‘Complaining’, ‘campaigning’, and everything in between: media coverage of pay equity in women’s tennis in 1973 and 2007

Abstract

This paper analyzes the media coverage of pay equity in women’s tennis in three newspapers during the 1973 U.S. Open and 2007 Wimbledon tournaments, the first and last Grand Slams to offer equal pay. Through a feminist textual analysis of over 100 articles, this study shows that journalists portrayed the female athletes involved in the pay equity conversations in 2007 as empowered advocates, marking an important shift from the ‘emotional’ and ‘demanding’ descriptions reporters applied to women in 1973. This research ultimately explores the role that the media plays in reflecting and reproducing hegemonic norms around pay equity through representations of leading women athlete activists in the press.

Keywords:

• Feminism
• representation
• pay equity
• tennis
• hegemony

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).