Racial and Gender Report Cards in Sport

Combining both class discussion on race and ethnicity and women in sports, this article from ESPNW breaks down the 2016 WNBA racial and gender report card.  As mentioned in class on November 15^th, the WNBA has the best racial and gender hiring practices out of all professional leagues.  This article, also written by Richard Lapchick, confirms that the WNBA continues to have diverse leaders and employees within its organization.

With African Americans dominating most professional sports, racial hiring practices have improved, yet gender hiring practices still suffer except for the WNBA.  Women’s sports have grown recently and because of that, job opportunities have also grown.  Many think that the WNBA has an A for gender hiring because it’s a women’s league, however more than 60% of women’s college teams are coached by men.

bleacherreport.com 

Opportunities for women in sport have grown exponentially thanks to Title IX, yet the NFL, MLB and college sports all received a C for their gender hiring process.  Agents like school and the media only hurt the chance for women and people of color to hold positions within professional sport teams, and many teams should look to the WNBA and reevaluate their own racial and gender hiring practices.  What do you think contributes to the poor racial and gender hiring practices of most professional leagues?  What should be done to change this trend?

http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/article/17954833/study-shows-wnba-leads-all-major-leagues-racial-gender-hiring