3.1.3.1 Emergence of globalisation of sport (post World War II) GapFill

There was a significant change in the role and status of women during the twentieth century. Towards the end of the century,  company directorssports agentsnational governing bodiesentrepreneurs began to oversee female sport and organise competitions, almost a whole century after they had been established to oversee male sport. For example, the success of England's men’s team at the 1966 World Cup led to the establishment of the Women’s Football Association in 1969 and the first Women’s FA Cup a year later. The shift towards gender  freedomissuesdiscriminationequality has encouraged more women to get involved in sport, and it is now viewed as a viable path towards a professional career. The gradual emergence of female sport has been brought about by many factors across different sports:

Association football	Increased  interestfundingpopularitymedia coverage – there has been a greater amount of money injected into female sport at an elite level to improve provision, but also at a grassroots level to nurture the development of future stars.
	Increased  media coveragepopulationgender equalityfunding – women’s football has received more attention over recent years due to the increasing prevalence of games being shown on television and news stories being covered on various social platforms. For instance, in addition to BT Sport having the home broadcasting rights for the  Women’s Social LeagueWomen’s Soccer LeagueWomen’s Super LeagueWomen’s Special League (WSL) for the 2019/20 season, the FA has struck international broadcasting deals for the WSL, such as that with NBC Sports in the USA.
	Increase in roles – not only has the number of female players increased over recent years, but the number of female  supportersofficialsmanagersrules in football has also experienced a rise. This is evident at an elite level, where 63% of games in the WSL’s 2019/20 season were refereed by a woman.
Tennis	Equal  accessprize moneygendercompetition – tennis was historically reserved for amateur performers up until the advent of the ‘  closedopenequalityfemale era’ in 1968, when financial rewards were made available for the winner of each of the four major championships. Despite this, there was a gross disparity in the winnings between the male and female competitions. It wasn’t until recently that the remuneration for advancing through each round of the championships became equal for female and male tennis players.
	Establishment of the  Davis CupFemale Tennis AssociationWomen’s Tennis AssociationLawn Tennis Association – this organising body was founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King to establish equality for female tennis. It now hosts annual tennis circuits under the WTA Tour.
Athletics	Changing views – there was a major shift that took place across the twentieth century regarding the way women were stereotyped in sport. Traditional views that strenuous activity was too tough for women or that the dress code required in athletics was  unladylikeappropriatecustom-madebefitting have been overcome by more pragmatic views that see females as adept athletes. Indeed, many of the leading stars in international athletics are female figures, such as the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Allyson Felix and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.