Since the inauguration of the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) in 1996, professional women’s sports have begun to reach the limelight more and more. In recent years, though, women’s sports are growing more rapidly than ever before. Professional leagues, including the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL), Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL), and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), among others have announced both inaugural seasons and expansions within the last year.
The WNBA has been setting the tone for women’s sports as a whole, leading the pack by revolutionizing marketing female athletes to keep fans returning season after season. For almost thirty years, the WNBA has been able to defy sexism and patriarchal limitations that have historically curbed the growth and exposure of women’s sports – and this groundbreaking nature has been amplified in recent years. On the WNBA’s plans for expanding to 18 teams (from the current 13) by 2030, ESPN writes that commissioner Cathey Englebert, “sees this as ‘far more than expansion of the WNBA, it’s an evolution’ and a ‘transformational investment in the future of women’s sports.’”
While the reason for women’s sports exponential growth can likely be attributed to a perfect storm of social factors, it is undeniable that recent exceptional talent in the WNBA has made it harder for audiences to look away from women’s sports, much less dismiss their abilities. Individual athletes like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and Charlotte North are using their skill to grow their respective sports, evolving female athletics everyday. While Clark isn’t the only talented female athlete in the country, she certainly stands out for making waves at the University of Iowa’s basketball program, then going on to bring the same kind of attention to the Indiana Fever, repeatedly smashing records and making highlight-reel plays. As viewers remark on Clark’s talent and her surrounding hype, a larger social movement has been ignited to finally put long-overdue respect on the names of the hardworking women in athletics. The media rooms are accommodating the new attention, acknowledging that female athletes are talented and deserve recognition. Thus, the women’s leagues grow, and the impressive female athletes within them gain exposure.
The WNBA is not the only professional women’s sports league to capitalize on the rise in attention being paid to women’s sports. In the last year or two, multiple leagues have been introduced to the United States. The PWHL held its inaugural season in 2023-2024 and has already expanded from six teams to eight teams for this upcoming 2025-2026 season, with rumors swirling around media outlets that more teams may be on the way. The WLL will hold its first full season in 2026, the WPBL just announced its first four teams ahead of their inaugural season in 2026, and the NWSL is adding a team in Boston for the 2026 season.
As female athletes transform their sports for the better, and leverage social media exposure to their advantage, women’s sports are becoming business enterprises in American athletic media. The expansion of existing teams is critical to fans, businesses, and athletes alike, particularly because it gives athletes more autonomy and advocacy within their respective leagues. Having agency and options in the competitive athletic sphere opens doors for new kinds of negotiations for female athletes and those who represent them, instilling optimism in pay-gap justice-seekers and sports enthusiasts looking for new strategies to analyze, or new parlays to play.
While sexist dialogues about gender and sports continues to persist, claiming that women will never be as athletic as men, women are continuing to prove them wrong, pushing back to show that women’s sports add something new, exciting, and worthwhile to the pro-athlete scene.