According to a new global survey from Parity and SurveyMonk, women’s sports fandom is moving to the mainstream, and the gender gap is expected to narrow further in the coming years. However, more than half of the surveyed (53 percent on average) said that brands are not investing enough in women’s sports. Parity is a New York-based sports marketing and sponsorship platform focusing on professional women athletes that aims to close the gender income and opportunity gap in professional sports. The minority-founded agency connects brands to more than 1,000 women athletes from more than 75 sports, including Olympians and Paralympians. SurveyMonk, headquartered in San Mateo, California, is a global leader in online surveys and forms. Today, “women’s sports is part of mainstream cultural dialogue across every country in which we surveyed,” suggests the report.
The survey leveraged anonymized and aggregated SurveyMonk data collected between March 28 and April 10, 2024, from more than 14,000 adults over 18 in the US (5,408 respondents), Canada (1,743), Australia (1,251), France (1,517), Germany (1,290), Spain (1,193) and the UK (1,972) to identify key trends in how people view, consume, and engage in women’s sports. Titled “From Moment to Mainstream: What Consumers in 7 Countries Really Think About Women’s Sports,” the 43-page study is described as the largest global survey of its kind ever conducted, according to the two companies.
The traditional argument that “no one watches women’s sports” is dead if it was not already, suggests the report. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of the surveyed persons said they watch women’s sports at least a few times a year, a percentage that is not too far behind the 81 percent who watch men’s sports with the same frequency. And women’s sports are not just for female fans. The percentages of people who watch women’s sports at least a few times a year are relatively even: 75 percent of men and 71 percent of women. The gap widens when we compare those who watch women’s sports weekly or more frequently: 23 percent of men vs. 15 percent of women. The number one reason for watching women’s sports is a desire to support women (41 percent), followed by the quality of play (33 percent). Meanwhile, many respondents (64 percent) observed that there is not enough media coverage of professional women’s sports.
Football and tennis have emerged as the most-watched women’s sports in all countries surveyed, except in the US, where basketball is by far the most-watched sport. Volleyball makes the top six in all seven countries. France is the only country among those surveyed whose top five includes handball. Australians are the only country to include netball and Australian Rules Football (not surprisingly) in their top 10.
Among influencers, women are widely regarded as “highly” or “somewhat” impactful role models for young women (for 88 percent of the surveyed on average, 94 percent in Canada). Women’s sports fans are 2.8 times more likely to purchase a product when this is promoted by a woman athlete rather than by another type of influencer. Germany has the largest multiplier effect in this respect, with women’s sports fans 4.9 times more likely to buy a product promoted by a pro-women athlete.
The upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games are set to represent a gender equity milestone, but “most people have no idea,” says to the report. Only 17 percent of those surveyed, and 25 percent in host nation France, are aware that Paris 2024 will be the first Olympic Games to feature the same number of male and female athletes, although 83 percent think it is important to have equal gender representation at the Games.
Looking at what is yet to be done, half or more respondents in each country said that brands are not investing enough in women’s sports compared to men’s sports, led by 66 percent in France on the eve of Paris 2024 and followed by 59 percent in Spain, 56 percent in Canada, 53 percent in Germany, 51 percent in Australia and 50 percent in the US and UK. Furthermore, only 29 percent of the respondents bought women’s sports merchandise in the last three years. As reminded by the report, men’s sports have been mainstream for much longer, and despite progress, there is room for improvement across all categories in the years to come. In fact, we are in the early stages of women’s sports market development, concludes the report.
