womenathletesinmedia

[womenathletesinmedia]

Keep The Ball Rolling Part 2

If a women's game did happen to play on TV, the likelihood of post-game interviews and in depth analysis segments were slim to none, yet common in men's sports. The study states, “scholars have found that media tend to highlight women athletes’ heterosexuality through traditional feminine traits. First, emotions are given more importance when reporters cover women’s sports compared to men’s sports. Second, television news journalists often portray female athletes through their role as girlfriends, wives or mothers. Finally, media highlight the sex of female players by discussing their clothing or sense of fashion. These portrayals thus suggest ‘the compatibility of the athlete and traditional masculine roles while emphasizing the incompatibility of the athlete and traditional female roles’, reinforcing the idea that the sport world is a ‘male preserve’. Similar results have been found in studies of women’s sports online coverage, a relatively new field.”  The study goes into depth on the number of tweets as well as the content, showing the official Twitter account only posted an average of 6 posts per day before & after the 2011 World Cup, but during its active playing status the account tweeted an average of 31 tweets per day. On the main US Soccer page, which is meant to represent both men and the women's team, still posted more on average about the men's team, despite the women being in the year of a major tournament. The study concluded, “the men’s team benefits from the general username ‘ussoccer’ while the women’s team, which has had much better results in international competitions, since its creation in the late 1980s, than its male counterpart, is treated as a niche product, confined to a few thousand individuals who have to make an extra effort to find the USWNT’s exclusive account.” This conclusion beautifully summarizes how the USWNT is constantly being constrained and limited by the media, despite their winning record . This decade proved how much the world was still struggling to accept womens sports as equal counterparts to male athletes. The new world of online social media provided a new space for the first time that would allow the free flow of media coverage, even if it isn’t attached to a formal institution like USSF. Fans of women's soccer from around the world could connect on their love for the game and continue to use free marketing tactics to help the team keep a steady fanbase and attract more attention. 

[womenathletesinmedia]

Keep The Ball Rolling Part 1

Rolling off of the success of the 1999 World Cup it was time for the U.S. to start developing a professional women's league. By this time the MLS had been operating since 1996 but also struggled to take off immediately. Differently than the MLS however, a women's professional league would prove to be a work in progress over a decade. Grant had even mentioned this idea in his post-World Cup story stating, “Whether the U.S. team accomplished its other mission--to generate a fan base and corporate support for a women's pro league--remains to be seen. Mark Abbott, the former CEO of Major League Soccer, is expected to present a business plan to the U.S. Soccer Federation by the end of the year for a proposed league that would begin play in 2001. The international soccer community, however, is circumspect. "There's a huge difference between the short focus of the World Cup, where all the stars are concentrated, and week-in and week-out games at a lower level," says FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper. "There are 30 outstanding, hard-core female players in the world. If you want a national league, say 10 teams, you only have three per team. There's a rapid falloff in talent from the top." This insight from 1991 would prove to be scarily accurate. Soccer was still new, and spectators only really wanted to see the big name players they read about in the paper or saw on TV. The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) lasted from 2001-2003. The expenses of operating & travel, limited Tv rights, lack of funding for training facilities & equipment, and a lack of association to the men's league left the WUSA vulnerable, and thus collapsed just 2 years after its creation. The next professional women's soccer league would not be created in the US until 2009. In this 6 year gap, many players opted to play in European leagues in order to stay active. This practice of going overseas to be able to play was common for women before formal professional leagues were established, as it was really the only option to keep playing at a competitive level.  The Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS)  lasted until 2012, when it had to cease operation due to ongoing legal battles with the team magicJack’s owner Dan Borislow. Borislow was accused of a number of things, including the abuse of players. The back and forth legal proceedings left the WPS with nothing left to support another year of league play. In the decade after the iconic ‘99 tournament, coverage and general hype around the USWNT seemed to die down. The tournaments weren’t on home soil, and the team overall didn’t perform well enough to keep the attention of sports media and fans. Outside of official media like TV news, magazines, and newspapers, online media sites were quickly gaining popularity. A study done by journalist Roxane Coche followed the media coverage on Twitter of the governing body of both mens and womens, The US Soccer Federation, during the 2011 World Cup. While the USWNT lost to Japan in the final, it was a crucial tournament to remind the American public that they can still play. Social media gave female athletes and teams a platform of low-cost marketing while also reaching a much larger audience than traditional media, barriers that had previously prevented the team from reaching a steady league and adequate conditions.

