Sports

Gender inequality in Women’s basketball

Mia Webster, Staff Writer • February 22, 2024

Women’s Basketball is set up for failure within the sports community amongst rules.

Kobe Bryant was a massive women’s basketball advocate and truly understood the difference, “Guys played above the rim, women played below the rim. [Women’s basketball was just] more graceful,”

It’s common sense to understand women and men do not have the same physical baseline. Most men’s stats in the professional and competitive level start where more women end, and most sports have rules to adhere to. Women’s volleyball has a lower net, Women’s track entry time is slower, jump heights are less, hurdles are lower, and throwers’ balls are lighter. All these examples make women’s sports more fun and fair amongst the skill level, the same way a 12-year-old girl and a 30-year-old woman will have vastly different sports regulations.

This doesn’t mean women are worse at sports but it is just a physical difference between men and women. Most sports have these types of accommodations except basketball. Women’s and Men’s basketball hoop height is the same from high school to the NBA and WNBA. In my opinion, this is the reason women’s basketball has a lesser following simply because it’s more boring to watch.

People don’t watch the NBA to watch them shoot 3-pointers and do basic layups they watch for the crazy dunks and insane athletic plays. I asked a random set of 15 students and 8/15 said they watch the NBA for the crazy dunk plays. So why do these 6-7ft men share a hoop height with 6-6’6ft women? On top of their height, men jump 1-2 ft higher than women at a competitive level.

This concept is more of a blatant oversight than clear inequality but this oversight affects women’s basketball as a whole and prevents them from having that same experience with the sport men do.

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