Women's sports

Roman women engaged in sports. Mosaic at the Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina in Sicily

A statue of a victress of the Heraean Games, represented near the start of a race

Before each ancient Olympic Games there was a separate women's athletic event held at the same stadium in Olympia, the Heraean Games, dedicated to the goddess Hera. Myth held that the Heraea was founded by Hippodameia, the wife of the king who founded the Olympics.[3] According to E. Norman Gardiner:

At the festival there were races for maidens of various ages. Their course was 500 feet, or one-sixth less than the men's stadium. The maidens ran with their hair down their backs, a short tunic reaching just below the knee, and their right shoulder bare to the breast. The victors received crowns of olive and a share of the heifer sacrificed to Hera. They had, too, the right of setting up their statues in the Heraeum.[4]

Although married women were excluded from the Olympics even as spectators, Cynisca won an Olympic game as owner of a chariot (champions of chariot races were owners not riders), as did Euryleonis, Belistiche, Zeuxo, Encrateia and Hermione, Timareta, Theodota and Cassia.

After the classical period, there was some participation by women in men's athletic festivals.[3] Women in Sparta began to practice the same athletic exercises that men did, exhibiting the qualities of Spartan soldiers. Plato even supported women in sports by advocating running and sword-fighting for women.[5]

Notably, cultural representations of a pronounced female physicality were not limited to sport in Ancient Greece and can also be found in representations of a group of warrioresses known as the Amazons.

During the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, women played in professional Cuju teams.[6][7]

Chinese ladies playing cuju, by the Ming Dynasty painter Du Jin

The first Olympic games in the modern era, which were in 1896 were not open to women, but since then the number of women who have participated in the Olympic games have increased dramatically.[8]

The educational committees of the French Revolution (1789) included intellectual, moral, and physical education for both girls and boys. With the victory of Napoleon less than twenty years later, physical education was reduced to military preparedness for boys and men. In Germany, the physical education of GutsMuths (1793) included girl's education. This included the measurement of performances of girls. This led to women's sport being more actively pursued in Germany than in most other countries.[9] When the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale was formed as an all women's international organization it had a German male vice-president in addition to German international success in elite sports.

Women's sports in the late 1800s focused on correct posture, facial and bodily beauty, muscles, and health.[10]

Prior to 1870, activities for women were recreational rather than sport-specific in nature. They were noncompetitive, informal, rule-less; they emphasized physical activity rather than competition.[11] Sports for women before the 20th century placed more emphasis on fitness rather than the competitive aspects we now associate with all sports.[12]

In 1916 the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) held its first national championship for women (in swimming),[13] In 1923 the AAU also sponsored the First American Track & Field championships for women. Earlier that year the Women's Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) held the first WAAA Championships.

Few women competed in sports in Europe and North America before the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as social changes favored increased female participation in society as equals with men. Although women were technically permitted to participate in many sports, relatively few did. There was often disapproval of those who did.

"Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world." Susan B. Anthony said "I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride on a wheel. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance."

The modern Olympics had female competitors from 1900 onward, though women at first participated in considerably fewer events than men. Women first made their appearance in the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900. That year, 22 women competed in tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrian, and golf.[14] As of the IOC-Congress in Paris 1914 a woman's medal had formally the same weight as a man's in the official medal table. This left the decisions about women's participation to the individual international sports federations.[15] Concern over the physical strength and stamina of women led to the discouragement of female participation in more physically intensive sports, and in some cases led to less physically demanding female versions of male sports. Thus netball was developed out of basketball and softball out of baseball.

