Women's sports are having a moment, but sexism is still holding back success

"Start doing it to me and we'll get along just fine."

It was a cringe-worthy moment right at the start of Caitlin Clark's first news conference with the Indiana Fever: when it was his turn to ask a question — just the second one for the WNBA's No. 1 draft pick — columnist Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star instead mimicked Clark's signature heart-shaped hand gesture.

Clark smiled and said, "Yeah, I do that at my family after every game."

Which is when Doyel responded with his comment about "doing it to me and we'll get along fine" that was broadcast live and immediately ignited social media, with some people arguing his credentials should be revoked. 

Doyel later apologized in a column for being "part of the problem," saying he "screwed up."

But while Doyel's comments might be one of the more recent — and public — instances of a female athlete being sexualized, sports and media experts note there's a long history of it. And now, as women's sports are experiencing a meteoric rise in popularity, breaking attendance and viewership records, a new report highlights how sexism still holds back women's professional sports — and investment decision-making.

"We take a step forward and then two steps back," Angela Schneider, an Olympic silver medallist in rowing and the director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western University in London, Ont., told CBC News.

"It definitely puts an exclamation mark on the fact that we still have a long way to go," said Cheri Bradish, an associate professor in sports marketing at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the director of the Future of Sport Lab.

Women's sport isn't just having a moment — it's having a movement, Bradish told CBC News. She points to brand new research from Canadian Women & Sport, which she was involved with, that two in three Canadians are fans of women's sport, and there's an appetite for more.

For example, Saturday's PWHL game in Montreal set a world attendance record with a sold-out crowd of 21,105 people, marking the largest attendance ever recorded for a women's hockey game worldwide. A record-setting average 2.45 million people tuned into ESPN to watch last Monday's WNBA draft featuring Clark, peaking at 3.09 million, four times as many as last year's draft viewers. 

And over the weekend, world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda won her second major title to become only the third LPGA player to win five consecutive starts. Some have heralded her as bringing in "a new era" of women's golf, and Golf Digest reported that "Korda's title run also gave the tour a potential jolt for its TV audience."

"Interest in women's sports is growing at a meteoric pace," television and streaming ratings company Nielsen wrote in a report last year, before any of these most recent sporting events had even happened. "When brands, sponsors and broadcasters are in it to win it, the audience is ready to reward."

But, in many ways, marketing and media of female athletes hasn't caught up, Schneider said. Coverage has traditionally focused on women's bodies, their marital status and their causes instead of their accomplishments, she added.

It's still not uncommon, and it creates a demeaning environment for women's sports, Bradish added.