To solve the problem, we have to know the problem. If we want the world to watch women’s sports, we need to know why people currently don’t. Here are a few contributing factors and some ways we can try to change.

1. We’re conditioned to watch men’s sports.
Society shouldn’t be harshly blamed right off the bat for not watching women’s sports – female athletics are barely ever on TV. We’re humans; humans are lazy . . . we watch what’s on TV at the time. We don’t unconsciously go digging deep into the Internet looking for the next women’s game that’s going to be live streamed, which, realistically, probably isn’t streaming anyways for another day at the very least. With males’ athletics being the only entertainment that’s ever been on sports channels, we as an audience are conditioned to automatically think of watching only men’s sports.
SOLVE IT: Enlighten yourself and be more aware about the sports that aren’t right under your nose. If you’re into watching sports, find out when the next professional women’s game is being shown on the Internet and plan to tune in.

2. The media doesn’t cover women’s sports.
According to the Tucker Center, women’s sports receive only four percent of sports media coverage. How are women’s sports supposed to hold our attention if the media isn’t pushing the news and features at us? There's no news, interviews, statistics, highlight videos, etc. circulating the Internet. Again, like watching the games, we have to go looking for it, and most times it's not even there.
SOLVE IT: Go looking for it. Search YouTube and the league websites. Watch women’s sports, read the news on their websites regularly, visit their Instagram page, keep up with the stats. The websites can see the traffic through their site administration. Nowadays, and unfortunately, the media only covers what the public deems newsworthy. If the public is showing interest in women’s sports platforms, the media will be more willing to cover what’s going on in the leagues and eventually there will be more material at the ready.

3. Society isn’t as accepting of females as athletes.
As angering as it is, females who play sports -- where the uniform is a roomy top and long shorts -- don't get a very big audience. The 2017 National Pro Softball championship had just over 1,000 fans in attendance while an average tennis match is usually no less than 20,000. People watch tennis, where many of the players dress in short little skirts and tight tops. Because that’s every woman’s place, right? My gosh, shoot me. This is why general feminist movements are important. The day when women are seen less as sex objects and more as equals will be the day women will be more accepted in a baggy basketball jersey.
SOLVE IT: Continue being a feminist. Join feminist movements. Challenge the oppressors. Let the concept of rape infuriate you. Support consent. Anything you need to do to fight for women’s rights.

4. “Women are boring to watch – they can’t jump as high or run as fast as men.”
This is what I’ve heard a lot of. I won’t deny that professional women aren’t able to reach the same speed and other forms of athleticism as professional men can -- men are born with more red blood cells and there's not much we can do to change that. But . . . "boring"? Really? Nah, man. Professional female athletes’ strength is absolutely ridiculous compared to the average male and female athlete. The Olympic women in Rio were running a four minute 1500m. No average male athlete is coming close to that. The women's world high jump record is 2.09m, which is 6.25 feet, WHICH IS TALLER THAN MOST HUMANS. Yo, women are darn good at what they do.
SOLVE IT: Watch women’s sports and appreciate what the players can do rather than what they can’t. When you see a player make a good play, acknowledge that it was a good play. If you find yourself daydreaming how the men would have done it "better," replace the word "better" with "differently."

It's already December, which means it's almost the HOLIDAYS!!!! Fa la la la la la la la LAAAAAA!!!!!!

I guess that also means the year is hitting its finale. With that in mind, here are some of 2017's top memories from women's sports that we can look back on as we head into 2018.

Isobel Cup (National Women's Hockey League)
The Buffalo Beauts won the National Women’s Hockey League championship in March. The Beauts took the title from defending NWHL champions, Boston Pride, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Goaltender Brianne McLaughlin finished the game with 58 saves and Corinne Buie, the only player to win the Isobel Cup in both seasons of the NWHL’s two-year existence, scored to secure the 3-0 lead. The championship is a single-game elimination process because of financial reasons.

Cowles Cup (National Pro Fastpitch)
The Scrap Yard Dawgs won their first Cowles Cup in franchise history in August. Rookie Kasey Cooper’s two-run home run won the Dawgs the league title. The Dawgs took the 5-2 victory in the third and final game over the USSSA Pride at Tiger Park at Louisiana State University. During the game Cooper hit a total of three runs batted in, securing the Dawgs’ lead. Monica Abbott also contributed, who was named most valuable player of the championship series, kept the Pride to 15 hits and 56 strikeouts over the course of the 29 innings. The final game recorded a total time of 1:56, and 1086 fans were in attendance.

Women’s National Basketball Association Championship
On Oct. 4 the Minnesota Lynx won their fourth WNBA championship in seven seasons. The Lynx defeated the Los Angeles Sparks 85-76 in Game Five of the finals to claim the title. The Lynx are now tied with the Houston Comets, who won the first four WNBA titles, for most championship wins in WNBA history. The Lynx were originally down in the series 1-0 and then 2-1. Sylvia Fowles was named MVP of the series after setting a series finals record-breaking 20 rebounds and 17 points.

