Invisibility is Expensive: The Real Cost of Ignoring Female Athletics

We all love soccer, especially after an incredible season of the FIFA World Cup 2026. But imagine if FOX or Telemundo suddenly stopped broadcasting the games throughout the season. That would be absolutely cruel, right? This is what continues to happen to female athletes in sports media every single day. Luckily, back in 1972, Title IX was passed by the government to make gender inequality in education and athletics illegal. It worked wonders - shifting the scene from a time where girls hardly played sports to an era where millions do. Even though this law created incredible new opportunities, the field is far from level. From unreasonable media coverage to an extreme lack of medical research, the female athletes we love are still being shortchanged-and it all stems from a system that truly never caught up with the law.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

WNBA player Caitlin Clark and teammates wore these shirts to fight for equal pay. - Image Courtesy of Sports Illustrated

To understand why sports media is so broken today,

we have to look deeper at the law that was supposed to fix everything: Title IX. Before this law was passed, life was far more restrictive for girls. Prior to 1972, only 1 in 27 girls played sports. To put that visually, that is 1 girl out of every middle school classroom! This shows just how limited athletic opportunities were for girls, therefore reducing participation. Back then, schools only spent 2% of their budget on women's athletics, meaning that athletes had to run fundraisers like bake sales to pay for uniforms and equipment, all while men's extracurricular programs were fully funded. This lack of funding made athletic scholarships for women nearly impossible to come by. When Title IX finally became a law, it was a wake-up call to the system. Suddenly, schools were legally required to take female athletes seriously, which created an explosion in participation over the next few decades. Today, 2 out of 5 girls play sports, showing that when you give women an opportunity, we will run with it. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Even though the law could force schools to fund the games,

it couldn't force television broadcasters to air them. The female athletes and their fans flooded the stadiums, but sports television cameras stayed off. The appetite for sports is clearly massive, according to data collected by Nielsen, a global market research firm: “46 billion minutes of women’s sports were consumed in the U.S. in 2025”. Despite this boom in sports consumption, many traditional sports broadcasters still gatekeep female athletics. On International Women's Day, UNESCO dropped a statistic to expose the frustrating reality that women make up 40% of all sports participants but only get 4% of the total media coverage. Let that sink in! Receiving lower media coverage results in lower visibility among the public; thus, sponsorship interest stays low. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

So why does that 4% media coverage matter so much?

Because invisibility is expensive. Researchers at Taylor and Francis Online point out that women's sports continue to have reduced funding and resources to pay their athletes, promote events, and engage journalists, creating “a cycle of institutionalised discrimination”. The scariest part of this underfunded cycle is not the unequal paychecks but instead the impact it has on a player's health. This media coverage gap relates to a massive scientific deficit. Because women's sports haven't been prioritized or broadcast at the same level, female athletes are included in only 6% of sports science and medical research. For decades, sports and training programs were designed with a male-centric ideology for things ranging from concussion protocols to athletic shoes, completely ignoring the fact that women have many biological differences.

When women started asking for more inclusive equipment, many major companies just went with “shrink it and pink it,” meaning they made gear smaller and colored it pink. The result? A major spike in ACL tears among female athletes is simply because the sports industry didn't view investing in research for women's sports as necessary. ESPN said that since the 1990's, researchers have found that “... wearing shoes designed for men could put women at risk for lower limb and feet injuries”. Former cricketer Lydia Greenway suffered many lower limb injuries while playing in men's boots. She would roll her ankles often and eventually ruptured her ligaments. Greenway has made an active effort to provide equal access to appropriate gear for girls. She says that “access to appropriate gear isn't just important from a physical standpoint, but also a psychological one". Ultimately, when sports media chooses to ignore women's sports, they aren't just gatekeeping a game -  they are actively blocking access to the safety, health, and dignity on the playing field. 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

We have come 54 years since Title IX was first introduced,

the law that changed the education and athletic industry for girls and women nationwide. And while it brought many talented female athletes into sports, the sports media industry remains stuck in the past. Although billions of minutes of women's games were consumed, they still only receive a small amount of media coverage. This disparity in media coverage is not just about missing a game; it's about the domino effect of how a lack of media attention leads to underfunding, a lack of sports and medical research, and physical injuries. It's time for sports broadcasters to turn the cameras on, step into the modern era, and to finally give female athletes the coverage, resources, and respect that is long overdue.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Note From the Author + The Impact Checklist:

Thank you so much for reading the first post of She Speaks Power! You taking the time to read this article to the very end really means a lot to me. Here is how you can make an impact by helping female athletes locally and nationwide:

Make sure to follow She Speaks Power on Instagram and Facebook:

Instagram

Facebook