Sports and women's liberation.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: EDGE OF SPORTS

When I give talks about the politics of sports, I try to end these lectures by speaking about how history continues to unfold today. Invariably over the last several months, I tell stories about athletes holding up the #BlackLivesMatter banner. And I describe the remarkable strides the LGBT community has made in organized sports.

But what about women? Where are the calls for equal pay, equal respect, and, most pointedly, equal coverage emanating from the world of women's athletics? The answer is complicated.

On one hand, women and girls have never had more access to sports. Women make up 43 percent of college scholarship athletes. The ascension over the summer of Little League baseball phenom Mo'ne Davis electrified the country and produced record television ratings. In addition, a new generation of sportscasters and writers, such as Kate Fagan, Emma Span, and Jemele Hill, are proving that good sports writing and analysis by women will find a ready audience.

At the youth level, two in three girls play some form of organized sports. When we consider that forty years ago, before the passage of Title IX, only one out of thirty-four girls was on a team, this is progress writ large. According to research by the Women's Sports Foundation, young girls who play sports are less likely to have eating disorders or be involved in abusive relationships. To look at the difference sports makes in the lives of women and girls is to be filled with awe over how far women have come in this traditionally male-dominated space.

And yet, while the number of women playing sports has never been higher, the major networks have for all intents and purposes stopped covering women's sports.

Mentions of women's sports on TV news and highlights shows have nearly evaporated since 1989--from a high of 9 percent of airtime devoted to women athletes in 1999 to an unbelievable 1.6 percent in 2009. When we consider the 24-7 sports news cycle, this disappearance is all the more remarkable. Yet unlike in the worlds of black and LGBT politics, women athletes are not using their stature and platform as players to...