It’s no secret that women’s sports go unnoticed in a world dominated by men’s sports. Would you be able to name one WNBA team? Honestly, what teams are in the final four of the women’s basketball NCAA tournament? This is a question that few people would be able to answer. Each year of the March Madness college basketball tournament, men’s basketball teams receive the majority of the attention.

I thought that after social media exposed the disparity between mens and women’s weight rooms for the tournament through, things would’ve changed. Unfortunately almost two years later, the women’s NCAA tournament still falls in the shadow of the men’s NCAA tournament.

A major aspect of March Madness is making brackets for the tournament. People can use these brackets to compete with family, friends or just for fun. During the 2022 March Madness tournament, the men’s tournament received 11 times more brackets filled out than the women’s tournament. Why is everything that’s important in March Madness be centered around men’s basketball?

Viewership plays a very large role in the tournament. For the 2022 Championship game, ESPN reported that the women’s basketball teams got the highest number of viewers since 2004 with nearly 5.91 million viewers at its peak. However, the men’s 2022 championship game had an average of 18.1 million viewers. This disparity in views is massive and highlights that the hard work put in by every athlete, both male and female, should be recognized.

The amount of viewers also translates into money and advertisements provided to the mens and women’s teams. It makes sense that teams that get the most attraction from the public are going to be the teams who get the most brand deals and sponsorships. When the amount of views that women get is drastically lower than the men, it’s no shock that women are getting less money and ad-revenue. This vicious cycle continues to uplift mens sports teams, while putting down women’s teams.

These are all issues that exist outside of the March Madness tournament, but they are exacerbated during the tournament. Having the same competition happening for both men and women, but having the men’s teams being the only ones with a large spotlight on them throughout the tournament demonstrates this gender inequality.

Although this gender inequality gets brought up in conversation each year during March Madness, it doesn’t seem like anything is going to change anytime soon. Believe me when I say that I love March Madness just as much as anyone else, however, every year I can’t help but wonder what it takes for female athletes to be recognized for the countless hours they put into their sport?

When all that little girls see when they turn on their televisions are men’s sports, what type of message does that send? Female athletes consistently receive less popular times for their games, making it more difficult for sports fans to watch these games. We need to do more than acknowledge that there is an issue of gender inequality within the sports world. We need to take steps to create changes that are long overdue in the equality between mens and women’s sports.