By Nora Furlong & Lizzy Fitzpatrick, Contributing Writers

The Take A Stand Project is a part of the senior elective Politics of Identity: Race, and Gender in the United States. This project invites seniors to answer the question: To what extent do we have a responsibility to act on behalf of values we believe in? To personally explore the experience of individual responsibility, each class member “Took A Stand” on an issue that holds personal significance or interest.

“It’s hard to take attention and resources away from the four big [men’s professional sports] teams,” said The Boston Globe sports writer Michael Silverman when asked his opinion on covering women’s sports in Boston. In Mr. Silverman’s opinion, many media executives view Boston’s women’s teams as competing with the men’s teams for attention, rather than being a complementary entertainment source for fans. This mindset explains the cynical outlook of many news outlets: if Boston fans only watched or rooted for a finite number of teams, it would certainly be difficult for new teams to compete with ones that have been bringing home banners for decades. From this point of view, The Globe devotes little space to women’s sports because its fanbase is insufficient. Readers are more likely to click on articles about the Bruins, Patriots, Red Sox, or Celtics than women’s teams, which are less established in the city. Mr. Silverman explained the vicious cycle of women’s sports coverage as part of the issue that makes it difficult for The Globe to increase its coverage of women’s sports. The dilemma: how can women’s teams like the Fleet or BosNation grow in popularity if no one is covering them? But why would news outlets cover them if they don’t grow in popularity? 

We had our doubts about this logic. Scrolling through The Globe’s online news, we found ample coverage of BC High’s hockey team. How is it okay for this high school boys’ team to “take away space” from the Bruins when The Globe allegedly does not have enough room for an article on Boston’s professional women’s hockey team? Was a recap of the boys’ game really more interesting to readers than the Fleet’s three-win streak in the playoffs? Mr. Silverman’s perspective helped us realize a common pessimism around women’s sports media in Boston: that the city is simply unable to rally behind women’s teams. As two women’s sports fans ourselves, we were not convinced, and so we set out to discover just how much Boston supports its women’s teams, and if these teams might in fact be worth more space in The Globe and other media. 

This intellectual investigation culminated on a Saturday night, at a women’s sports bar in Jamaica Plain. Though the local brewery is known for its craft beer, we were there exclusively for feminism. We sat down at the bar, ordered a few raspberry seltzers, and got chatting with the bartender, Dave Brian. He told us that Drawdown is living proof of Boston’s thriving women’s sports fanbase. Mr. Brian described the bustling crowd the bar draws during the women’s college basketball playoffs, with each seat filled and a crowd around the TVs, and the sea of jerseys worn in the packed bar during the NWSL and women’s Olympic soccer finals. In his words, “There have always been women’s sports fans in Boston… they just needed a place to congregate”; Drawdown has served as such a space. 

We were also fortunate to speak with Drawdown’s founder and owner Liz Nicol. Ms. Nicol shared some of the challenges of operating the bar: “Sometimes I can’t find the games people want to see… like it’s not streaming anywhere.” How is it possible that some well-established professional leagues are simply unwatchable? We sought the perspective of The Boston Globe’s Senior Assistant Sports Editor Katie McInerney. She explained, “There’s a lot of men who work in sports media and they’ve for a long time …thought that women’s sports are less important… most shows on ESPN are staffed by men so they’re just less likely to talk about women’s sports… big TV deals weren’t made for women’s sports.” Our research further elucidated this injustice. Although 44% of athletes identify as women, only 16% of sports media coverage goes to women. 

We saw firsthand at Drawdown that an audience for women’s sports exists in Boston, and we know that there are many local teams worth watching. Boston’s very own professional women’s hockey team, The Fleet, clinched a spot in the Championship Series in 2024 after defeating Montreal in three straight overtime games. The Fleet is studded with Olympians from around the world and Boston locals like Jillian Dempsey. Boston is also home to well-established women’s college teams competing at the highest level; the Boston College women’s lacrosse team secured the NCAA tournament championship title in 2024 and has made the final four for the past seven seasons, each time delivering fast-paced, exciting competition. Boston is also getting an NWSL team, BosNation, in 2026. 

Globally, women’s sports viewership has surged. The Olympic women’s team gymnastics finals averaged 12.7 million viewers on Peacock and NBC. The 2024 NCAA women’s basketball National Championship game peaked at 24 million viewers, a 285% increase from 2022. The professional boxing match between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano averaged 74 million viewers worldwide. Here in Boston, the arrivals of the Fleet and BosNation are proof that women’s sports are growing. It’s time for local media to grow with them.

Boston Fleet, photo from Google Images