In response to the lack of support for women's international sport the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale was founded in France by Alice Milliat. This organization initiated the Women's Olympiad (held 1921, 1922 and 1923) and the Women's World Games, which attracted participation of nearly 20 countries and was held four times (1922, 1926, 1930 and 1934).[16] In 1924 the 1924 Women's Olympiad was held at Stamford Bridge in London. The International Olympic Committee began to incorporate greater participation of women at the Olympics in response. The number of Olympic women athletes increased over five-fold in the period, going from 65 at the 1920 Summer Olympics to 331 at the 1936 Summer Olympics.[17][18]

Most early women's professional sports leagues foundered. This is often attributed to a lack of spectator support. Amateur competitions became the primary venue for women's sports. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, Communist countries dominated many Olympic sports, including women's sports, due to state-sponsored athletic programs that were technically regarded as amateur. The legacy of these programs endured, as former Communist countries continue to produce many of the top female athletes. Germany and Scandinavia also developed strong women's athletic programs in this period.

• Women's sports in history
• 
  A Spartan woman running. The bare right breast is indicative of her being an athlete.
• 
  Fraulein Kussinn and Mrs. Edwards boxing, 1912.
• 
  A camogie team posing with their hurling sticks, around 1915.
• 
  Young women wearing swimming competition medals, around 1920.
• 
  Fencer Sibyl Marston holding a foil.
• 
  Edith Cummings was the first woman athlete to appear on the cover of Time magazine, a major step in women's athletic history.
• 
  Tennis players Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills during the Match of the Century.

In 1972 the United States Congress passed the Title IX legislation as a part of the additional Amendment Act to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.[20] Title IX states that: "no person shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participating in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance...";[21] in other words, Title IX prohibits gender discrimination in schools that receive federal funds through grants, scholarships, or other support for students. The law states that federal funds can be withdrawn from a school engaging in intentional gender discrimination in the provision of curriculum, counseling, academic support, or general educational opportunities; this includes interscholastic or varsity sports.[22] This law from the Education Act requires that both male and female athletes have equal facilities and equal benefits. The equal benefits are the necessities such as equal equipment, uniforms, supplies, training, practice, quality in coaches and opponents, awards, cheerleaders and bands at the game.[21] In 1979, there was a policy interpretation that offered three ways in which schools could be compliant with Title IX; it became known as the "three-part test".

1. Providing athletic participation opportunities that are substantially proportionate to the student enrollment. This prong of the test is satisfied when participation opportunities for men and women are "substantially proportionate" to their respective undergraduate enrollment.
2. Demonstrating a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex. This prong of the test is satisfied when an institution has a history and continuing practice of program expansion that is responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex (typically female).
3. Accommodating the interest and ability of the underrepresented sex. This prong of the test is satisfied when an institution is meeting the interests and abilities of its female students even where there are disproportionately fewer females than males participating in sports.

Although schools only have to be compliant with one of the three prongs, a 1999 study by Sigelman and Wahlbeck found that many schools are "nowhere near compliance".[23] Many schools attempt to achieve compliance through the first prong; however, in order to achieve that compliance schools cut men's programs, which is not the way the OCR wanted compliance achieved.[24] Equity is not the only way to be compliant with Title IX; athletic departments need to show that they are making efforts to achieve parity in participation, treatment, and athletic financial assistance.[25]

According to research done by National Women's Law Center in 2011, 4500 public high schools across the nation have extremely high gender inequality and are violating the Title IX laws.[26] According to further research done by the Women's Law Center, schools with a high number of minority students and a greater number of people of color mainly in southern states had a much higher rate of gender disparity. There is also a huge disparity regarding sport related scholarships for men and women, with men getting 190 million more in funding than women.[27] This pattern has persisted over a long period of time as, most colleges focus on their male athletics team and plow more money into them. This disparity shows the link between race and gender, and how it plays a significant role in the hierarchy of sports.[26]

The main objective of Title IX is to make sure there is equal treatment in sports and school, regardless of sex, in a federally funded program. It was also used to provide protection to those who are being discriminated due to their gender.[28] However, Title IX is most commonly associated with its impact on athletics and more specifically the impact it has had on women's participation in athletics at every age. Title IX has allowed women and girls in educational institutions to increase their opportunity in different sports they are able to play now.[29] Today there are more females participating in athletics than ever before. As of the 2007–2008 school year, females made up 41% of the participants in college athletics.[30] To see the growth of women's sports, consider the difference in participation before the passing of Title IX and today. In 1971–1972 there were 294,015 females participating in high school athletics and in 2007–2008 there were over three million females participating, meaning there has been a 940% increase in female participation in high school athletics.[30]