National Women’s Soccer League Championship
The Portland Thorns won their second NWSL championship this year on Oct. 14. Lindsey Horan, a midfielder for the Thorns, is the main reason the Thorns clinched the NWSL 2017 championship title. Volleying in the game-winning goal in the 50th minute, she led the Thorns to a 1-0 victory over North Carolina Courage. It was with tremendous precision that Horan finished a long ball kicked to her from the Thorns’ end of the field. Not only did she score the game-winner, she was also named most valuable player of the match.

Vanke Rays (Canadian Women's Hockey League)
The brand new addition to the Canadian Women’s Hockey League has won eight out of the nine games they played so far. The Rays, who were established this year, are ranked second in the league. On Oct. 28, they won their first ever game against the Toronto Furies, who were established in 2011. The Furies took the win against the Rays the next day, which is the only game the Rays have lost at this point in the season. The Rays’ next game is on Dec. 8 against the other brand new team in the league, the Kunlun Red Star.

With all the feminism movements happening in today’s world, you would think sports, such a general and popular area of interest, would be given a decent amount of attention. Especially since it suffers literally the most obvious gender inequality. However, barely anyone ever talks about the problem or how it can be solved. So, right now, that's exactly what we're going to do.


The Issues

There is a disgusting, endless list of gender inequality issues in sports that get on my nerves. To give you an idea, here are three major ones:

1. On Forbes’ list of the 2017 Highest Paid Athletes, a female isn’t listed until #51. Serena Williams receives a salary of $8M a year. What’s more is that Ryan Howard, just one spot ahead in 50th, makes $26.7M a year… That’s a $18.7M difference. DO YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THAT GAP? MY GOSH. Cristiano Ronaldo makes the most in the world with a salary of $58M. So Forbes, you’re telling me the world’s highest paid male athlete makes over seven times more than the world’s highest paid female athlete? Lord help us all.

2. People have such an issue with females playing contact sports. Viewers don’t find it as “exciting” or “interesting.” Don’t tell me that in your lifetime you haven’t heard at least someone make fun of women’s hockey. To back up my argument, take a look at this link: http://interactives.ap.org/2015/athlete-of-the-year/ . It’s the list of all the former Associated Press Athletes of the Year since 1931. If you look on the female list, there is a grand total of five winners who played contact sports – three of those being basketball, which to me just barely counts as a contact sport. Sports should be about appreciating the skill of the athletes. If you want to watch sports because of the contact, stick to boxing.

3. The lack of media coverage is actually repulsive. Newspapers, TSN, Sports Illustrated, social media . . . it’s all men, men, MEN!!!! Stories about how Alex Galchenyuk was absent from practice because of the flu are prioritized over covering the National Women’s Soccer League championship game. Furthermore, the only women on Sports Illustrated posters are women in flaunting skimpy bikinis. Females are not objects!!! Females have the ability to run, jump and slay at sports. But no one would ever know that, because to follow or even know about women’s sports leagues, you have to go to their websites . . . and who’s supposed to know to do that if they're not advertised?


So… How Can This All Be Fixed?

YOU, my friend. Yes, that's right. It all starts with a large fan base. Fans:
- buy tickets and merchandise
- visit the league websites and add to the websites' visitor counts, which is attractive to companies who want to pay and put advertisements on the sites
- encourage powerful companies to sponsor the leagues and teams (these sponsorships are most leagues' biggest sources of revenue)
- talk about their favourite teams to other people, unintentionally spreading the word and generating interest among others
- increase media coverage (the media covers what the public deems "newsworthy"), which holds the public's interest


This Is What You Can Do

STEP ONE: Choose your favourite league. I’ve listed a few below to get you started. Do some s’ploring, pick the one you want to follow and . . . follow it!

STEP TWO: Select your favourite team. Research the teams from the league you decided to follow and pick a squad you want to root for.

STEP THREE: Make note of your favourite players on that team. Keep up with their news and statistics.

STEP FOUR: Repeat step one by choosing a different league this time. Then repeat steps two and three.

Here are links to some of the professional women’s leagues’ websites:

Canadian Women’s Hockey League: http://www.thecwhl.com/
National Women’s Hockey League: http://www.nwhl.zone/
Women's National Basketball Association: http://www.wnba.com/
National Women’s Soccer League: https://www.nwslsoccer.com/
National Volleyball League: http://thenvl.com/

​I’ll state the obvious: by doing these steps you are becoming a fan. Having a team to cheer for causes you to feel more interested in — and emotionally attached to — what’s going on in these leagues. You are literally making a change in this world just by becoming a fan. Supporting women’s sports is simple and free . . . so why not??

​I don’t want to live in a world where sports are only a masculine concept. I really hope you don’t either. Girls are so much better than this. Let's prove it. No matter how normal you consider yourself to be, you have SO MUCH POWER TO MAKE A CHANGE. Whether you want to use that power or not is up to you.