University of Iowa star player Caitlin Clark signing autographs for young fans.

Even if you are not a huge sports fan, it was almost impossible to miss the attention that Caitlin Clark, the 22-year-old basketball star playing for University of Iowa in NCAA March Madness, was earning including from NBA Superstar Steph Curry.

As the No. 1 scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history, Clark is a key factor in the rise of viewership for women’s basketball and also a role model and incentive for those identifying as women playing sports at all levels from minors to para-Olympians and professional athletes.

“As the No. 1 scorer in @NCAA women’s basketball history, @CaitlinClark22 is a key factor in the rise of viewership for women’s basketball.”

Many are calling it the “Caitlin Clark Effect.”

According to CNN, “This year, college women’s basketball has had one of its best regular seasons in history, with regular season games averaging 476,000 viewers on ESPN platforms, where it has seen a 37% viewership increase.”

That is “60% across all national networks, and more than 48% on games shown by the network, where it is averaging a bigger audience than its men’s counterpart,” CNN reports.

Fair representation has been a longtime issue for women in sports, not earning parallel viewership, brand backing and opportunities as their male counterparts. Until now.

“Fair #representation has been a longtime issue for #womeninsports, not earning parallel viewership, brand backing and opportunities as their male counterparts.”

Watch Take The Lead’s panel on women in sports leadership

Also another huge NCAA star is Alissa Pili, No. 35 from Utah State, who broke the record for most points earned in a single season at 692 points.

As an Alaskan native, Pili has fans across the country and many pay homage to her grit.

“Admirers peppered throughout the arena, all of whom came to see No. 35, pick a random end of the floor, congregate and wait. The cluster of fans swells and swells as more time passes. Soon this will be more than just a throng of giddy spectators — it will be a beaming, burgeoning crowd. Some spill out onto the floor, some stand patiently in the stands,” according to The Athletic.

“Eventually, Alissa Pili, one of the best basketball players in the country, emerges, having concluded her postgame media priorities. The fans erupt. Pili parts the crowd, finds a spot to post up and shakes hand after hand, smiling wide for photos and gripping tight to a marker to autograph anything handed her way,” The Athletic reports.

The shrinking of gender inequity in the sports arena is intentional and is spiking across all sports, from volleyball to golf, tennis, hockey, swimming, soccer, track and field and more.

“The shrinking of #genderinequity in the sports arena is intentional and is spiking across all sports.”

This recognition in sports is incentive for closing the gender gap for those identifying as women in all arenas of business leadership.

Sarah Jones Simmer has spent the past two-and-a-half years as the CEO of Found, a weight-loss startup. Earlier this month, she announced she was stepping down from that job.

Jones Simmer is now “COO of the National Women’s Soccer League. She’ll be the fast-growing league’s first business-oriented COO, supporting commissioner Jessica Berman. Jones Simmer starts the job next month, stepping in at an exciting—and complex—time for the league, with the San Diego Wave selling for a league-record $120 million, celebrity-backed Angel City FC reportedly seeking a new owner, and new owners and new franchises popping up everywhere from New York to the Bay Area,” Fortune reports. “I don’t often have that spark that feels like, ‘This is a rocket ship I need to get on.’ But that’s absolutely how I felt,” she told Fortune.

The push for equality in women’s sports is gaining ground.

“The push for #equality in #womenssports is gaining ground. ”

“At the upcoming Olympics Games, there will be an equal number of male and female athletes, a first in the history of the Games,” CNBC reports.

This of course translates to dollars. “Deloitte forecasts that in 2024, for the first time, women’s elite sports will generate a revenue that surpasses $1 billion — a 300% increase on the industry’s evaluation in 2021,” CNBC reports.

“Drawing over 92,000 fans, the Nebraska Cornhuskers said their match against Nebraska-Omaha saw the largest crowd to watch a women’s sports game ever,” CNBC reports.

At the recent California State Track Meet, high school student Kinga Czajkowska ran “an impressive time of 4:48 for 1600 meters, the equivalent of a 4:49 mile — an achievement that awarded her ninth place in one of the most elite competitions in the country and first place in the Paly record books,” according to the Campanile. “In 1954, Diane Leather Charles was the first woman to run a sub-five mile ever.”

