Women’s Sport: Visibility is Key

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The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup was a huge success, breaking all previous viewing records and suggests the interest and appetite for women’s sport has never been greater. (This was before the charge of sexual assault by Luis Rubiales on Jenni Hermoso, now being investigated by the Spanish courts.)

Figures released earlier this month from The Women’s Sports Trust revealed that people in the UK are watching more women’s sport than ever before, with the average time spent watching increasing by 28% and total viewing hours increasing by 19% year on year.

This equates to 9 hours and 5 minutes per viewer, up from 7 hours and 5 minutes in 2022 (data up to August 20, 2023).

The surge in interest coincides with a continued increase (7%) in the number of coverage hours dedicated to women’s sport across Pay TV and Free to Air channels, underlining the importance of mainstream visibility.

As the playing field between men and women’s sport continues to level and interest in women’s sport piques further – whether this extends to golf remains to be seen.

We recently played our part in pushing the case.

In April this year, we worked with The Golf Channel to coordinate a broadcast feature on the empowering women’s coaching program love.golf, supported by Syngenta, and its groundbreaking partnership with the Muslim Golf Association which attracted over 1,200 new women to golf last year.

The feature, first broadcast on The Golf Channel and Sky Sports on the week of the AIG Women’s Open, tells the stories of Shumona, Ambereen and a group of Muslim women who were among those who first experienced the game last year. It’s a moving, uplifting piece which provides a glimpse into the day-to-day lives of these women, the challenges they face and how they felt stepping onto the golf course for the first time.

What’s clear is that before this partnership, Muslim women would have never believed golf was a sport for them. But with this recent mainstream coverage and surge in interest in women’s sport, it’s slowly proving to them and women around the world that seeing really is believing.

Watch the feature: