Breaking barriers: Why women’s sport deserves equal pay, coverage, and respect
By the middle of 2025, women‘s sport experienced its swift development. The crowd-breaking numbers, the widened tournament formats and the complete gender equality in the Paris Olympics have produced hopefulness. The trend seems to be promising with the new international broadcasting contracts signed by the WNBA to record crowds in women’s football matches in Brazil and Spain. However, when you take a second glance you will see that some of the fundamental sectors such as: pay, coverage, and leadership are still being structurally disproportioned.
Women athletes are still under pressure to work in an area that has less to reward them, less to celebrate them and less that shields them. This is being increasingly recognized in the world of public discourse, although most institutions are yet to keep up in terms of action.
Gender pay disparity: the numbers remain indefensible
Wage gaps persist even amid rising revenues
The gender pay gap in sports remains a defining measure of systemic imbalance. Although it is estimated that women sport disposes of the revenues of 2.35 billion countrywide this year, revenue distribution is extremely biased. Any female athlete does not appear in the top 50 of the highest-paid athletes in the world in 2025, as it has always been.
Professional men’s basketball players (NBA) make an average of 8.2 million dollars a year. Their Women National Basketball Association colleagues are pegged at the same around the 120,000 mark – an increment over the past years but still nowhere near fair. Despite the 2023 FIFA Women football World Cup breaking new records in terms of viewing figures, female players made roughly 25 percent of the 2022 men standings pay.
It is not just the global disparity. National teams in nations such as the United States, South Korea and Australia have made progress towards pay equality, although at stillcountry level, inconsistencies recur in bonuses, infrastructure and entry to business affairs.
Endorsements and prize money don’t close the gap
Sponsorship has an oversized influence on the revenues of female athletes, with many getting at least 80 percent of their earnings by this route. This is contrary to the male athletes whose endorsement tends to be less than 40 percent. The disparity nevertheless indicates that there is an increasing interest in women athletes in the market, however, it appears that direct salary and prize incomes are still way behind.
Critics argue that limited exposure in prime media slots directly suppresses endorsement value. Others highlight the disproportionate funneling of prize money into legacy male tournaments. Kim Piaget of the World Economic Forum stated during the 2025 Summit,
“Visibility might generate buzz, but without equitable reward systems, the structural gap remains intact.”
Media coverage and visibility: signs of growth, but still insufficient
More cameras, fewer headlines
The coverage given to women in sports has gone up by over three times since 2020, but women continue to get only 15 percent media coverage in sports in 2025. Although women leagues are receiving hi-profile broadcasts on sites such as DAZN and ESPN+, the conventional television networks tend to schedule matches during off-peak times.
This balance inhibits growth in the number of audiences. The prime-time coverage is associated with more active participation, more fan base, and it attracts a greater interest of advertisers. Neglecting the events of female athletes, broadcasters are thus striking a blow at market valorization of their female athletes long before maturity.
Streaming’s role and audience shifts
The playing field has already started to equalize: streaming-based platforms do not have to comply with the outdated system of ratings, and young audience members switch to watching on their schedule. The movement has been beneficial to women’s sports since the final of the UEFA Women Championships League in 2025 has recorded 42 million views worldwide, which is twice as many as in 2023.
Nonetheless, big advertisers are lagging behind this trend. The world marketers in sports are only spending 20 percent of their investments on advertisements and spending on women events. Even the increased digital audiences cannot guarantee long-term sustainability, as long as there is no parity in advertising and sponsorship investment.
Leadership, respect, and institutional imbalance
The leadership deficit
Women are still underrepresented through decision-making. In 2025, only 24 percent of female occupancy of leadership positions in international sporting federations had also not increased since 2022. This paralysis constricts moves over such issues as fairness of schedule, as well as the execution of the harassment policy.
Initiatives such as the IOCs Gender Equality and Inclusion programme and the female leadership development plan by Sport Ireland are already underway, although they are unevenly implemented at this point. Executive inertia continues to limit the structural rebalancing of sport.
Representation without real power
Representation without empowerment can serve as window dressing. Token female executives, who lack budgetary or strategic authority, often face resistance when pushing for reform. In addition to this, athletes have complained that even when women are in fact elevated to positions of leadership they continue to be given only roles that are basically devoid of any real power where they can actually influence player welfare, sponsorship or league design.
UN executive Volker Tyrk said in April 2025, the world needs to make sure that women in sport are not only visible but heard–and listened to. The appeal made by Tdrk connotes the unequal relationship between presence and power in sports institutions.
Structural barriers that prevent lasting equity
Dropout rates and access limitations
All over the world girls leave sport twice as often as boys when we look nationally at the ages of 14. The trend is supported by a shortage of safe places, limited available role-models, and stereotypes on femininity and sporting. The end result of this is a talent pipeline that has been reduced, particularly in the areas of low-income and in ethnic minorities.
In India, and Nigeria, government-sponsored programs have upped the number of girls in attendance at the school level, but after the age of 16 retention is an issue. Unless it continues to invest, especially coaches and infrastructure there is the risk of a limited pool of elite female athletes in future.
Exploitation and unaddressed violence
Following Human Rights Watch and UN reports at the end of 2024, it was shown that the abuse did still continue to take place in various female sports. Kenyan, Colombian and Canadian athletes have also emerged to detail sexual harassment, money extortion and being punished after reporting the same.
These excesses are either concealed behind veiled authoritative systems or simply termed as reputational risks. The absence of safe reporting systems and athlete-led policy development exacerbates the issue. Institutional inertia and image protectionism remain major barriers to justice.
Voices calling for reform
Senator Claire Murphy, a long-standing advocate for equity in sport, addressed the gender pay gap during a televised interview with BBC News. She described it as a
“systemic failure of our values in real time,” adding, “There’s no business case left against parity—only outdated power structures.”
Murphy called on governing bodies and sponsors alike to codify equal pay policies and overhaul media strategies to prioritize visibility for women athletes. Her full statement and advocacy can be accessed here:
What the next stage of equity must look like
Facts speak louder than words: investment in women in sport, proper infrastructure, and successful narrating will win the fans. The days of women’s activity as a niche sporting event are long behind as they are mainstream and profitable. But full equality requires institutions to restructure how they measure, reward, and protect value.
In 2025, sponsorship investment in women’s sport reached a record $244 million, up 113% from 2023. Companies like Nike, PepsiCo, and Visa have signed landmark deals with athletes like A’ja Wilson and Katie Taylor. The signal is clear—corporate interest is aligned with fan interest. Yet broadcast policies and federation budgets lag behind.
Next month’s Women in Sport Summit in Sydney is expected to bring fresh recommendations on prize parity, executive targets, and safety reforms. More importantly, it marks a global moment of reckoning for federations who continue to operate under outdated models.
