There’s a reason why A League of Their Own is an enduring classic among cinephiles and sports fans alike. An underdog story—especially one set smack dab in the middle of World War II, and especially one starring A-list celebrities like Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna—is often the perfect formula for box office success.
In the real world, however, women’s sports has not been embraced so openheartedly. Female athletes have been overcoming obstacles for the supposed privilege of competing in the games they love since the concept was first introduced. And though we’ve come far, and some claim we’re approaching parity, we’ve still further to travel to reach equal footing with men.
The Start of Something Good
Emily Krichbaum, PhD, assistant director of strategic programs and education at the National Women’s History Museum in Alexandria, Virginia, has a unique perspective on the evolution of female athletes in the United States. The museum’s online exhibition about the history of the Olympics has a wealth of information regarding the growth of women in the Games, starting back in 1900 when the first female athletes joined their male counterparts on the court and green.
Technically speaking, women weren’t really welcomed to these Summer Olympics—they were just kinda there. Tennis and golf were the only two events in which American women competed, Krichbaum explains, and there were only seven female athletes in total. And while Margaret Abbott won the women’s golf event, she didn’t walk away with any hardware, since women weren’t officially sanctioned to participate at that time. It would take another eight years, when the London Olympics were held, for women to be accepted as “real” athletes.
There seems to be a theme when it comes to early women’s sports, especially as they gained ground around the turn of the 20th century. At the 1908 London Olympics, the only three competitions in which women could compete were tennis, archery, sailing, and figure skating—generally solo endeavors. (Interestingly, sailing was actually mixed, meaning men and women could compete in the same races. Score one for the sailors!) The reason for this limited list may be found in the words of the modern Olympics’ founder, Pierre de Coubertin, who blatantly considered the event “no girls allowed.” At the Games’ founding in 1896, he put forth the following:
Emily Krichbaum, PhD, assistant director of strategic programs and education at the National Women’s History Museum.
“Women have but one task, that of the role of crowning the winner with garlands...In public competitions, women’s participation must be absolutely prohibited. It is indecent that spectators would be exposed to the risk of seeing the body of a woman being smashed before their eyes.”
“In other words, sports that were deemed the least ‘aggressive’ were the ones most suitable, if there had to be some, for women,” explains Krichbaum.
But not for long.
Fighting for Equality
The person to be thanked for women’s Olympic inclusion never had the opportunity to compete in the Games herself, ironically. Alice Milliat, a French rower and soccer coach, was a passionate advocate for women in sports, and in 1914 she petitioned the International Association of Athletics Federations to add women’s track and field to the 1924 event lineup, but was denied. Her work today would be considered undeniably feminist: she helped organize the 1921 Women’s Olympiad in Monte Carlo, often considered a response to the lack of female athletes in the Olympic Games, and in 1924 she spoke to a reporter from Independent Women magazine on the the link between women’s suffrage in France and their participation in sports en masse. As later reported in a 1977 paper published in the Journal of Sport History, she told the women’s magazine:
“Women’s sports of all kinds are handicapped in my country by the lack of playing space. As we have no vote, we cannot make our needs publicly felt, or bring pressure to bear in the right quarters. I always tell my girls that the vote is one of the things they will have to work for if France is to keep its place with the other nations in the realm of feminine sport.”
Even in the early days of athletic inclusion, women across the globe were making waves, literally and figuratively, including Alice Milliat (left and above) and Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld.
Finally, in a couple of decades, the ladies began to gain ground. At the 1928 Olympics held in Amsterdam, five track events for women were introduced—the 100 meter, 200 meter, 800 meter, 4 x 100 meter, and 80 meter hurdles—as well as gymnastics. Today, nearly 100 years later, out of 116 events held at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, 50 of them were women’s. On a positive note, that’s the most events ever offered to this group, and it does bring the Olympics closer to its goal of full gender parity: in 2026, 75 percent of Olympic disciplines were gender-balanced in regard to the number of competing athletes, and 47 percent of all athletes were women.
“Across the board, women’s sports have fewer sponsorship deals, less broadcast coverage, and the athletes themselves are paid far less, with less recognition.”
Competition Closer to Home
Here in North America, women are still pressing forward for fairness in the sporting realm—and there are several go-getters that 21st century women have to thank for making the athletic ground we have.
Heidi Reitmaier, CEO of Museum of Toronto.
“Sports is obviously an area where women are often underrecognized but significant figures of change,” says Heidi Reitmaier, CEO of Museum of Toronto, which is currently hosting the exhibit “The 52: Stories of Women Who Transformed Toronto.” “Across the board, women’s sports have fewer sponsorship deals, less broadcast coverage, and the athletes themselves are paid far less, with less recognition. Ultimately, women do not have the platforms, profile, or power that men have in sports.”
