Women’s basketball has faced a long history in its battle for equal resources and pay for women athletes—even as more viewers tune in.
The Iowa Hawkeyes join hands for the national anthem before their first game at the 2021 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament in San Antonio, Texas, on March 21, 2021. The women’s sparse accommodations forced the sports community to confront lingering gender inequalities.
Photograph by Carmen Mandato, Getty By Tucker C. Toole April 12, 2021When then-President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law in 1972, the door seemed to open for women’s sports. Women’s athletics programs began to form at colleges and universities that had previously only sponsored men’s sports teams. Women’s collegiate programs gained funding and began to play competitive sports against other women’s college teams.
The Title IX federal civil rights law states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
But in the nearly 50 years since Title IX came into force, women in sports have consistently faced gender inequality. In recent years, the United States Women’s national soccer team has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation alleging discrimination on the basis of sex. And in professional tennis, women players have demanded prize money equal to that awarded to men players. Most recently, college basketball has had a very public reckoning of its own.
Disparities between the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball programs were brought to light during the 2021 NCAA basketball tournaments. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA followed the NBA’s model of creating a “bubble,” hosting the men’s and women’s tournaments each in a single city and assigning players to designated hotels and practice facilities. (Discover the history of basketball—from peach baskets in Springfield to global phenomenon.)
When the teams arrived at the facilities in San Antonio, Texas, where the women’s tournament was hosted this year, photos on social media caused an immediate uproar. Ali Kershner, a strength coach from Stanford University (which ultimately would claim the tournament crown) posted a photo to Instagram comparing the men’s weight room to the women’s. The men had professional squat racks and plenty of space while the women were provided with only yoga mats and dumbbells.
Sedona Prince, a player on the Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team, also posted a video of the weight room to Tik Tok, in a post that reached millions. Prince panned her camera across the women’s facility showing the large amount of empty space where weight racks could have been and told her followers, "If you're not upset about this problem, then you’re a part of it."
Marissa Banfield, a senior guard for The Stephen F. Austin University Lady Jacks, says initially she was excited to get to her first NCAA national tournament—but that changed when the uproar began.
“The next day you see it all on social media, literally the difference,” Banfield says. “And this is disappointing. It kind of hurts because both men's and women's teams are working toward the same goal: [to win] a championship or to win that first game.”
Banfield added that not only were the weight rooms different but so were the swag bags that each team receives for making it to the national tournament. Social media also displayed pictures of major disparities between the food furnished for the men’s and women’s tournaments. Banfield noted that she and her teammates did not think some of the meals were adequate, even though it is vital for players to be nourished for a sporting event like the NCAA national tournament.
“We were getting food that we couldn't eat and we did not want to eat,” Banfield says. “We probably didn't eat breakfast for like three or four days, and then you see men's teams getting steak, shrimp, and all that stuff. So, it was just kind of disappointing and confusing. “
But the controversy was hardly new. Women have been fighting for equity in sports for years.
The disparity between the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball facilities were all too familiar to Jasmine Williams, a recent Texas A & M women’s basketball alumna. During her time playing for the school, the women’s program did not receive any facility upgrades—not even in a season when they reached the “sweet 16” rounds of the tournament. Meanwhile, the men’s basketball team didn’t even reach the tournament and got a newly renovated facility.
“Upon the men’s coach’s hiring, all of a sudden the entire facility got a face lift on the men's side.” Williams noted. “They got a brand new weight room, they updated their offices, they updated their practice gym, they updated everything.”