What do you think are the most popular women’s sports in the USA? We decided to guess what we thought are the top 10 women’s sports (to play), based on our own experiences, then look up the real answers.
Here’s our list:
Soccer
Gymnastics
Swimming
Tennis
Volleyball
Track and Field
Field hockey
Dance
Figure Skating
Crew
Here are the real answers*:
Soccer
Badminton
Field Hockey
Volleyball
Basketball
Tennis
Swimming
Table Tennis
Softball
Golf
*In composing this list, we found it very difficult to find a reputable source to base our information on. It was challenging to find lists that were focused on women’s sports, a fact that displays the difference in popularity of athletics between men and women.
Another thing we noticed is that the number of individual and team sports are equally represented on the list. What does this say about women’s athletics? Is there less focus on team sports or girls? Do individual sports require a different amount of athleticism than team sports? When we created our list, we included sports that we view as “girly,” such as gymnastics, dance and figure skating, which all involve elaborate costumes and makeup. Unintentionally, we had stereotyped female athletics, even though both of us are athletes who play sports that aren’t traditionally female. Do we have our own prejudices to face?