In 1971–1972 there were 29,972 females participating in college athletics and in 2007–2008 there were 166,728 females participating, a 456% increase in female participation in college athletics.[30] In 1971, less than 300,000 females played in high school sports. After the law was passed many females started to get involved in sports. By 1990, eighteen years later, 1.9 million female high school students were playing sports.[20] Increased participation in sports has had a direct impact on other areas of women's lives; these effects can be seen in women's education and employment later on in life; a 2010 study found that the changes set in motion by Title IX explained about 20 percent of the increase in women's education and about 40 percent of the rise in employment for 25-to-34-year-old women.[31] This is not to say that all women who are successful later on in life played sports, but it is saying that women who did participate in athletics received benefits in their education and employment later on in life.[31]

In 1971, fewer than 295,000 girls participated in high school varsity athletics, accounting for just 7 percent of all varsity athletes; in 2001, that number leaped to 2.8 million, or 41.5 percent of all varsity athletes, according to the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.[32] In 1966, 16,000 females competed in intercollegiate athletics. By 2001, that number jumped to more than 150,000, accounting for 43 percent of all college athletes. In addition, a 2008 study of intercollegiate athletics showed that women's collegiate sports had grown to 9,101 teams, or 8.65 per school. The five most frequently offered college sports for women are, in order: (1) basketball, 98.8% of schools have a team, (2) volleyball, 95.7%, (3) soccer, 92.0%, (4) cross country, 90.8%, and (5) softball, 89.2%. Since 1972, women have also competed in the traditional male sports of wrestling, weightlifting, rugby, and boxing. An article in the New York Times found that there are lasting benefits for women from Title IX: participation in sports increased education as well as employment opportunities for girls.[33] Furthermore, the athletic participation by girls and women spurred by Title IX was associated with lower obesity rates. No other public health program can claim similar success.[34]

Although female participation in sports has increased due to Title IX, there has not been a similar effect in terms of women holding coaching or other managerial positions in sports. Most sport teams or institutions, regardless of gender, are managed by male coaches and managers.[35] For example, according to 2016 data, 33% of WNBA teams are led by women coaches or managers.[36] The International Olympic Committee also consists of 20% female members.[36] The data presented also showed that 15% of athletic directors in colleges nationwide were females, and that number is much less in the southern states.[36] There are various reasons that have been suggested to account for this trend. Messner and Bozada-Deas (2009) suggest traditional gender roles may play a role and that society's historical division of labor leads to men volunteering as team coaches and women volunteering as team "moms".[37] Everhart and Chelladurai (1998) show that this phenomenon may be part of a larger cycle --- girls who are coached by men growing up are less likely to view themselves as coaches when they are adults, and so the number of female coaches decreases, meaning more girls are coached by men.[38] [39]

Women's volleyball at Canada Summer Games, 2017.

Sports are a high priority in Canadian culture, but women were long relegated to second-class status. There were also regional differences, with the eastern provinces emphasizing a more feminine "girls rule" game of basketball, while the Western provinces preferred identical rules. Girls' and women's sport have traditionally been slowed down by a series of factors: both historically have low levels of interest and participation. There were very few women in leadership positions in academic administration, student affairs or athletics and not many female coaches. The media strongly emphasized men's sports as a demonstration of masculinity, suggesting that women seriously interested in sports were crossing gender lines with the male sports establishment actively hostile. Staunch feminists dismissed sports and thought of them as unworthy of their support. Women's progress was uphill; they first had to counter the common notion that women's bodies were restricted and delicate and that vigorous physical activity was dangerous. These notions where first challenged by the "new women" around 1900. These women started with bicycling; they rode into new gender spaces in education, work, and suffrage. The 1920s marked a breakthrough for women, including working-class young women in addition to the pioneering middle class sportswomen.[40]

