In recent years, women have dominated sports headlines in a way they truly never have before.
The 2024 Paris Olympics achieved gender parity for the first time in the history of the Games.
In January 2025, the NCAA unanimously approved a women’s March Madness revenue-sharing plan to provide the same compensation the men’s teams have had since 1991.
Last year’s Super Bowl MVP, Jalen Hurts, proudly boasted an all-women management team, onboarding a new slew of fans for the Philadelphia Eagles — and spotlighting career role models for countless young women of color.
In major cities across the country, women are getting their own professional leagues. In 2024 alone, at least 20 teams had their inaugural seasons and three new sports leagues for hockey, volleyball, and professional soccer debuted. And it’s not slowing down, with professional women’s rugby expanding in cities like Denver, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, and more.
Even Google’s on board — the search engine now shows men’s and women’s sports updates side-by-side when searching for a team. It used to default to the men’s.
And of course, Ted Lasso himself recently announced the fourth season of the Apple TV+ hit will feature a women’s team (a very apt move considering the show’s star, Jason Sudeikis, can often be seen donning an “Everyone watches women’s sports” t-shirt).
But it took decades for this surge in viewership, support, funding, and success to find women athletes.
In fact, it was just over 50 years ago when iconic tennis player Billie Jean King skyrocketed to fame in 1973 when she won a particularly exciting title against then-No. 1-ranked player Bobby Riggs.
“Riggs 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,” King’s website describes.
Promoters dubbed the match “The Battle of the Sexes,” and 90 million people across the globe tuned in to watch King take home the victory. It was one of the most-watched television sporting events of all time and is still the most-watched tennis match in history.
“I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn’t win that match,” King recalled. “It would ruin the women’s [tennis] tour and affect all women’s self-esteem. To beat a 55-year-old guy was no thrill for me. The thrill was exposing a lot of new people to tennis.”
A year later — shortly after the enactment of Title IX — King founded the Women’s Sports Foundation, which has spent the past five decades advocating for all women and girls to reach their full potential in sports. The foundation provides financial support for aspiring champion athletes, groundbreaking research, and educational programming to help communities get girls active.
“I’m so glad I’ve lived long enough to see changes, but we still have so much work to do,” King told SELF Magazine in February of last year. “We really are socialized not to trust our bodies.”
Despite incredible milestones in women’s athletics, King knows this story by heart.
“Girls are behind. We haven’t had as much attention given to us, in this area particularly,” she told SELF. “And I know it because I’ve lived it forever.”
The good news is that now, the tide is turning.
According to reports from UN Women, 73% of people now watch women’s sports, not too far behind the 81% that say they watch men’s sports at the same frequency. The kicker? Over half of women’s sports fans say they began watching within the last three years.
We also know the impact of sports on young women and girls. Research from WSF shows that playing sports has significant positive effects on both mental and physical well-being.
Sports are correlated with decreased levels of depression and anxiety, stronger peer relationships, greater levels of meaning and purpose, positive body image, and lower risks of diseases like cancer and osteoporosis.
It’s clear: Sports are good for girls — and girls are good for sports. So what needs to happen in the next 50 years to ensure that everyone continues watching, supporting, and growing women’s sports? Here are some pointers — and good news — to guide our next moves.
All women must be included in our efforts.
Policies targeting transgender athletes — especially trans women — have swept the country in both statehouses and executive orders from the Trump administration. The NCAA has followed suit, limiting competition in women's college sports to athletes assigned female at birth.
Sex and gender are far more nuanced than these policies make them out to be, and while lawsuits are fighting these discriminatory practices, our job as sports fans, athletes, and human beings is to continue to shift the culture in support of all women athletes.
“Sport can help break down barriers, create understanding, and provide a place to belong,” WSF wrote in a statement.
“It is the power of sport that spurs our mission for all girls and women to have equal access and opportunity to play, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ability, zip code, or family income. We believe humanity wins when all girls and women, including transgender girls and women, have the opportunity to play.”
Women’s sports stories must be uplifted.
Any advancement in women’s athletics is also an advancement for the surrounding ecosystem, including media.
Investment in and airtime for women’s sports on mainstream outlets are vital to ensuring women’s sports stories are told equitably, and that fans have ample opportunity to tune in. But burgeoning forms of nontraditional media deserve the support of fans, too.
