According to the New York Times, the recent boom in women’s sports has resulted in more women in sports management, coaching positions and endorsement contracts. The advent of the W.N.B.A., the media hype of women’s soccer and women’s tennis has increased the endorsements for stars such as Chamique Holdsclaw and Mia Hamm. Venus Williams signed a $40-million deal with Reebok in December. At the same time, corporate sponsorships of women’s sports have quadrupled, from $285 million in 1992, to $1.1 billion in 2000, according to the IEG Sponsorship Report.
Even in sports that are still male dominated, women are making advances in management. The NFL’s administrative staff increased from 12 percent women in 1994 to 34 percent women in 1998. Only 23 percent of senior administrators in the N.B.A. were women in 1996; that number was up to 41 percent in 1998. Between 1993 and 2000, the number of female vice presidents of NBA teams also rose from 4 to 25, from 4 to 10 in the NFL and from 1 to 9 in Major League Baseball, according to the Center for the Study of Sport in Society.
