Three Sports Where Women Are Continuing To Break Down Barriers

Over the last decade or so, there have been a number of positive improvements with regards to women and their participation in sport. The recently held FIFA Women’s World Cup, for example, was an absolute triumph with regards to giving the game the exposure it so desperately needs. Following the tournament, sponsorship has risen exponentially, the associated social media accounts have skyrocketed in popularity and most importantly, more than a billion people are said to have tuned in to watch over the course of the month.

With this in mind, we’ve delved a little deeper into the world of soccer as well as other sports to look at where women are gaining ground and finally getting the recognition that they deserve. 

Poker

Female celebrities such as Victoria Coren-Mitchell and Vanessa Rousso have done a fantastic job of putting women on the map when it comes to poker and are estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

Irish player Louise Butler recently became Ireland’s first female poker professional and in a recent interview, she explained how she hopes her journey will inspire more young female players to take the game up. As a result of stories such as this, women’s championships continue to enjoy more coverage and the growing number of online casino platforms such as https://www.redbet.com/en have given women more chance than ever before to hone their poker playing skills. All in all, the next decade or so could be huge within the female poker scene and will hopefully generate more success stories similar to that of Louise Butler.

Soccer

Although we’ve already spoken about the success of the Women’s World Cup, it’s vital that this now filters down into all aspects of soccer. So far, this appears to be the case, with a number of female pundits such as Alex Scott and Sue Smith gaining prominence on Sky Sports and other mainstream platforms. In addition to this, the professional game in England is now thriving and the recently held Super Cup contest between Chelsea and Liverpool was the first male soccer game in history to feature a female referee, as reported by https://www.cbsnews.com. While there is still a long way to go before the disparity in pay between the female and men’s game is mended, there are a number of encouraging signs moving forward.

Tennis

You could argue that the sport of tennis has gone further than most to bridge the inequality between men and women. Throughout its 50 year history, the US Open has been the grand slam at the forefront of gender equality and 2019 will be no different as the tournament is set to celebrate inspirational women and their relative plights. In addition to this, the year-end 2019 WTA Finals in Shenzen will offer the biggest prize money in the history of tennis as per https://edition.cnn.com. With $4.75 million going to the winner of the tournament, it far exceeds the $2.71 million that went to the winner of the men’s equivalent last year and proves that tennis continues to be the shining example when it comes to upholding equal pay within women’s sport.