The United Kingdom has produced a range of major international sports including: association football, rugby (union and league), cricket, netball, darts, golf, tennis, table tennis, badminton, squash, bowls, rounders, modern rowing, hockey, boxing, snooker, billiards, and curling.[41] In the 19th century, women primarily participated in the "new games" which included golf, lawn tennis, cycling, and hockey. Now, women also participate at a professional/international level in football, rugby, cricket, and netball.

Since the late 1980s, Women In Sport,[42] a non-profit organization, has hoped to transform sport for the benefit of women and girls in the UK. Based in London, the organization's mission is to "champion the right of every woman and girl in the UK to take part in, and benefit from, sport: from the field of play to the boardroom, from early years and throughout her life".

The Henley Royal Regatta, just recently allowed women to compete at this prestigious rowing race. Although, the benefits that men receive at this race versus what women receive is still drastically different, there is progress within allowing women to compete competitively.[43]

Before the 1960s, in the early 1800s women romped, skated, played ball games and some even boxed. It wasn't until the late 1900s when women started participating in organized sports. After the civil war wealthy women started playing country club sports such as golf.[44]

Over the last fifty years, women's sports have developed substantially and made significant progress.

Tennis was a popular professional female sport from the 1970s onward, and it provided the occasion for a symbolic "battle of the sexes" between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, which King won, thus enhancing the profile of female athletics.[45] Serena and Venus Williams were able to bring a strong female representation to sports. The sisters were both very successful with their accomplishments playing tennis and were able to set a strong positive model for other female tennis players and athletes as a whole. The two faced many obstacles along their journey to success, as they are African American women successfully conquering a predominately white sport. They were critiqued for their personal upbringings, their muscular builds, and the clothes they wore. James McKay and Helen Johnson described them as "Ghetto Cinderellas," because of those very factors. Although they were not like other females playing sports, the women were able to bring a powerful new meaning and image to female athletics. Facing the challenges of racial and gender discrimination, the sisters enhanced and modeled a strong representation of both.[46]

Despite the success of women's professional tennis in the 1970s, women's professional team sports did not achieve prominence until the 1990s, particularly in basketball and football (soccer), when the WNBA was formed and the first Women's World Cups and women's Olympic soccer matches were held.[47]

The United States Women's National Soccer Team celebrating their 2012 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifiers Tournament championship.

In 1999, at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final in Pasadena, California, after scoring the fifth kick in the penalty shootout to give the United States the win over China in the final game, Brandi Chastain celebrated by spontaneously taking off her jersey and falling to her knees in a sports bra.[48] While removing a jersey in celebration of a goal was common in men's soccer, it was highly unusual in women's football at the international level.[49] The image of her celebration has been considered one of the more famous and controversial photographs of a woman celebrating an athletic victory.[50][51][52] In 2019, it was announced that a statue of Chastain's celebration would be displayed at the Rose Bowl to commemorate the twenty-year anniversary of the team's win.[53]

Today, women and girls compete professionally and as amateurs in virtually every major sport, though girls' participation in sports may be higher in the United States than in other places like Western Europe and Latin America.[54] Additionally, the level of girls' participation typically decreases when it comes to the more violent contact sports in which boys overwhelmingly outnumber girls, particularly football,[55] wrestling,[56] and boxing. (Some leagues for girls do exist, however, such as the Utah Girls Football League and Professional Girl Wrestling Association.) These typical non-participation habits may slowly be evolving as more women participate in stereotypical male sports; for example, Katie Hnida became the first woman ever to score points in a Division I NCAA American football game when she kicked two extra points for the University of New Mexico in 2003.[57]

Heather Watson and Fu Yuanhui broke one of the last taboos in women's sport when both openly admitted they were menstruating, Watson after a self-described poor performance in a tennis match in 2015, and Fu at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[58][59]

Professional sports refers to sports in which athletes are paid for their performance. Opportunities for women to play professional sports vary by country. Some women's professional sports leagues are directly affiliated with a men's professional sports league (like the WNBA[60]); others are independently owned and operated (like the NWHL[61]).

