A subtler sexism now frames TV coverage of women in sports
It was just one more example of how hard it continues to be for women's sports to receive any attention at all, unless it is somehow filtered through a very dismissive male gaze. While mainstream broadcast coverage now treats the games women play a bit more seriously, much of that now mostly respectful coverage is still being relegated to the sideline, according to an ongoing, decades-long study by USC researchers that was published Sept. 12 in the journal Gender & Society . The research team found that L.A.-based network affiliates devoted 3.2 percent of airtime to women's sports on news broadcasts, down from 5 percent from 1989, the first year of the study. ESPN's SportsCenter has been even worse, devoting 2 percent of airtime to women's sports, a proportion that has remained flat since the study began tracking the show in 1999. "When compared to the start of the study, women used to be framed in ways that were overtly sexist. Now the sexism is subtl...