How Women’s Sport Is Shifting As It Continues To Progress

In this week’s Meet The Team piece, Emma Mattes, our Community Executive, looks at how female athletes are starting to becoming major influencers in the sports world.

Men have always been seen as superior in the world of sports. The number of men participating in sport has been larger, better sponsorships have been targeted at men and the audience size at sporting events has also been larger at mens competitions. 

However, in recent years, there has been a shift towards women in sport and a further highlighting of their ability. Because of this, in the past men were the only notable sports stars around the world and therefore had the greatest reputations.

“In 2021, Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Ashlyn Harris have been named as the most influential athletes of the year.”

But female athletes are starting to buck this trend, with a society being led further and further towards influencer, they are now becoming the leaders in this space. becoming global influencers. In 2021, Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Ashlyn Harris have been named as the most influential athletes of the year, all female athletes. Whereas in 2020, the top three most influential athletes were all men. 

Furthermore, women’s sporting competitions are starting to see audiences are becoming larger, therefore the revenue gap is becoming narrower between women and mens sport. A recent example of this is The Hundred, which set a new record for the largest audience ever attending a women’s cricket competition in history, with over astonishing 267,000 people attended fixtures during the month of the event, with previously the record the 136,000 people at the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia.

This has been followed by the recent Olympic Games, where almost 49% of participants at the Tokyo Games were women – making it the most gender balanced games in history.

Moreover, Team GB had more women than men in their team representing that female participation has increased and the gender gap is starting to balance out, however it still is not equal. Sport coverage is beginning to increase yet there remains a significant gap.

Because women are starting to become more visible in the sports industry, this is now affecting the sponsorship deals, which are becoming bigger and bigger.

“Heineken, a major sponsor within men’s football for many years, has in the past week become the official partner of the UEFA Women’s Champion League and UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 and 2025.”

Heineken, a major sponsor within men’s football for many years, has in the past week become the official partner of the UEFA Women’s Champion League and UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 and 2025. This highlights Heineken are being supporters of Women’s sport which indicates to audiences that women’s sport is becoming bigger and more recognised. 

The number of women in the workplace of sport is also starting to increase. Highlighting that the balance of women and men in sport is beginning to even out. As this is increasing, female decision makers are now more influential to fans which helps to benefit gender equality in sport. Long may it continue.