Last month, National Girls & Women in Sports Day created by the Women’s Sports Foundation, saluted its 38th year “of honoring the accomplishments of female athletes and encouraging continued participation in sports by girls and women. The day was launched in 1987 to honor former Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman and has grown to a celebration across all 50 states.”

The Black Women in Sport Foundation founded in 1992 in Philadelphia holds annual conferences with the mission “to increase the involvement of Black women and girls in all aspects of sport, including athletics, coaching and administration.”

There is a direct connection between sports and leadership skills.

“There is a direct connection between #sports and #leadershipskills. ”

According to BWSF, “Active involvement in sports, as a way of life, utilizes character-building experiences that are proven ways to encourage perseverance, self-discipline and teamwork, qualities that are the cornerstones to achievement in both sports and life. All young women need to develop these attributes, and it is especially important that girls and young women of color emphasize develop these skills to serve as a bridge in overcoming situations where they may be subjected to disproportionate rates of social and economic barriers.”

Unfortunately, the history of women in sports has also been tainted with the history of abuse of women in sports.

The U.S. Center for Safe Sport reports that since its founding in 2017 with the mission of reporting and eliminating sexual misconduct and emotional and physical abuse of athletes at all levels has received “over 10,000 abuse and misconduct reports through the Center’s online reporting portal.”

According to the 2022 report, on their helpline, they “fielded more than 3,400 calls and 350 chats since August 2017.”

With more openness about reporting and an increase in resources, policies and funding, abuse can be met with steep consequences.

“With more openness about reporting and an increase in resources, policies and funding, abuse can be met with steep consequences. ”

The link between business and sports for women is also seen in new venues to celebrate women in sports. Its opening is appropriately tied to the NCAA tournament and the fanbase for Caitlin Clark and others.

Minnesota Public Radio reports, “Women's sports are on the rise, gaining more visibility, fans and TV money. That growing demand takes an interesting new step when the first sports bar in the Midwest exclusively for women’s sports — and only the fourth in the nation — opens in Minneapolis.

“A Bar of Their Own timed its opening to next week’s Big Ten women’s basketball tournament in Minneapolis, which — thanks to University of Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark — will shatter attendance records. The conference says it expects a five-day total of more than 109,000 at Target Center, more than double the prior record, which was set last year.”

“The link between business and sports for women is also seen in new venues to celebrate #womeninsports.”

MPR reports, “Cheryl Cooky, a Purdue University professor and sports sociologist who’s co-authored two books about society and women’s sports, tells MPR, ‘The changes in the women’s sports landscape that we have witnessed in a very short period of time is exponential. There are more opportunities for people to demonstrate their fandom and act on their interest in ways they haven’t had in the past.’”

When spaces are created for women to be centered, she added, it can challenge the ways we think about gender in the game and how we see women in society.

““When spaces are created for women to be centered, it can challenge the ways we think about gender in the game and how we see women in society.” — @ProfCooky.”

That is why it is important to invest in women in sports, according to Fast Company.

“Macaela MacKenzie may have put it best in her new book, Money, Power, Respect: How Women in Sports Are Shaping the Future of Feminism. When a group is iteratively underinvested in throughout history, that influences how they show up. This underinvestment contributes to the gender gap in sports, making it incredible that women in sports today like Caitlin Clark and Coco Gauff excel the way they do—breaking records made by men and drawing in record crowds that beat those brought in by men. Imagine how many more female athletes would excel if we invested in them as we invest in men’s sports,” Fast Company reports.

Seerat Sohi, a columnist for The Ringer, writes, “It's easy to get the sense that Clark could have made her way onto the national stage by sheer force of will. But it's also the case that she's building on the work done by generations of women's athletes who came before her. I think she will be in our lives for a long time."

Leadership Takeaway of The Week:

“Women athletes for decades have mostly been also-rans in the sports marketplace. That's changing.” Dawn Staley, South Carolina Head Coach and Hall of Fame Player.

Featured

About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com