Gender in Athletics

This topic hits close to home being a female college athlete, as well as being on a team that is currently not one of the most winning teams on campus.  I thought the presentation on Thursday was very insightful for those who are unaware of the issues surrounding women in the sports world.  Not only are women's sports not played on the major sports networks, there aren't very many female commentators on the networks.  I watch ESPN daily and follow the progress of the show on a very detailed level, because I was upset at the fact that there were not more women commentators on the show.  I noticed that up until about 2 years ago, ESPN had one female broadcaster on the mainstream show.  There were females as co-anchors for the branch channels, but as far as reporting on ESPN SportsCenter, there was one.  As of this year there has been an increase in the number of female broadcasters, both on SportsCenter and as reporters.  This move against the norm of women not knowing sports was bold on the behalf of ESPN.  What also is fantastic is the women are not wearing low cut blouses or tight clothing while reporting.  Most of the women wear pants and a shirt that covers their cleavage.  I think it's great what they did and I find it great that women are able to stand up to the stereotype placed against them when it comes to sports.  I don't know for sure if this brought along the airing of more women's sports, but that would be interesting to find out.  I doubt that is the case, but hopefully women's sports teams will find a larger audience and be more appreciated because there is no doubt they are just as good as men.