FairFrames - Evidence Base
Women’s sport has gained more visibility in recent years, but the gap remains wide. UNESCO reports that women receive only 4% of sports media coverage and that, even within this limited visibility, references to appearance, family life and love life often receive more attention than athletic ability. Similar findings appear in national research. In the UK, a comparative study found that coverage of women’s sport did not exceed 5% in any of the years examined and could fall as low as 1% outside major sport events.
Recent UN Women data shows some progress, with women’s sports coverage rising to 16% in 2022 after remaining around 5% for decades. This increase matters, but it also shows how low the starting point has been. Low coverage also cannot simply be explained by lack of public interest. According to UN Women, 73% of respondents say they watch women’s sports at least a few times a year.
The visibility gap is therefore only one part of the problem. The next question is what kind of visibility women receive when they do appear in sport media, advertising and communication.
Research over several decades shows that men’s sport is often treated as the default form of sport, while women’s sport is marked as separate or secondary. Bruce shows that men’s competitions are often presented simply as the event, while women’s competitions are labelled as women’s football, women’s rugby or women’s tennis. Other studies reach similar conclusions, showing that female athletes are often positioned in relation to men’s sport and men’s standards of athletic legitimacy. This matters because language does not only describe sport. It also shapes who is seen as the normal, credible and authoritative sporting subject.
This unequal treatment also appears in the way athletes are framed. Studies by Bruce, Ponterotto, George, Hartley and Paris, and Pfister show repeated patterns in the representation of women athletes. Women are more likely to be discussed through appearance, personal life, femininity, sexuality or relationships, instead of performance, expertise, strength or achievement. This means that visibility does not automatically lead to equality. Women can be made visible in ways that still weaken their authority or keep them inside narrow roles.
Representation matters beyond media balance. It affects who is seen as credible, aspirational and worth following. UN Women reports that 88% regard professional women athletes as impactful role models for young women. This makes fair representation important not only for athletes, but also for the wider public image of women’s leadership, strength and achievement.
These patterns are not created only by openly sexist content. They are often reproduced through routine professional practice. In fast-moving media, advertising and digital communication environments, professionals rely on familiar storylines, images and language that feel recognisable and audience-friendly. Research on live sports broadcasting shows that commentators can fall back on existing stereotypes to explain what viewers are seeing, even when those stereotypes do not match the action on screen. This shows that the issue is not only intention. It is also workflow, habit and lack of review.
The communication environment has also become more complex. Sport-related content now moves across editorial media, advertising, sponsorship, branded content, social media and platform-based communication. Digital media has created more space for visibility, but it has not removed unequal representation. Research shows that online visibility can still coexist with inequalities linked to gender, sexuality, race and class.
For Lead Forward, this evidence points to a clear need for practical work with the organisations and professionals who shape communication content. Tackling stereotypes requires more than awareness. It requires usable tools, clearer review practices and better ways to check language, images, framing and visibility before content is published.
References
Bruce, T. (2008). Women, sport and the media: A complex terrain.
Cooky, C., Messner, M. A., & Hextrum, R. H. (2013). Women play sport, but not on TV: A longitudinal study of televised news media.
Desmarais, F., & Bruce, T. (2010). The power of stereotypes: Anchoring images through language in live sports broadcasts.
George, C., Hartley, A., & Paris, J. (2001). The representation of female athletes in the textual and visual media.
O’Neill, D., & Mulready, M. (2015). The invisible woman? A comparative study of women’s sports coverage in the UK national press before and after the 2012 Olympic Games.
Pfister, G. U. (2015). Sportswomen in the German popular press: A study carried out in the context of the 2011 Women’s Football World Cup.
Ponterotto, D. (2014). Trivializing the female body: A cross-cultural analysis of the representation of women in sports journalism.
Thorpe, H. A., Toffoletti, K., & Bruce, T. (2017). Sportswomen and social media: Bringing third-wave feminism, postfeminism, and neoliberal feminism into conversation.
UN Women. (2024). Facts and figures: Women in sport.
UN Women. (2024). Five things to know about women and sport.
UNESCO. (2018). UNESCO calls for fairer media coverage of sportswomen.
