It’s always interesting to me to think about how selective we can be with storytelling. Sometimes this exclusivity can be beneficial; we cut out the unnecessary to make room for the more interesting. But other times, it can be detrimental for entire groups of people. For example, news outlets regularly lack stories featuring successful women, whether it be in business, sports or otherwise. Recently, one glaring lack of coverage I have noticed surrounds women’s soccer. There has been a drastic difference between the press surrounding the Men’s World Cup last year and the Women’s World Cup that is currently taking place in Canada.
I didn’t even know the World Cup was going on until very recently because I have seen so little coverage of it. Coverage of the women’s games definitely isn’t as popular as the men’s even though they both occur around the same time of the year. I can’t even blame the lack of coverage on America’s lower level of interest in soccer than the rest of the world. Just last summer, I could not have a conversation without the topic of the World Cup sneaking in, and most of my friends aren’t even sports fans.
Such limited coverage is a clear indication that the media finds the success of women less newsworthy than the success of men. I don’t think the feats of the US Women’s Soccer Team (@ussoccer_wnt) are common knowledge, but they should be.
The women’s team has recently qualified for the quarterfinal, scheduled for Friday, June 26, against China. In fact, the women’s team has qualified for the quarterfinals of every World Cup they have participated in, which is quite an impressive accomplishment. I know if that was a claim the men’s team could make, it would be considered a very big deal, but I only found this information at the bottom of an article. Even more empowering, the US Women’s Team has started the #SheBelieves campaign. Their website states it is “a message to girls and women that they can accomplish their goals and dreams.” I am tired of not hearing enough about women and their accomplishments. The success of women should be more celebrated in the media, because women in business, sports, the arts and more are constantly doing amazing things. Let’s celebrate them.
