About this item
Although girls and women account for approximately 40 percent of all athletes in the United States, they receive only 4 percent of the total sport media coverage. SportsCenter, ESPN's flagship program, dedicates less than 2 percent of its airtime to women. Local news networks devote less than 5 percent of their programming to women's sports. Excluding Sports Illustrated's annual "Swimsuit Issue," women appear on just 4.9 percent of the magazine's covers. Media is a powerful indication of the culture surrounding sport in the United States. Why are women underrepresented in sports media? Sports Illustrated journalist Andy Benoit infamously remarked that women's sports "are not worth watching." Although he later apologized, Benoit's comment points to more general lack of awareness.
About the Author
Jaime Schultz is an associate professor of Kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University with an affiliate faculty appointment in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is the author or editor of five books and more than fifty articles or book chapters, most of which focus on women in sport, racial politics, and cultural memory. Jaime currently serves as the academic editor of the International Journal of the History of Sport and as co-editor for the University of Illinois' "Sport and Society" book series. She has received several grants and awards for her teaching and research, including the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award.
