I've decided to investigate the presence of gender inequalities in ESPN's sport coverage. I looked at the website and investigated the different top stories for each sport, paying close attention to sports where women have a greater presence.
To begin with, the homepage of ESPN has a sidebar with breaking news/headlines. Each and every single headline had to do with professional sports, all involving men. There was no coverage on women's sports or women athletes. There are different sections that cover sports of all kinds, but they are not immediately available on the home page. You have to click on the option "more sports", which directs you to a wider selection of sports. There you can find the WNBA, women's tennis, and other sports where women are professional athletes.
From my findings, ESPN's coverage of women's sports is far from lacking. The sport pages where women are featured presents a great deal of information and articles examining players and games/matches. It is clear that women's sports have not been pushed to the sideline for ESPN. The only critique I have is that there is no mention of women's sports on the homepage. This demonstrates that ESPN's viewers/readers are more interested in sports such as the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, and the MLB. They readily offer links to the sports, and feature headline articles about players pertaining to the aforementioned sports. This conveys that what is most popular to ESPN's viewers is what is proudly displayed on the home website. My findings support current academic research that claims that females are underrepresented in sports. Women's sport does not claim the same amount of followers and support as men's professional sport. It is clear that women are underrepresented in sport, but ESPN's website does at least make some sort of effort to provide coverage on women's sport. It is a small victory, but the current coverage of women's sport is nowhere near where it should be. Readers should be wary of this coverage, and understand that while we are making some headway in gaining support for women's sport, the battle has not been won yet.
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