Gender Bias on the Sports Pages

By Brigitte L. Nacos
Imagine that the competition for the Ryder Cup, golf’s prestigious trophy, had taken place last weekend in Sweden. Imagine how extensively the biennially contested matches between the best male golfers of team United States and their counterparts of team Europewould have been covered on the sports pages and in television. Now imagine that the competition for the Solheim Cup, golf’s prestigious trophy, between the best female American golfers and their counterparts in team Europe had taken place last weekend in Sweden and imagine how extensively the biennially contested matches might have been covered on the sports pages and in television. Well, last weekend the Solheim Cup matches were played in Halmstad,Sweden, and won convincingly by the American team thanks to the American women’s superb play in the singles matches. But chances are that you do not know—even if you are interested in sports-- because the event was basically a non-event on the sports pages and TV sports programs. This would simply not have happened in case of a Ryder Cup competition--regardless of the time difference between Europe and the U.S. Gender bias in sports is alive and well--in general and on the sports pages in particular.

Since golf is not a mass sports like baseball or football or basketball, one can reasonably argue that it does not matter at all whether professional golf events are reported or not. The fact is, however, that golf and the sport’s most famous stars are extensively covered—especially when it comes to PGA events and celebrity players like Tiger Woods or Phil Michelson. Obviously, companies target a particular audience when they sponsor tournaments and commit advertising to their coverage. The gender double standard in professional golf is not only reflected in the vast discrepancy between the rich purses for PGA tournaments and male players on the one hand and those for LPGA events and female players on the other, but also in the volume of coverage on the sports pages (as far as I am concerned, the payout for male players has long reached obscene levels—not only with respect to the purse for the FedEx Cup that was decided last weekend).

Take the sports section of this morning’s New York Times: There is a 136-line long article about the PGA Tour Championship plus a huge picture of the winner Tiger Woods; there are 9 lines under “Sports Briefing” about the American victory in the Solheim Cup matches. And this was not an exception but indicative of the coverage patterns of the two events the previous days and in general. The Times does not deserve to be singled out here, the coverage was not more generous elsewhere. Today, Newsdau on Long Island devotes 20 lines to the Solheim Cup—but only 9 to the actual competition and 11 to a controversy triggered by an ill-chosen remark by a golf channel announcer about the poor performance of American players in one of the team matches.

There is one scenario that would have guaranteed the Solheim Cup event PGA-like and Tiger-like coverage: If Michelle Wie, winless on the LPGA tour, much promoted by her sponsors, and hyped by a celebrity-hungry media, had played as the captain’s choice for team U.S.A. Unlike young players like Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer who did win on the ladies’ tour, Wie has drawn disproportionate coverage on the sports pages—not based on her performance in competition with other professional women players but on her celebrity status created by her team of promoters/ handlers and the media themselves.

If you think that gender bias on the sports pages is peculiar to the coverage of professional golf, take a look at the sports section of today’s New York Times that devotes merely 30 lines to the fact that the Phoenix Mercury’s won yesterday the Women’s National Basketball Association’s championship. Newsday publishes a 61-line report plus a picture. Whether 30 or 61 lines, these reports pale in comparison to the extensive coverage of NBA championship games.

Comments

[jharp]

Thanks for pointing this out.

46 year old male avid golfer and went to the Solheim Cup in Indianapolis last year.

A real treat and the coverage of them sucks. Especially Yahoo.

They put on quite a show. Not only good looking but very charming.

And extraordinary athletes. Some awesome ball striking.