Coverage of women’s sport increased in Victorian media from the previous year, but the widespread underrepresentation of women still exists.
This is according to the second annual Change Our Game report, The Conversation of Sport, which shows that in 2023-24, out of all sports news stories in Victoria, 20 per cent were focused on women’s sport compared to 75 per cent focused on men.
This is an increase from 15 per cent coverage of women’s sport in the previous year.
Completed by global media monitoring firm Isentia, study analysis is based on a representative sample of at least 100 sports news items per day, for each month from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, with a total sample size of more than 39,900 individual pieces of media.
Positive outcomes were strongest during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, but these trends were observed across the year too.
Minister for Community Sport, Ros Spence acknowledges that while progress has been made, there’s a need for continued action to reduce the visibility gap for women in sport in Victoria.
“Strong representation of women in sports media allows teams, leagues, and individual athletes to build their fanbases, attract sponsors, and fully professionalise,” said Spence.
“It also helps to dismantle the limiting stereotypes, norms and expectations influencing opportunities for women and girls in sport and beyond.”
Football (soccer) had the highest share of coverage for women’s sports, which doubled from 2022-23. This is likely due to a significant increase in women’s sport coverage during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which had 20 per cent share of overall coverage.
Despite the increase in coverage of women’s sport from 2023-24, however, men’s AFL teams dominated team-based coverage. The Matildas had the third highest share of coverage across sporting teams and was the only women’s team in the top 10 teams.
There also remains an overrepresentation of results and performance during women’s sport coverage, demonstrating a continued lack of depth in coverage compared to men’s sport coverage.
The report gives the example that, across both 2022-23 and 2023-24, men’s sport received more coverage regarding training and preparation, on-field behaviour and fitness/injury. However, the strength of this skew softened in 2023-24.
When it comes to recognition of female athlete achievements and talent, there was a slight improvement. The report says that while women continued to be more likely described with traits as quiet achiever, hard worker and punching above their weight, there was an increase in women being described as talented, match-fit and having high integrity.
On the other side of the camera, the study revealed an increase in women’s opportunities as journalists or presenters of sports news.
In 2023-24 there was a 26 per cent increase in sports news stories by women journalists or presenters compared to the previous year, with women having the opportunity to contribute 1 in 3 sports news stories. This growth was predominantly driven by television news.
Overall though, women continue to be significantly underrepresented as sources of comment on sport in the media.
Women were 11 times more likely to provide comment on women’s sport than providing comment on men’s sport (excluding athletes as sources), compared to 13 times in 2022-23. This reflects an increase in men commenting on women’s sport in 2023-24.
Reflecting on the study’s results and the need for continued action for change, Spence said: “The visibility of women in sport is fundamental to its growth, and a more equal society. The promotion of women and girls in all aspects of sport, including through sports media, is essential to driving positive change at both an elite and community level.”