While women today do have the opportunity to play professional sports, the pay for women's professional sports is significantly lower than for men's,[62][63] a phenomenon known as the gender pay gap in sports. Many female professional athletes hold second jobs in addition to playing their respective sports due to their low salaries.[64][65][66] Female professional athletes play in lower-quality, smaller facilities than male professional athletes and generally have lower fan attendance at games or matches.[67][68] Many women's professional sports are not regularly broadcast on live television like many men's professional sports,[69] but are live-streamed on platforms such as Twitter[70] or Twitch[71] instead.

Not only do female athletes themselves face inequality, but so too do women looking to enter the business side of sports. Research has shown that women occupy leadership positions in sports business at a lower rate than men.[72] When women do occupy the same positions as men, they may be paid less,[73][74] although some research has shown revenue-specific variables may be more relevant than gender-specific variables when examining compensation levels.[75]

Although several professional women's sports leagues have been established throughout the world in the post-Title IX era, they are generally behind in terms of exposure, funding, and attendance compared to the men's teams.[76][77][78] However, there are notable exceptions. The 2015 Women's World Cup final was the most-watched soccer game ever in the United States.[79] And in 2017, Portland Thorns FC of the NWSL had higher average attendance than several men's professional teams, including 15 NBA teams, 13 NHL teams, and 1 MLB team.[80] The Thorns' 2019 season saw an even higher average attendance of 20,098.[81] This was higher than all but one of the 30 NBA teams in the 2018–19 season,[82] all but three of the 31 NHL teams in the 2018–19 season,[83] 15 of the 24 MLS teams in the 2019 season,[84] and 6 of the 30 MLB teams in the 2019 season.[85]

In September 2015, the Australian women's national soccer team (nicknamed the Matildas) announced that it had canceled a sold-out tour of the United States due to a dispute with the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) over their pay. Their salary was below minimum wage levels in Australia. The Matildas requested health care, maternity leave, and improved travel arrangements, as well as an increased salary. The players also said that their low salaries forced them to remain living at home, since they could not afford rent, and their strict training schedule meant they were unable to get another job.[93][94]

In September 2017, a new pay deal was announced for players in Australia's national soccer league, the W-League. The deal included an increase in wages, an increase in the salary cap, improved medical standards, and a formal maternity policy. Some commentators have attributed the success of the new W-League deal to the Matildas' boycott in 2015.[95][96]

In November 2019, the FFA announced a new contract with the union Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) in which the Matildas and the men's national team (the Caltex Socceroos) will receive equal shares of total player revenue and equal resources. In addition, the guaranteed minimum salary for a player on the Matildas will increase as a result of this deal.[97]

One of the earliest examples of women's sports in modern China was Qiu Jin. Qiu Jin, a Chinese revolutionary during the late 1800s and early 1900s, trained women to be soldiers alongside men in sports societies. They were taught fencing, riding, and gymnastics.[98] According to Susan Bronwell, the most important moment for women's sports in China came in 1981 with a Chinese victory in the 1981 FIVB Women's World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. This victory made the female volleyball players household names in China, though the victory was portrayed as the work of leading male government officials like Ma Qiwei, He Long, and Zhou Enlai, who helped contribute at various stages to the success of the team. The victory symbolized a growth of women's sports in China after the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, wherein many athletes were suppressed:[99]

In the years following the women's volleyball victory, female athletes generally had greater success in international sports than males, and so they became the symbolic figureheads in the revival of Chinese nationalism.

— Susan Bronwell, Beijing's Games, Pg. 107

Tian Qing of China at 2013 French Open Badminton tournament.

