Since the 1950s and ‘60s the number of women attending college has exponentially increased. What was once a small 39 percent has now grown to more than half of university undergraduates being women, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Even though women have grown to outnumber men in college, most media attention still focuses almost exclusively on male sports.
Every sports buff at the UA can probably tell you the winning streak of the men’s basketball team this past season, as well as their un-equivalent record this year. How many people can tell you the record of the women’s basketball team even for just this season?
Currently, the women’s basketball team is 12-3 — better than the men’s team. When looking at the coverage of the women’s team on the Arizona Athletics homepage, a basic summary of the game is listed, as well as information of the six star athletes of the game. The last sentence of the article explains that all women’s basketball coverage can be heard live on KTUC AM 1400.
Although this may seem like adequate sports coverage at first glance, one only has to click on men’s basketball to see the obvious inadequacies when compared to reporting on the women’s team. The first thing listed on one of the most recent articles are the radio and TV stations that covered the game, which are all major networks and stations. These are also the last things listed for the upcoming game. Where was this coverage when the women were playing?
The article is also triple the length, going far past summarizing the game and detailing rankings, Arizona head coach, the “last time out,” “the series,” and “at the line.” Frankly, the information on the women’s team doesn’t even compare, even though statistically their wins outnumber the men’s at the moment.
It seems that even when our men’s teams are losing drastically, like our football team this past season, the media still focuses on them. They raise questions and issues on how they could do better, what went wrong with the coaching and what the plans are to help them win the next game. This is exactly the case when it comes to talking about the Wildcat basketball teams.
Does our women’s basketball team winning nearly every game this season mean nothing? Do they not deserve the attention of the media for their hard work and effort that is clearly paying off?
It is almost ridiculous so much of our attention should focus on our losing teams when there are other teams right in front of us who are winning. Despite this, no TV crews and very few radio stations, if any, have been covering those games.
This should be the year for change. This isn’t the 1950s anymore — women have become CEOs of companies and they’ve ran for president. With these accomplishments, is it really that hard to send a TV crew to cover some of the Wildcat women’s basketball?
— Rebecca R. Miller is a junior studying photography and journalism. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu or on Twitter via @WidcatOpinions.
