The Rise of Women’s Sports: How Athletes, Fans and Brands Are Building a New Era

When the University of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark shattered NCAA scoring records this year, the sports world took notice. Arenas sold out. TV ratings spiked. Social media buzzed with highlight reels normally reserved for men’s basketball. That moment was just the latest in a string of breakthroughs showing that women’s sports aren’t simply “emerging.”

Women in sports are here, commanding attention and rewriting the playbook. But this visibility didn’t appear overnight. It’s the result of decades of struggle, persistence and incremental victories. What used to be “having a moment” has now become a full-fledged movement.

A quick look back

Before 1972, opportunities for women in competitive sports were slim. Athletic programs were underfunded, participation was discouraged and female athletes were largely invisible in mainstream media. Then came Title IX, the landmark federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education, which forced schools to expand funding and opportunities for women’s athletics.

The ripple effects were enormous. Participation in girls’ high school sports surged from under 300,000 in 1972 to more than 3.5 million today. Milestones followed: Billie Jean King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes,” the electric U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team victory in the 1999 World Cup and steadily increasing Olympic events for women. The 2024 Paris Olympics made history by achieving numerical gender parity on the field of play, demonstrating equal representation of male and female athletes. In Paris, there were 152 women’s events and 157 men’s events, a huge milestone.

Inequities still abound

Progress has been undeniable, but inequities remain glaring. Women athletes earn a fraction of their male counterparts’ pay. A 2022 study based on 2019 data found women’s sports received only 5 percent of total sports media coverage, but that percentage has increased to 15 percent as of 2022. The lack of coverage translate into lower sponsorship deals, less visibility and fewer opportunities to build sustainable careers.

The inequality isn’t just financial. Facilities, training resources and travel accommodations often fall short, especially at the collegiate level. Former NCAA athletes have pointed out how men’s tournaments receive world-class amenities while women’s teams fight for scraps; a reality exposed vividly during the 2021 NCAA basketball tournament when photos of the men’s weight room versus the women’s went viral.

Momentum feeds the movement

Still there is no stopping the building momentum. Viewership of women’s sports is climbing at a rate outpacing men’s events in some markets. The 2023 Women’s World Cup drew record-breaking global audiences, and the WNBA reported its highest average attendance in over a decade. A Nielsen Sports report found that 84 percent of general sports fans now have some interest in women’s sports, a number that would have seemed impossible a generation ago.

Sponsorships are also flowing more freely, as brands recognize the loyalty and engagement of fans who follow women athletes. High-profile wins, like the U.S. Women’s National Team securing equal pay with the men’s team and the NCAA finally giving women’s basketball its rightful March Madness branding, signal that new ways of moving forward are possible.

At the same time, advocacy groups are pushing from outside the system. Parity Now, for example, has built an entire marketplace connecting female athletes with sponsorship opportunities, ensuring that talent and visibility translate into actual income. Athlete-led efforts, from player unions to collectives on social media, are making it harder for institutions to ignore women’s sports as a commercial force to be reckoned with.

Building the pipeline

Participation in sports doesn’t just build skills on the field, it builds fandom. People who play a sport are far more likely to watch it, follow it and support the athletes who compete at the highest level. That means increasing girls’ and women’s participation is one of the most effective ways to expand the audience for women’s sports.

Brands are beginning to recognize this and are working to close the gap. According to Mintel’s US Women’s Sports: Spotlight on Fans Report, community outreach is essential. Partnerships with grassroots initiatives can provide young girls with access to training, education and opportunities to play. These efforts simultaneously create a pipeline of athletes and of future fans. Programs like WNBA Cares and the NWSL Nationwide Community Impact Program show how leagues can build long-term cultural and economic support by engaging communities directly. Campaigns outside the U.S. offer other useful models. Sport England’s “This Girl Can” reframes sport as social, supportive and safe, encouraging more women to participate and, in turn, more to watch.

But participation and outreach are only half the story. Representation matters just as much. According to Flo Williams, former director of Women’s Sports at the creative agency Matta (and herself a Saracens player and Welsh rugby international), athletes like Ilona Maher are lodestars for both fans and brands. Maher doesn’t just perform on the field; she embodies a sporting culture rooted in authenticity, body confidence and inclusivity.

As Williams notes, “You can spot women who have been in the rugby community for a long time because they don’t carry shame with them—they know to celebrate their bodies and diverse identities and [American rugby union player] Ilona Maher has epitomized that. There’s a huge opportunity now for brands to find ambassadors in that space who want to be part of building this new progressive society, via beliefs these areas of sports have been incubating for decades.”

The next leap forward depends not only on athletes and leagues, but on how brands, fans and media step up. Here’s a few ways to be a part of the change.

Invest in media coverage

Push for women’s games to air on prime networks and in prime slots, not tucked away on secondary channels. Visibility drives legitimacy.

Sponsor female athletes and amplify achievements

Identify authentic ambassadors. Not just star players, but athletes like Ilona Maher who embody the inclusive, progressive ethos of women’s sports.

Support grassroots and youth initiatives

Invest in community programs that get more girls playing. Every new participant is also a potential lifelong fan.

Educate yourself

Follow outlets like ESPNW, the Women’s Sports Foundation or the Women’s Sports Network. Dive into documentaries like “Athlete A” or books like “The National Team” to get the inside story of rise of women’s sports.

Show up and spend

Buy tickets, wear the jerseys and engage on social media. Your dollars and digital voice are part of the ecosystem that makes women’s sports sustainable.

Advocate for coverage and equality

Reach out to networks, share campaigns, and back organizations like Parity. Corporate moves‚ such as Ally Financial’s multimillion-dollar ad buy with ESPN, which mandated that 90 percent of its spend go toward women’s sports—show how targeted investment can move the dial.

Create your own female athlete focused content

As UNLV sport and gender researcher Nancy Lough put it in her DisruptHERs report, digital disruption is the key to the new paradigm change that women in sports brings. Digital disruption, as in using emerging technology to communicate with fans where they are, is key to the new model. For women’s sport, by sidestepping traditional media outlets that failed to invest adequately in women’s sports, athletes and fans built their own channels of content creation, thus establishing an alternative system of value and visibility.

The next horizon

The story of women’s sports is no longer just about proving legitimacy. It’s about shaping what comes next: a future where equity isn’t the headline, it’s the baseline.