[womenathletesinmedia]

"Out Of This World" Part 2

The USWNT proved in this tournament they could produce high goal-scoring matches and exhilarating games filled with all of the theatrics. “Members of the team remembered being stuck in traffic as they made their way to Giants Stadium in New Jersey for their opening match against Denmark. It suddenly dawned on them that the traffic jam was caused by all the fans trying to get to the game. Almost 79,000 people packed the stadium that day — a record for attendance at a women’s sporting event.” This was a surreal moment for the players as they realized how many fans had come out to watch history be made. This attendance record however did not last very long as just three weeks later the final would be hosted at the famous Rose Bowl and set a new record of 90,185 people that filled into the stadium that day, including President and First Lady Bill & Hillary Clinton. An estimated 40 million people were believed to have watched the game on TV, ABC being the leading network. The game ended in a tense nail-biting and dramatic round of penalty kicks in which goalkeeper Brianna Scurry made a crucial save and Brittney Chastain made the famous penalty shot that won the 1999 World Cup. Overfilled with emotions, Chastain produces the most famous USWNT picture where she removes her jersey and slides to her knees (the profile picture of this very blog). That picture made the July 19th, 1999 cover of Sports Illustrated followed by a story by renowned sports writer Grant Wahl. The 1999 was a major turning point for the USWNT, seeing outpours of support for the first time and ensured a future for international women's tournaments. The “99ers” are legacy players that forever changed the game and continued to pave the way for future generations. Finally the team started to get recognition from the press and even if it didn’t last forever, it was something. 

[womenathletesinmedia]

"Out Of This World" Part 1

The next World Cup in 1995 didn’t do much for the growth of the game in the states, but at least there was a women's world cup to follow the 1991 championship. Sweden hosted the games and Norway got their revenge on the U.S. by winning the tournament. Again the games were not broadcasted on Television in the U.S, however 1 in 4 people in Norway were believed to watch their women win the title. Back to the drawing board, the United States would start to prepare for the next major tournament, and one that would be hosted on home soil for the first time, the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. The USWNT would go on to dominate the tournament, “they played in front of 76,481 fans during the gold-medal match in Athens, Georgia, the most spectators to attend a female sporting event worldwide at the time.” Already you can see the increase of spectators coming out to watch the women play and setting records one tournament at a time. The increase was steady as the tournament went on, leading up to the record-breaking final. A part of this was actually because Americans were still getting accustomed to the sport of soccer, baseball, basketball, and football were the major sports of the time. Many Americans found the game of mens soccer to be boring because of the slow play at times, low-scoring games, and no timeouts for advertisements or entertainment. Because women were generally smaller, the large field actually played in their favor allowing for more movement of the ball. Players like Mia Hamm learned how to take advantage of this and the USWNT dominated in 50/50 spaces using their heads and constantly applying pressure on the ball. Fans slowly began to appreciate the game and more people would come out to watch. The U.S. men's team has never really had an impressive record which left a big space in the soccer world in the U.S. that the women's team seemed to fit in nicely. Despite growing in popularity, FIFA still wasn’t convinced leading up to the 1999 World Cup. For starters these tournaments cost a lot of money to produce, and FIFA couldn’t even decide if women playing soccer was something they wanted to invest in because of the lingering gender stereotypes at the time, “ Some traditional male sentiments remained among much of the world, and FIFA envisioned a small regional tournament, ideally held in high school stadiums that would not create too much attention and fuss. Hank Steinbrecher of the USSF would have none of that. Declaring that “The future of women’s soccer is feminine”, he was determined from the start this would be a full-blown tournament, in large stadiums coast to coast. And that it would be. Full advertising and marketing budgets, large stadium crowds, and world attention were to ensure the tournament would get the press it deserved and be taken seriously, and that was the word from day one.” And with that the U.S. was set to host the 1999 FIFA World Cup.

[womenathletesinmedia]