Indigenous women in particular have been overlooked in athletic pursuits. Reitmaier points to Phyllis Bomberry as an example of someone who was “a trailblazer” and a “vocal advocate for racial unity” whose legacy is still felt across Canada. A softball player born in 1943 outside the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve in Ontario, Canada, she was called “Yogi” for her talent behind the plate, in honor of legendary MLB catcher Yogi Berra. Her participation in the Ontario Senior Women’s League, an organization that provided athletes with the opportunity to play ball as a career, confirmed her skills, and in 1969, her team won gold at the first Canada Games, where she was hailed as MVP and all-star catcher. “She broke barriers for Indigenous women in sports, inspiring generations of athletes to come,” notes Reitmaier.
Other Canadian women, including women of color and those who belong to other minority groups, have blazed the trail as well: Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld, a Jewish immigrant who won two track and field medals at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam; Angela James, a hockey player who paved the way for greater participation by women and girls in the sport while facing significant barriers, being both Black and openly gay; and Penny Oleksiak, the daughter of immigrants, who trained in a neighbor’s background pool as a child and won seven Olympic medals, tying Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse as national record holder.
Groundbreaking athletes like Phyllis Bomberry (left) and Angela James (right) have both earned their spots in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
South of the border, women’s sports were making headway, too. The Dolly Vardens, a Philadelphia-based baseball team of Black women, astounded crowds in the 1880s. The LPGA was founded in 1950, making it the first American professional sports organization for women. And in the late 1990s and into the 2000s, the WNBA introduced the world to basketball greats such as Sheryl Swoopes, the first player signed to the league, and four-time champion Lisa Leslie. Today, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is also defying expectations: since its launch in 2023, it has regularly smashed attendance records and gained sponsorships from the likes of Air Canada, Tim Hortons, Hyundai, and other big names in business.
Where We Go From Here
“There is certainly more visibility for women participating in sports (in 2026),” says Meredith Root, owner of Tactic Functional Nutrition, a coaching company that marries diet and fitness to help athletes of all levels understand their body’s needs. “Women have always been athletes, and many have achieved great things, but those achievements are often lost in history.”
Root believes that this rise in popularity is good not just for female athletes but for sports at large.
Meredith Root, owner of Tactic Functional Nutrition and one of the faces behind the Instagram account @heyteamtactic.
“They’re drawing real crowds for a reason,” she says. “One of the first iterations of the WNBA featured talented women athletes forced to play basketball in tight spandex uniforms. It was an egregious form of sexualization in sport that, to me, demonstrated how our culture viewed women athletes at the time: they didn’t deserve a real opportunity to play. Women could only ever be the sideshow. So yes, where we are now is a hopeful turn.
“There’s still a long way to go and funding, pay, endorsement, air time, and advertising will be the biggest factors that contribute to the long-term success of these leagues. But the talent and interest are there!”
“What’s most exciting is seeing aging women embrace sports, either for the first time or as a renewed interest from a prior time in their lives.”
Today, women like Simone Biles, Caitlin Clark, Lindsey Vonn, and Marie-Philip Poulin are recognized names in most households across North America, and more and more women’s leagues and teams are emerging with each passing year.
“What’s most exciting is seeing aging women embrace sports, either for the first time or as a renewed interest from a prior time in their lives,” notes Root. “I think women have been confined to a box and made to feel afraid of pushing themselves, but now there are more and more examples of successful women athletes in their forties, fifties, and sixties. Additionally, a growing body of research shows just how beneficial strength training and functional movement are for women in all areas—aging, athletics, longevity—and the step aerobics videos of the ’90s just aren’t going to cut it.”
So, what can you do to help? Follow up-and-coming athletes, share good news stories of sports triumphs with your social media followers, and put your money where your mouth is by buying tickets and merch for women’s teams in your area, whether they compete professionally or at an amateur level. With every goal, every cheer from the stands, and every jersey purchased you’ll help show the investors and big wigs at the top that there is a hunger for more strong, capable women on the field, rink, court—wherever they excel. Audiences will benefit from exciting gameplay and (dare we say) heated rivalries, and future generations will hopefully live in a time where women’s sports aren’t surprising, but an expected part of the culture.
Just the Facts, Ma’am
It’s not just entertaining: participating in sports has been shown to build confidence, foster friendships, and can provide lucrative educational opportunities, especially for young athletes.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, in the 2024-2025 school year more than 3.5 million American girls participated in high school sports—43 percent of all high school athletes.
In the same year, the number of girls who participated in wrestling shot up by 1,000, bringing the total to more than 74,000 for the first time.
The fastest growing sport for female high school athletes is flag football.
The National Academy of Athletics notes that there is a growing body of evidence linking physical activity, including sports, to greater academic performance.
Written by Sabina Desroches
Sports photos by Master1305 - stock.adobe.com