Coach Jackie J is a social media content creator who specializes in sharing snappy, entertaining women’s sports stories on TikTok and Instagram, looping in new and old fans alike.
She’s even shared her own backstory about being the only girl on a boy’s soccer team growing up — and how her resilience made her the women’s sports fan she is today.
“The studies that come out about girls quitting sports always cite a fear of failure and a lack of confidence,” she said in a video. “But hear me when I say: There is nothing braver in the world than trying, especially when you don’t feel confident, and especially when you think you might fail.”
In the print media sphere, a magazine called “Snatch” is “a queer-owned media project at the intersection of women’s sports, art, and culture.”
Founded by Sofia Mitropoulos, it features schedules of women’s sports, a guide to trophies that champions of women’s tournaments might win, a map of women’s sports bars, and a back cover that reads: “It feels good to watch women’s sports grow.”
The first issue sold out within 24 hours of printing.
Women’s health and safety must be prioritized.
For women to feel welcome in athletics, their safety needs to be prioritized — simple as that.
While efforts continue to improve in mitigating abuse and harassment in sports organizations, other considerations are vital to keeping women in the game.
Recently, Yale Medicine announced a first-of-its-kind clinic called the Female+ Athletic Program, which will treat and study common sports injuries that disproportionately affect girls and women, like ACL tears, stress fractures, concussions, and overuse injuries.
A comprehensive team of doctors, physical therapists, sports psychologists, and more, will finally provide women-centered care to athletes.
“I have expertise in surgery, recovery from surgery, and the injuries that lead to surgery. But I don’t have a degree or training in nutrition, adolescent health or gynecology, nonoperative sports medicine or concussion, or psychology,” Dr. Corinna Franklin, the program’s director, said.
“For female athletes, all of these aspects intersect, which makes delivering comprehensive care very important for these patients.”
Another safety issue that uniquely impacts women athletes is cyberbullying, as elite athletes who compete in public-facing competitions are often subjected to sexist and racist remarks online.
Following online harassment during the 2024 Olympics, the global governing body World Athletics offered 25 athletes AI protection on their social media platforms. The AI service identifies potential security threats and filters out inappropriate content to keep athletes safe.
“Many athletes don't know how to react [to] abusive comments online, or measures to protect themselves,” said Valerie Adams, Chair of the World Athletics Athletes’ Commission.
“The more we continue to educate athletes on safeguarding measures, the more athletes will feel comfortable flying the flag for their countries and their sport — on the field of play, and online.”
Women must be given their own spaces to enjoy sports.
While die-hard women’s sports fans might have season tickets to their sporting arena of choice, casual fans are finding their niche among a growing coalition of women’s sports bars nationwide.
Togethxr, a media organization launched by four famous female athletes, created a map that highlights sports bars that exclusively show women’s events.
“In March of 2022, only one sports bar in the world was dedicated to celebrating women’s sports,” the Togethxr website says. Since then, 20 more have opened or will open soon.
“Being able to see somebody that's like us on television screens is huge,” Miranda Spencer, co-owner of Denver’s 99ers Sports Bar, told Westword when the bar became the first of its kind in Colorado in late 2024. “I'm happy we have it now, but I wish we would have had it as children, as well.”
Existing leaders must use their success to bring others with them.
Billie Jean King might have been one of the first iconic athletes who leveraged her athletic career for gender equality, but she certainly wasn’t the last.
Countless acclaimed women athletes are already shepherding us into the athletic world of the future, and with their guidance, future generations are sure to follow.
Take track and field star Allyson Felix, who famously and publicly stood up to Nike after the brand refused her pregnancy protections and allegedly attempted to pay her 70% less after she became a mother. Not only did that result in stronger protections for pregnant athletes at Nike and other brands, it was a catalyst of Felix’s work to curb gender inequality in sports.
After starting her own running shoe line and implementing the first-ever nursery at the 2024 Olympics, Felix launched Always Alpha, a sports management firm dedicated to women athletes.
Upon launching her new venture, Felix told Inc.: “For any woman who has been in this space and who has felt that they have not been focused on, or there hasn’t been a plan specific to them, we hope to be a home for them.”
You may also like: Ilona Maher gets her own Barbie doll, complete with broad shoulders, to inspire young athletes
A version of this article was originally published in The 2025 Sports Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image courtesy of The Sports Bra
