Measuring the Success of Women’s Sports Programming
October 21, 2022
SeeHer, a global movement to eliminate gender bias in media and advertising, and leading US telecommunications company, AT&T, have joined together to launch a new measurement tool to quantify gender equality across the sports industry. The SeeHer in Sports Scorecard Powered by AT&T will be used by brands, sports leagues, teams, venues and media organizations who work in and market to sports consumers to benchmark their gender equality initiatives and programming -- and ultimately, to improve the portrayal of women.
Research from the Women’s Sport Trust revealed that 2021 was a record-breaking year for women's sports - beating all previous years with almost 33 million viewers. However, according to research conducted by SeeHer, only 4% of sports media coverage is dedicated to women’s sports as compared to men’s. At the same time, over 80% of consumers also believe that women’s representation in professional sports is important to furthering equality.
Launched in 2016 by the Association of National Advertisers and The Female Quotient, SeeHer is “changing how females are portrayed in media.” To help members benchmark success, it spearheaded the development of the Gender Equality Measure (GEM), the first data-driven methodology that quantifies gender bias in ads and programming. SeeHer in Sports was created in 2019 to help evolve how advertising and media include women in the conversation and to increase the visibility and distribution of women in sports. AT&T is a member of the movement.
SeeHer and AT&T began working on the resource after noticing a lack of progress in measurement and comprehensive assessment tools focused on the representation of women in sports. The tool is inspired by GEM and allows stakeholders to assess their gender equality-focused initiatives by answering a set of curated questions. Participants are encouraged to confidentially share their responses with SeeHer to help establish an industry-wide benchmark.
“The current ecosystem of inequities for women in sports is vast and deep,” said Kellyn Smith Kenny, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at AT&T. “To create momentum and transformational change, we all have a role to play. Like all great sports teams throughout history, we must rally around a shared objective, work together, leverage our strengths and inspire one another to pursue excellence. Only then will we begin to unlock what’s truly possible.”
Information collected from the scorecard will provide crucial insights on women's representation in sport and will allow the industry to better reflect and connect with women consumers around the globe. Additionally, it will allow sports stakeholders to take a deep dive into the success of their gender equality initiatives and programming across awareness, representation and improvement in women’s sports.
"Whether on the field, in the stands, watching on TV or at retail, women and girls are actively participating in the sports industry. It’s time we see her represented on screen,” said Jeannine Shao Collins, President of SeeHer.