky, Michael Messner and Robin Nextrum have observed, the sports media has for decades focused less than 10% — and often less than 5% — of its coverage on women's sports. This can be seen — as Kiley Kroh noted in summarizing this research — by looking at ESPN's SportsCenter:
SportsCenter, ESPN’s flagship program, dedicated just 2 percent of its airtime to women’s sports in 2014, according to the report — a figure that has remained flat since 1999.
As noted, there really is no upward trend in the data. Coverage of women's sports remains persistently low.
Although coverage is low, it doesn't mean coverage is nonexistent. With a bit of searching one can find sites that are providing consistent coverage of the various women's team sports. What follows is a very incomplete list of sites dedicated to women's team sports (i.e. not the LPGA or WTA). Although incomplete, it should give fans of women's sports a place to start.
Basketball (WNBA and NCAA)
For each league, the place one can go for news is the league's website. For the WNBA that is WNBA.com. But the WNBA and women's college basketball also receive extensive coverage at both High Post Hoops and Swish Appeal. One can also find more coverage at Women's Hoops World, Hoopfeed, WNBAInsidr, Women's Hoops Blog, All Heart in Hoop City, and a variety of other sites. One can even find extensive statistical information for women's college basketball at Her Hoop Stats.
Soccer (NWSL, NCAA, and International)
The National Women's Soccer League's website is nwslsoccer.com. This site has stats and videos. There are also many blogs dedicated to women's soccer. The Equalizer offers extensive coverage of the NWSL, as well as the NCAA and international soccer. But again, there are also many other choices.
Hockey (NWHL, CWHL, and NCAA)
There are two professional leagues in women's hockey; the National Women's Hockey League and the Canadian Women's Hockey League). The Ice Garden and Women's Hockey Life also provides extensive coverage of women's hockey.
Softball (National Pro Fastpitch and NCAA)
Unlike the WNBA, the NWSL, and the NWHL, the National Pro Fastpitch league does not appear to have any independent sites dedicated solely to the coverage of the league. However, there are extensive statistics at the newly designed NPF website. College softball and the NPF is also covered at Behind the Plate Softball. In addition, one can also find softball coverage at Fastpitch News and Justin's World of Softball.
The aforementioned professional leagues have joined forces in the SheIS initiative to promote women's sports (the list of leagues includes the U.S. Tennis Association and Women's Professional Lacross League (WPLL), which begins play in about two weeks). The hope is that by promoting each other these leagues can all do better together.
Such an initiative is necessary because these leagues do not receive very much coverage from the leading sports media entities. But although coverage remains scarce on the larger platforms, coverage does exist. At least, if you are willing to put in some work to find this coverage.
Yes, following women's sports isn't easy. But again, there are many great stories to see if you know where to look.
