The 'Cover the Athlete' campaign is taking on gender inequality in the world of sports.
Women in athletics have to face many challenges, including a wage gap and less publicity and coverage than their male counterparts. Even when that coverage does happen, media interviews of female athletes are often done in such a sexist fashion that they may as well not be taped at all. The Cover the Athlete movement is an awareness campaign that demands that female athletes be asked the same serious, career-focused questions that appear in men's interviews.
The Cover the Athlete hashtag is being used on social media to support awareness. To further garner attention, this Cover the Athlete video hilariously combines clips of interviews of male athletes with real questions that female athletes have been asked on camera.
What's Driving This Trend
- Gender Equality in Sports Coverage
- Opportunity to innovate by creating an unbiased media coverage in sports, that highlights the achievements and challenges faced by female athletes
- Social Media Activism
- Opportunity to innovate by creating social media campaigns to raise awareness and support for gender equality in sports
- Anti-sexism Training
- Opportunity to innovate by providing anti-sexism training to media outlets, teams, and other affiliated organizations to create an inclusive environment for interviews with female athletes
Who This Affects Most
- Sports Media
- Opportunity to innovate by creating an unbiased media coverage and providing better training to media personnel to create equal opportunities for female athletes
- Athletic Apparel
- Opportunity to innovate by supporting and sponsoring female athletes to raise their visibility and providing apparel that suits their needs and requirements
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- Opportunity to innovate by promoting gender equality in sports through corporate social responsibility initiatives, such as sponsorships and donations to organizations working towards the cause
