We're in an unprecedented era of success in women's sports right now. Fresh off the first-ever Olympics with gender parity and with the most mothers competing, along with the Lionesses victory in the 2022 Euros and reaching the final of the World Cup, to the WNBA's Caitlin Clark dominating today's headlines, women's sports are drawing in audiences of nearly 50 million.

What's more, women's elite sports will generate more than £1 billion in revenue this year, shattering the billion-pound barrier for the very first time.

So with the women's game both popular and profitable, why is it still so underfunded? We’re exploring the gender gap in sports funding.

Women made history at the Olympics

In case you missed it, women absolutely crushed it at the Paris Olympics this summer. For the very first time, there were an equal number of male and female athletes competing, nearly 125 years since women were first allowed to compete on the biggest sports stage in the world. Olympians who are mothers and expectant mothers like Azerbaijani archer Yaylagul Ramazanova and Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez created powerful Olympic moments about the capabilities of women that went viral.

And beyond the Olympics, the stats speak for themselves. A record shattering 46 million people watched women’s sports on live TV in 2023 and 2.6 million attended a live women’s sporting event, a big spike on the previous year.

But it’s been a long and bumpy road to get here.

“Women have always wanted to take part but have long been excluded from sport or pushed to the sidelines, with this particularly clear in past Olympics,” Stephanie Hilborne OBE, CEO of charity Women in Sport tells AllBright. “There have always been aspiring female athletes and there would always have been an audience for women’s sport but women were held back because their sport was not valued by the majority of men who were making the decisions.”

Funding for women’s athletics

Unsurprisingly, it seems the funding for women’s sports follows the same story.

Of the £35 million in public funding to support the survival of sports during the pandemic, women's teams received only £3 million, according to Women in Sport. Women athletes also earn significantly less than men, even at the top level.

So what’s actually behind the gender funding gap in women’s sports?

To find out, we need to take a step back to examine how investment drives businesses more generally.

“In my world, the most shocking statistic is that only 2% of global institutional capital (private equity and venture capital) is directed towards female-founded businesses,” Giles Brook, UK investor and backer behind brands like Vita Coco, innocent Drinks, BEAR and Pip & Nut tells AllBright. “There isn’t enough capital being deployed to help female founders – a number of whom are trying to create the next big brands and businesses in women’s sport,” he said.

“Momentum is building but there is a lag on investment in women’s sport. The revenue and sponsorship values aren’t quite there yet and as such, investment is curtailed. So the more the big brands lead the way by creating equality, the quicker the landscape becomes more balanced and – let’s be honest – that's in everyone’s favour,” Brook said.

Hilborne agreed, citing a report by the Women’s Sport Trust which revealed that only 0.4% of total UK sports sponsorship was directed towards women’s sports in 2022. Although funding for the women’s game is slowly and surely increasing, it still pales in comparison to that of the men’s.

“Even after the Lionesses won the Women’s Euros in 2022, female footballers still earn a fraction of that earned by their male counterparts,” said Hilborne.

“The Lionesses received £1,300,000 following their Women’s Euros victory. However, had the men’s English football team won the Euros in 2020, they would have received £9,500,000. To further emphasise the point, England captain Leah Williamson earned an annual salary of £200,000 in the 2021/22 season – whereas Harry Kane, the men’s England captain, earns this in a week.”

The gender funding gap in sports

Because women have been historically excluded from sports and are still catching up in terms of representation, they also receive less media coverage and thereby public interest and investment. “Until we see more equal coverage, the funding gap will continue to exist,” said Hilborne.

But with the successes of the women Olympians, this is sure to change for the better in time – thanks especially to the power of seeing women athletes reach the top of their game inspiring young girls to become professional athletes.

“More media coverage, more equality such as in prize money, more leadership by coaches, managers and commentators and more athlete successes will see the continued rise of women’s sport. There have been some incredible role models and ambassadors to come out as female Olympic successes such as Jess Ennis-Hill, Laura Kenny, Denise Lewis, Kelly Holmes and more,” said Brook.

To close the gender funding gap in women’s sports, Hilborne outlined a couple of key steps:

Step 1: Gender impact reporting to understand how resources are currently allocated by collecting data on how much women and girls are really benefiting from the money spent.

Step 2: Gender budgeting in order to analyse the results of gender impact reporting and adjust budgeting decisions and other resources so that girls and women are benefiting equitably with boys and men.