FEB 20, 2025 | OPINION | By Celeste Hammer
Growing up, I wanted to play hockey with other girls, yet the program encouraging girls to join hockey didn’t offer a women’s team. This lack of opportunities in women’s hockey highlighted a broader issue — the underrepresentation of women in sports.
Historically, women were restricted from participating in sports. The first professional women’s sports team was formed in 1867: an all-African-American baseball team called The Dolly Vardens, based in Philadelphia. The movie, “A League of Their Own,” is loosely based on the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) after the WWII draft threatened Major League Baseball.
In 1923, 22% of U.S. colleges had women’s varsity sports teams. Title IX, implemented in 1972, increased the number of women participating in college sports by 400%. This mandated equal funding for women’s education and athletics, prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally funded activities.
Seeing these sports teams rise to the top and influence the path of women’s athletics by standing up for important issues and showing how women can be on a man’s level or even higher when playing. I never liked hearing phrases like “run like a girl” or “you’re good… for a girl” because they diminish and belittle the strengths of women, undermining their successes and reinforcing hurtful stereotypes in the fight for equality.
The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), founded in 1996, gained 50 million viewers through partnerships with NBC, ESPN and Lifetime. The league started with eight teams and now consists of 12 teams nationwide. Recently, athletes like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have brought more attention to the league after gaining popularity as the top players in their respective college teams.
Women’s soccer has played an important role in the history of women’s athletics. In 1970, Italy hosted the first unofficial Women’s World Cup by the Federazione Internazionale Europea Football Femminile (FIEFF).
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) was established in 2012 and as of right now, consists of 14 teams. The U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) has proven that female athletes can achieve amazing feats on the international stage, winning five Olympic gold medals, more than any other nation, and two other medals, silver and bronze. The USWNT has also won four FIFA Women’s World Cups, showcasing some of the best performances in women’s soccer, solidifying their global dominance and inspiring generations of athletes.
Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd are some of the big names on the team who have created waves for women’s athletics and soccer by speaking up for athlete equality and media coverage. In 2022, several members of the USWNT reached a settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation for $24 million, which ensured equal pay for male and female soccer players, the first victory of its kind globally. Six years prior, Morgan, Lloyd, Rapinoe, Hope Solo and Becky Sauerbrunn had taken multiple legal actions against the U.S. Soccer Federation based on the Equal Pay Act, as the payment structure was unfair and inequitable. Previously, their World Cup bonus was $75,000, while the men’s was $300,000.
This pay disparity was very discouraging for women around the world. When the USWNT challenged this, this inspired other teams and women to fight for their equality, creating a domino effect in athletics. The players who initially filed legal actions in 2016 have continued to stand up for representation and equality throughout sports coverage.
As a female athlete, I have firsthand experience with the lack of funding and attention given to women’s sports teams. Being on a team that receives less attention and focus than men’s teams in the same organization is discouraging. Many programs I have been part of have focused on male sports much more than women’s, subsequently, many athletes around me decided to quit because the seriousness of the sport was not what they were looking for when men’s programs took the sport much more seriously.
The focus and funding for girls’ youth sports programs must be elevated to uplift more amazing women athletes for all sports and allow them to reach their full potential.
Women’s tennis is an important sport in the fight for equality for women athletes. On Sept. 20, 1973, one of the most watched televised sporting events occurred in tennis. 90 million people worldwide tuned in to watch the match between former number-one-ranked tennis player Bobby Riggs and 29-year-old Billie Jean King.
This match was incredibly important for women’s tennis and women’s sports. Riggs was a top male player, and he claimed, “The women’s game was so inferior to the men’s game that even someone as old as he was could beat the current top female players.” His bold assertions got King’s attention, and she decided to play him to uplift women’s sports, and she won.
After winning the match, she 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.”
This win created recognition for King and developed a greater respect for women athletes. Title IX and King can be credited with igniting a boom in women’s sports participation and empowering women to advocate for equal pay in all workforces.
King became one of the founding members of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). Recently, the PWHL Takeover Tour has brought the league around the U.S. and Canada in NHL rinks. The PWHL is one of the newest women’s professional sports teams, containing six teams, three in Canada and three in the U.S.
This addition of the PWHL to the professional sports world has had a great impact and has added another sport where young athletes can look forward to succeeding. During the Takeover Tour, the PWHL teams Minnesota Frost and Montreal Victoire competed in Denver, Colo., at the Ball Arena. They set a new attendance record for a PWHL game held in the United States with 14,018 people.
The US National Team has played at the Olympics for many years before the professional league was created. The US National Team is one of the most successful women’s ice hockey teams in international play, medaling in every major tournament. Before the PWHL, these elite female hockey players had nowhere to play after college. Creating a professional league for women’s hockey is incredibly important, allowing these top women’s hockey players to have a league to play in after college and win medals. It also shows the need for more recognition for professional teams in sports.
Watching women’s sports is crucial to understanding and supporting equality in sports. Attending CC’s women’s games or following professional women athletes helps drive change and showcases the immense talent in women’s sports.