Contemporary Chinese sports teams are noted for their wide breadth of participation by female athletes, specifically in the Olympic Games.[100][101] A Herfindahl Index (a measure often used in economics to show the degree of concentration when individuals are classified by type, and a lower number indicates higher diversity) showing Female Participation in the 2012 Olympics indicated China's female Olympic delegation, the fourth largest present, to be the second most spread out across all events at 0.050, compared to higher numbers from over 190 other delegations. The same index showed the ratio of women to men to be 7 to 10. 213 total female athletes participated.[102] In total, approximately 60% of Chinese Olympic gold medals were earned by female athletes over the last 8 Olympic games.[103] Challenges to equality remain such as media representation. According to Yu Chia Chen, female Asian athletes receive much less coverage than their male counterparts.[104] Another report indicates Chinese girls and women are also less likely to be exposed to sports programming on television.[105]

In October 2017, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) advertised an available position for head coach of the Irish women's national rugby team. The job was advertised as "part-time," "casual," and available on six-month basis.[106] Players expressed their disagreement with the decision, believing it was a sign that the IRFU was disrespecting and not prioritizing the women's game. In response to this announcement, the players highlighted what they perceived as the IRFU's lack of commitment to the long-term development of the women's game by wearing bracelets with "#Legacy" written on them for games with their club teams in the All Ireland League.[107]

The Jamaican women's national soccer team (nicknamed the Reggae Girlz) participated in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. This was the first Women's World Cup the country had qualified for, and the country was also the first Caribbean country to ever qualify.[108] However, in September 2019, members of the team, including Khadija Shaw and Allyson Swaby, posted a graphic on Instagram with captions stating that they had not been paid by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) for nine months of work. They announced that the team would not participate in any future tournaments until they received payment.[109] JFF President Michael Ricketts later announced that the team would be paid by the end of September.[110] In October 2019, the Reggae Girlz began playing again, and they won their group in the Qualification Tournament for the 2020 CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Competition.[111]

The Jamaican national netball team (nicknamed the Sunshine Girls) is ranked 4th in the world, as of July 2019.[112] However, the team has not been well-funded, and had to resort to crowdfunding to attend the 2019 Netball World Cup.[113] After receiving support from sponsors, the Sunshine Girls were able to go to the tournament, where they placed 5th overall.[114]

Sania Mirza, a former world No. 1 in women's tennis doubles, is an Indian Muslim.

Muslim women are less likely to take part in sport than Western non-Muslims.[115] This is particularly so for women in Arab societies. The traditions of Islamic modesty in dress and requirements for women's sport to take place in a single-sex environment make sports participation more difficult for devout female adherents. The lack of availability of suitably modest sports clothing and sports facilities that allow women to play in private contributes to the lack of participation. Cultural norms of women's roles and responsibilities towards the family may also be a source of discouragement from time-consuming sports practice.[116][117]

However, Islamic tenets and religious texts suggest that women's sports in general should be promoted and are not against the values of the religion. The Quranic statements that followers of Islam should be healthy, fit and make time for leisure are not sex-specific. The prophet Muhammad is said to have raced his wife Aisha on several occasions, with Aisha beating him the first couple of times. Correspondingly, some scholars have proposed that Muslim women's lack of engagement with sport is due to cultural or societal reasons, rather than strictly religious ones.[116][117]

However, besides religious testaments, there are many barriers for Muslim women in relation to sports participation. A significant barrier to Muslim women's sports participation is bans on the Islamic headscarf, commonly known as the hijab.[118] FIFA instituted such a ban in 2011, preventing the Iranian women's national football team from competing.[118] They have since repealed the ban, but other organizations, including FIBA, maintain such regulations.[119] At the same time, many Muslim female athletes have achieved significant success in athletic competitions. Some have also used sports towards their own empowerment, working for women's rights, education, and health and wellbeing.[120][121][122]

Iranian women were banned from attending a volleyball game and an Iranian girl was arrested for attending a match. Iran was given the right to host the International Beach Volleyball tournament, and many Iranian women were looking forward to attending the event. However, when the women tried to attend the event, they were disallowed, and told it was forbidden to attend by the FIVB. The women took to social media to share their outrage; however the Federation of International Beach volleyball refuted the accusations, saying it was a misunderstanding.[123] This is one of the instances of unfair treatment of women, trying to participate in supporting their teams in Iran.

