Exploring the history of gender equity at the Olympics and where things stand today

When Paris last hosted the Olympic Games in 1924, just over 4 percent of the competitors were women. A century later, the International Olympic Committee dubbed the 2024 Games the “gender-equal Olympics.” But that’s not the whole story. Stephanie Sy speaks with Cheryl Cooky, a professor of American studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Purdue University, for a deeper look.
Stephanie Sy:
This year’s Olympic Games were a tour de force for American women, bringing home 26 gold medals and racking up 17 more medals than the men. When Paris last hosted the games in 1924 just over 4 percent of the 3,000 total competitors were women. A century later, the International Olympic Committee dubbed the 2024 games the gender equal Olympics, saying they’d have a 50-50, allocation of male and female athletes competing.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story. For a deeper look, let’s bring in Cheryl Cooky, a professor of American Studies and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Purdue University. Professor Cooky, remind us how far the Olympics have come. For many, many decades, women athletes were marginalized. They were treated as subpar in comparison to the men.
Cheryl Cooky, Purdue University:
Yes, if we look at the history of the modern Olympic Games, the first game was held in 1896 and the founder at that time espoused really sexist and misogynist beliefs about women and women’s capabilities to engage in physicality and athletic participation. Certainly he was not alone in those beliefs,
And so the struggle for equality, equal opportunity and inclusion has not been necessarily a linear one, but certainly, I think we’ve come a long way in terms of expanding opportunities across the globe with respect to participation for athletes.
Stephanie Sy:
Cheryl, I just want to put up this graph just to give viewers a sense of the improvement as measured as the proportion of participation between male and female athletes. And in this graph, you can see that steadily over time, there’s been an increase leading up to this Olympics, which was billed as being 50-50, athlete participation. Of course, we’ll have to wait for final numbers to see where that lands.
But I do want to dive into some of the other metrics in which we measure equity within the Olympics. To you, what really stands out as needing much further improvement?
Cheryl Cooky:
Yeah, I think the International Olympic Committee is certainly invested in expanding opportunities for women, not just at the athlete level, but also in terms of coaching if we look at the percentage of coaches that are coming into the Olympics. I believe the last data that I was able to find was from the Tokyo Olympics. And I want to say there was about 13 percent of coaches at the games were women.
We have not had a president, a woman president of the International Olympic Committee. Media coverage, the Olympics here in the United States, this is one time of the year where we tend to see real equitable coverage of men’s and women’s events and male and female athletes. And certainly I think that that’s been a lot of that has been due to the investment by the NBC networks and various different entities.
Stephanie Sy:
I want to take this global perspective a little further, which is one of the great virtues of the Olympics, as you know, is that it brings different peoples all together, united under sport. But that also underscores the challenges for gender equity, because some of these countries, the women don’t even have basic rights, much less. Is there an investment in female athletes?
How do you see that? And do you think that the IOC plays a role in addressing those issues?
Cheryl Cooky:
Yeah, I think the IOC has played a role in addressing those issues, in terms of its partnerships with the United Nations. I also want to make sure that we’re conscious that, you know, some of the struggles that we see around culture and gender and disparities around, you know, resources and investment isn’t just necessarily a problem in the Global South, right, but that there’s challenges that that we experience here in the United States.
Stephanie Sy:
But within the US, a lot of metrics that show great enthusiasm right now for women’s sports, whether it’s female athletes like Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles who are have just become legends, but also just the level of women’s sports popularity, in TV ratings, in coverage. I don’t think anyone would argue that this isn’t a moment.
The question is, have we seen this moment before? And does the momentum continue? And oh, by the way, I see your own enthusiasm with your USA women’s soccer Jersey under that place.
Cheryl Cooky:
One of the things that’s so exciting about the Olympics is that we get to see as sports fans, women highlighted at the same level as the men. We have seen moments like this before. I think those of us that are old enough to remember the 1999 US Women’s World Cup tournament where the US team filled up a Rose Bowl. 90,000 fans turned out. And there was a lot of conversation at the time about whether or not that was a turning point in women’s sports, whether we were going to see an explosion in growth and investment and resources.
And certainly, you know, 25 years later, maybe what we’re seeing now is the kind of those hopes and dreams coming to fruition and very real and tangible ways. And so I’m not typically an optimist, but this is one moment in my career where I actually feel hopeful for the future. I do think that this moment is different and key ways with respect to businesses and companies and corporations investing in women’s sports.
The other thing that I think is different about this moment is that we have a generation of women athletes who are invested in and taking their own money and their own time and their own knowledge and directing it towards advancing women’s sports. And so we have this critical mass of not only fans who are clamoring for women’s sports, but folks across the sports industry, women’s sports spaces, who are really investing important resources into women’s sports. And so I’m hopeful that this is just the start of the beginning of a new era for women’s sports.
Stephanie Sy:
Professor Cheryl Cooky of Purdue University. Thanks so much for joining us with your insights.
Cheryl Cooky:
Thank you so much for having me.