Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2024

Document Type

Research Paper

Publication Title

NCAA AND GENDER EQUITY: A COMPARISON OF THE MEN'S AND WOMEN'S NCAA MARCH MADNESS TOURNAMENT

Department

Whittier Scholars Program

First Advisor

Joe Donnelly

Abstract

This literature review examines how female athletes were treated during the NCAA March Madness Tournament in 2021 and examines the overall inequalities of female athletes within the NCAA. In 2021 Women's basketball was under the spotlight when female athletes started to shed light on these trends via social media apps like TikTok, sharing the inequalities they experienced during the March Madness tournament. This article conducts a comparative analysis of the men's and women's tournaments from 2021 while exploring the Gender Equity Review Phase I report conducted by Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP. The gender equity review revealed that the planning behind the Women's tournament did not meet the same standards as the men's tournament. This review assesses existing sources such as news articles and journals to further analyze the impact of female athletes during the tournament and the atmosphere the women were put in. This research reveals that women often did not receive the recognition or resources they deserved, which may resulted in lower turnout for women's tournaments and less prestigious reputations for female athletes. Additionally, this literature review analyzes where the NCAA stands now, and analyzes the progressive movement women are making in sports by making an examination of athletes like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and their performance in the most recent year.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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