The Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s Basketball team was a hot topic for many Hawkeye fans who usually do not watch women’s basketball throughout the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The team traveled to the “Elite Eight” only to fall to Big 12 No. 1 seed Baylor. Though a remarkable season, the state rallied behind the star, Megan Gustafson.
Gustafson, the Big 10 Player of the Year, had an exceptional season but was met with many negative comments as a successful female athlete. Twitter users saw many comments on how she did not come close to comparing to her male counterparts.
Senior Nikki Chang and future University of Iowa student commented on the topic. “There’s no reason why one gender should be above the other or receive more recognition for the same accomplishments,” said Chang.
With the stellar season, the women’s Hawkeye team could boast rather than being overcast by solely the men’s tournament, and more Pleasant Valley students became aware of the women’s tournament and the talent it possessed.
In a 2017 investigation ThinkProgress.com collected data on the comparison of air time and coverage in the NCAA basketball tournament for men and women. The data primarily focused on the NCAA’s and ESPN’s websites.
“Overall, we tallied 495 headlines about men’s basketball, compared to only 108 about women’s basketball — meaning men’s basketball took up 72 percent of the college basketball coverage on the NCAA’s front page that week.”
As a three-year varsity athlete and soon-to-be member of the Augustana College women’s basketball team, senior Macy Beinborn understands the importance of the issue.
Beinborn said that although her peers were supportive, they may not always show the same respect. “You’ll occasionally get the comment about how boring the girls game is and that ‘all we do is shoot threes,’ but overall, people were really good at supporting us, especially later in the season,” said Beinborn.
Beinborn felt the high school equally supports both boys and girls basketball, in regards to the staff and their encouragement on game days, but she mentioned how not all schools have the same luxury. “I think PV does a much better job at supporting girls and boys equally than most schools. The environment and attitude at Pleasant Valley are so much more positive than other environments outside of our school,” said Beinborn. She hopes this sort of environment continues for her at the collegiate level.