In October 2018 Iran announced that, after 40 years, it would allow women to enter sport arenas.[124] On September 22, 2019, the Iranian authorities assured FIFA that women would be able to attend the October qualifier of 2022 World Cup in Tehran, stated Gianni Infantino.[125]

In 2016, the Nigerian women's national soccer team, known as the Super Falcons, won the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations. The players alleged that they had not received their earned bonuses from winning the tournament owed to them by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). The NFF promised that it would pay them, but said the "money [was] not readily available at the moment." In response, players engaged in a sit-in at their hotel as well as publicly demonstrated outside Nigeria's National Assembly.[126]

In 2019, the Super Falcons participated in the 2019 Women's World Cup and were eliminated from the tournament in the Round of 16. Following their elimination, the players engaged in another sit-in at their hotel, refusing to leave Paris until the NFF paid them the bonuses and daily allowances they had earned both from the World Cup as well as from other matches played in 2016 and 2017.[127]

Norwegian sports are shaped by the values associated with them. For example, aggression generally is associated with males and being personable, with females. However, in terms of Norwegian handball, a study done by the Norwegian School of Sports and Sciences shows that gender is disregarded when the sport is covered in the media. The same study revealed that Women's handball is covered and followed as equally if not more than the men's team. In contrast to international handball coverage, the Norwegian coverage of Men's and Women's handball are discussed in the media using the same or similar verbiage. While they are especially noticeable in handball, equality and opportunity in Norwegian sports is not limited to the handball. Many top-female athletes from a number of sports have come from Norway. The act of playing or coaching were described slightly differently but categorized as successful using similar terms despite the gender of the coach or the player.[128]

Ada Hegerberg is a highly skilled and decorated Norwegian soccer player, having won numerous Champions League and Division 1 Féminine titles with French club Olympique Lyonnais. She also won the first-ever women's Ballon D'Or, a prestigious award given to the best soccer player in the world.[129] However, in 2017, she stopped playing with the Norwegian national team, citing unequal pay and conditions between the women's team and the men's team as her reason for stepping away from the team. She said she would no longer play for the national team until she felt that it was more respected by the Norwegian Football Federation and the culture surrounding women's soccer had improved, which meant she did not participate in the high-profile 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[130]

Between 2004 and 2008, the previously highly successful South African women's national soccer team, known as Banyana Banyana, began to struggle on the field due to a lack of a permanent coach. Members of the South African Football Association (SAFA) attributed the declining quality of play to the players' "lack of femininity" (Engh 2010), and the players were instructed to take etiquette classes and maintain stereotypical feminine hairstyles, as well as wear more feminine uniforms while playing. In response, players threatened to strike unless they were able to return to their preferred styles of dress.[131]

In 2018, Banyana Banyana was not paid the agreed-upon amount owed to them after qualifying for the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON), and they protested by not returning their official national team uniforms.[132] In January 2019, the team was again not paid their stipends and bonuses, despite finishing in second place at AWCON. They threatened to strike by not attending interviews or team practices, as well as not playing in a game against the Dutch national team.[133] However, in May 2019, it was announced that Banyana Banyana would receive equal pay with the men's team heading into the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[134]