A Rough Start To Success Part 2

While U.S. soccer has made some progress over the last 30 years, the treatment and pay the women received at the very beginning were laughable, “U.S. Soccer didn’t give them any money other than a meager $10 a day while traveling. Jennings took a series of nine-to-five jobs that she had to quit whenever she left for a new trip. And Higgins, who was making just $7,000 a year as a collegiate assistant coach, would end up retiring from the sport at age 23 after the 1991 World Cup final to make ends meet.” Obviously these are pathetic offerings to what are supposed to be professional athletes representing the U.S. Not only were these athletes attempting something that hadn’t been socially acceptable in history, but they were doing so with no official uniforms, repurposing the men's uniforms on their own personal time and labor. A majority of the players had no other choice but to work odd jobs in between international breaks to be able to support their living when the tournaments were over. Because of their pure love for the game, and the idea of future generations of women being able to play soccer with equal conditions to their male counterparts, female athletes continued to play despite the emotional and physical labor they were willing to take on in order to create a winning team forced to be taken seriously. In 1991 FIFA would host its first official trial run of a women's world championship, composed of 12 teams. The U.S. was able to clinch the title, beating Norway 2-1 in the final. Big names such as Michelle Akers, Carin Jennings, and April Heinrichs led the team in the tournament and collected personal achievements as well. The tournament was held in China and with FIFA still reluctant to fund a women's tournament,  the company M&Ms sponsored the event. The final game brought in roughly 63,000 attendees, and roughly 510,000 total throughout the tournament. A month after the tournament, a New Republic columnist wrote, “Sports honchos still haven't caught on to the interest in women's soccer. We've got twenty-four-hour-a-day sports TV networks in this country, yet no one broadcasts the women's World Cup championship in November. The games were shown live in some countries, by tape delay in others. This was the first world championship for women's soccer, and the United States won. The high scoring American team, judging from skimpy print reports, was flashy and aggressive, it was the product of all the nurturing of women's soccer in the 1970s and 1980s. But ESPN blacked out the women's final, airing molasses-paced hunting and fishing shows instead. If that makes you mad, there's worse. The 1992 Olympics don't consider women's soccer a viable sport. It's not included as an event. Men's soccer is.”  Recognition did not show up immediately after the 1991 world title, “In her book, the “National Team,” Caitlin Murray writes that the squad received a $500 bonus for winning the World Cup. “The players were thrilled because there wasn’t any money in women’s soccer, and they knew it,” writes Murray.” In the lens of growth and exposure to the world, the 1991 women's world cup did exactly what it needed to do to further the efforts for women’s tournaments. Maybe not in time for the 1992 Olympics, however women’s soccer was finally introduced at the historical games in 1996. Players such as Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, and Kristine Lilly set the standards for women's soccer against all of the outside noise and accepting nearly nothing in monetary value to play just to prove to the world and themselves that it could be done. 

[womenathletesinmedia]

A Rough Start To Success Part 1

To talk about today's highly decorative USWNT in 2024 & the community and longevity that has been created by their triumphs, you have to go all the way back to the passing of Title IX in 1972. Before that, the idea of female athletes was a confusing subject across the globe. Soccer, or football, had been played across Europe for centuries & women had been captured playing the sport as early as 1881, and organized matches that drew thousands of fans in England during the first world war. Despite the England Football Association ban on women's soccer, The FA, stating “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged,” women continued to play with any resources they could throw together. The passing of Title IX in the United States came soon after England hosted the first ever Women's FA Cup in 1971.  Before the historic act, “most of the first six decades of the 20th century, women’s soccer was confined to gym class, informal pickup games and college intramural competition.” The new era of women’s sports was finally able to see opportunities for women to play at the collegiate level. The AIAW was established in the early 1970s to sponsor varsity women's sports at colleges across the country. The NCAA eventually began to also sponsor womens varsity sport in 1982, a move causing backlash on both sides of the coin. Because the NCAA had long sponsored men's college sports, the idea that more exposure to the women's game & more funding would come with the new allegiance was hopeful,  however this meant the women's teams now shared the same executive as the men, taking away the women administration who had been apart of the AIAW, replacing them with the formally established patriarchal structures of the NCAA. Nonetheless, popularity in female sports grew across the nation, and at the collegiate level coach Aaron Dorrance was starting a dynasty program of women's soccer at UNC. When reading about the legacy of Coach Dorrance, you might find him dubbed as the mastermind behind the USWNT coming to fruition. Dorrance was the head coach of UNC women's soccer program from 1974-2024, nearly its entire existence, & USWNT head coach from 1986-1994. The credit of the first coach of the USWNT goes to Mike Ryan, who was the first to select from the talent pool of female soccer players from colleges all over the country. Ryan played an important role of instilling a sense of national pride when playing international soccer for your home country. Before this first meeting, women's soccer had never been taken seriously by the public & therefore had to learn a new attitude of playing soccer on the world stage. From there they understood the importance of the role they had just been given & the legacy of that message carries on to the team today. Before the creation of a Women's World Cup, there was the The International Ladies Football Festival better known as Mundialito. This was the USWNT’s first real exposure of international soccer, and proved to point out the flaws thus far on the team with little to show of victory. The team would go back & forth winning some,& losing others, until the first World Championship in 1991. When doing research for the first and most influential players on the USWNT such as Mia Hamm, I was shocked at how many sources I found praising Coach Dorrance as the mastermind behind the team. I don’t want to diminish his accomplishments, however I expected to find much more on the individual players that got the team on the global stage. Even in such a revolutionary time for female athletes, the man appointed to be in charge at the time receives a lot of the credit. It could be argued that the team would never have become what it is today without him. If female athletes were hard to come by at the time, then I have to assume that female coaches were also sparse. Even if the team were to only have women coaches, perhaps they wouldn’t have been taken so seriously by the sports world, or it could have been even longer until the team was able to accomplish international tournament wins.