page_title: Women's sports
section_title: 1960s to 2010s
hierarchical_section_title: Women's sports / History / 1960s to 2010s
caption_attribution_description: The following is the author's description of the photograph quoted directly from the photograph's Flickr page. " The USWNT Celebrates their First Place win as Captain Christie Ramponeraises the trophy at the 2012 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifiers. "
context_page_description: Women's sports, both amateur and professional, have existed throughout the world for centuries in all varieties of sports. Female participation and popularity in sports increased dramatically in the 20th century, especially in the last quarter-century, reflecting changes in modern societies that emphasize gender parity. Although the level of participation and performance still varies greatly by country and by sport, women's sports are generally accepted throughout the world today.
  However, despite a rise in women's participation in sports, a large disparity in participation rates between women and men remains. These disparities are prevalent globally and continue to hinder equality in sports. Many institutions and programs still remain conservative and do not contribute to gender equity in sports.
  Women who play sports face many obstacles today, such as lower pay, less media coverage, and different injuries compared to their male counterparts. Many female athletes have engaged in peaceful protests, such as playing strikes, social media campaigns, and even federal lawsuits to address these inequalities.
context_section_description: Before the 1960s, in the early 1800s women romped, skated, played ball games and some even boxed. It wasn't until the late 1900s when women started participating in organized sports. After the civil war wealthy women started playing country club sports such as golf.
  Over the last fifty years, women's sports have developed substantially and made significant progress.
  Tennis was a popular professional female sport from the 1970s onward, and it provided the occasion for a symbolic "battle of the sexes" between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, which King won, thus enhancing the profile of female athletics. Serena and Venus Williams were able to bring a strong female representation to sports. The sisters were both very successful with their accomplishments playing tennis and were able to set a strong positive model for other female tennis players and athletes as a whole. The two faced many obstacles along their journey to success, as they are African American women successfully conquering a predominately white sport. They were critiqued for their personal upbringings, their muscular builds, and the clothes they wore. James McKay and Helen Johnson described them as "Ghetto Cinderellas," because of those very factors. Although they were not like other females playing sports, the women were able to bring a powerful new meaning and image to female athletics. Facing the challenges of racial and gender discrimination, the sisters enhanced and modeled a strong representation of both.
  Despite the success of women's professional tennis in the 1970s, women's professional team sports did not achieve prominence until the 1990s, particularly in basketball and football (soccer), when the WNBA was formed and the first Women's World Cups and women's Olympic soccer matches were held.
  In 1999, at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final in Pasadena, California, after scoring the fifth kick in the penalty shootout to give the United States the win over China in the final game, Brandi Chastain celebrated by spontaneously taking off her jersey and falling to her knees in a sports bra. While removing a jersey in celebration of a goal was common in men's soccer, it was highly unusual in women's football at the international level. The image of her celebration has been considered one of the more famous and controversial photographs of a woman celebrating an athletic victory. In 2019, it was announced that a statue of Chastain's celebration would be displayed at the Rose Bowl to commemorate the twenty-year anniversary of the team's win.
  Today, women and girls compete professionally and as amateurs in virtually every major sport, though girls' participation in sports may be higher in the United States than in other places like Western Europe and Latin America. Additionally, the level of girls' participation typically decreases when it comes to the more violent contact sports in which boys overwhelmingly outnumber girls, particularly football, wrestling, and boxing. (Some leagues for girls do exist, however, such as the Utah Girls Football League and Professional Girl Wrestling Association.) These typical non-participation habits may slowly be evolving as more women participate in stereotypical male sports; for example, Katie Hnida became the first woman ever to score points in a Division I NCAA American football game when she kicked two extra points for the University of New Mexico in 2003.
  Heather Watson and Fu Yuanhui broke one of the last taboos in women's sport when both openly admitted they were menstruating, Watson after a self-described poor performance in a tennis match in 2015, and Fu at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
caption: The United States Women's National Soccer Team celebrating their 2012 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifiers Tournament championship.
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