In Sweden, public funds are mostly given to men's hockey and football, and the women's team are left without proper funding. In 2016, Al Jazeera published an article bringing the discrimination that female Swedish athletes face to light by mentioning the double standard put on female athletes in terms of having to work double and still not receive the recognition or pay of the men's teams. Sweden is recognized as being a feminist country, however the wage gap is significant between male and female athletes. In 2013, Swedish striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic earned $16.7 million a year playing for Paris Saint-German, whereas Lotta Schellin who played for Lyon in France only earned $239,720. The wage gap is also evident among coaches. The difference in pay is evident in how male athletes and female athletes are able to spend their time between games. Women often have to work between training and games to make a living and to pay for their training camps, whereas men have that time to recuperate and relax; men also don't pay to attend training camps.[135]

In August 2019, the Swedish women's national ice hockey team boycotted the team's training camp and the Five Nations Tournament.[136] In a movement they called #FörFramtiden (in English, "For the Future"), all 43 players invited to camp cited lack of equal pay as well as various instances of poor treatment by Svenska Ishockeyförbundet (the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, or SIF) toward the national team, including, but not limited to:[137]

• Team travel conditions - traveling by ferry instead of by plane to games; arriving to games one day before a tournament began, without accounting for time differences and jet lag
• Team uniforms - players are provided men's clothing by SIF, not women's clothing
• Nutrition - players are provided expired products
• Lack of development - players allege that SIF has not adequately created a program to foster development of women's hockey at the youth level

The Four Nations Cup, originally scheduled for November 2019, was canceled by SIF due to the players' dispute with the federation.[138]

Following the boycott, it was announced in October 2019 that the players had reached a new agreement with the federation,[139] and that the team will begin training in November 2019 and play in a tournament against Switzerland, Finland, and Germany in December 2019. The new deal includes terms guaranteeing performance-based bonuses and additional compensation.[140]

Players of Legends Football League do a warming up exercise, USA

U.S. Air Force women personnel do a cross-country run on snow, 2004.

Women make up 54% of enrollment at 832 schools that responded to an NCAA gender equity study in 2000; however, females at these institutions only account for 41% of the athletes. Before Title IX, 90% of women's college athletic programs were run by women, but by 1992 the number dropped to 42% since Title IX requires that there are equal opportunities for both genders.[20] This violates Title IX's premise that the ratio of female athletes to male athletes should be roughly equivalent to the overall proportion of female and male students.[141] Many of the issues today often revolve around the amount of money going into men's and women's sports. According to 2000–2001 figures, men's college programs still have many advantages over women's in the average number of scholarships (60.5%), operating expenses (64.5%), recruiting expenses (68.2%) and head coaching salaries (59.5%).[141] Other forms of inequality are in the coaching positions. Before Title IX, women coached 90% of women's teams; in 1978 that percentage dropped to 58, and in 2004 it dropped even more to 44 percent.[142] In 1972, women administered 90 percent of women's athletic programs, and in 2004 this fell to 19 percent. Also in 2004, 18 percent of all women's programs had no women administrators.[142] In 2004, there were 3,356 administrative jobs in NCAA women's athletic programs and of those jobs, women held 35 percent of them.[142]

The fight for equality extends to the wallet. On March 30, 2016, five players from the U.S. women's soccer team filed a federal complaint of wage discrimination against U.S. Soccer, the governing body that pays both the men's and women's team.[143] The complaint argues that U.S. Soccer pays players on the women's team as little as forty percent of what it pays players on the men's team. This pay discrepancy exists despite the fact that the women's team has been much more successful in international competitions; the women's team has won four Olympic gold medals and three of the last five Women's World Cups, while the men's team has never won either of these competitions.[144]

In 1994, the International Working Group on Women and Sport organized the first World Conference on Women and Sport in Brighton, United Kingdom, where the Brighton Declaration was published. The IWG hosted further world conferences every four years, with the result of the Windfoek Call for Action (1998), Montreal Tool Kit (2002) and Brighton Plus Helsinki 2014 Declaration (2014). The conferences pretend to "develop a sporting culture that enables and values the full involvement of women in every aspect of sport and physical activity", by "increas[ing] the involvement of women in sport at all levels and in all functions and roles".[145]