Women in sport are not just catching up – they’re taking over
Writing Matthew Butler-Adam & Leela Srinivasan
In the 1960s, a young American runner named Kathrine Switzer signed up for the Boston Marathon under the name KV Switzer. She wasn’t disguising her identity to cheat – she was simply trying to run. At the time, women were barred from officially competing. During the race, a male official infamously tried to push her off the course. The images are now iconic: Switzer, resolute, pushing forward as the patriarchy literally claws at her jersey.
Switzer’s leadership through defiance did more than change marathon rules; it symbolized the broader struggle for women in sport. For decades, women athletes were seen as novelties, their accomplishments diminished or ignored entirely. Access to resources, media coverage and fair compensation was limited, at best. At worst, the environment was outright hostile. In 1972, the US passed a landmark federal law, Title IX, guaranteeing equal opportunity in educational sports – yet the needle still moved slowly.
Today, however, the air has changed – and leadership has played a critical role.
From exclusion to explosion
Consider the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). For years, it was treated like the NBA’s little sister – tolerated rather than celebrated. But now, the WNBA is not just surviving; it’s thriving. Through September 2025, WNBA viewership was up 34% across all national TV networks from the previous year, according to Nielsen data. Breakout stars like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Sabrina Ionescu, and A’ja Wilson driving significant momentum. Clark, who joined the Indiana Fever as the number one draft pick in 2024, shattered college basketball records and brought an entirely new demographic to women’s hoops. Her social media following exceeds five million and her jersey became the highest-selling WNBA jersey of all time – before she even played a professional game.
Clark isn’t just an athlete – she’s a leader. She models what Amy Edmondson calls teaming: the dynamic process of leading within fluid, often temporary, team structures. On and off the court, Clark demonstrates how adaptability, psychological safety, and inclusive communication enable high performance. These are hallmarks of modern leadership that extend beyond traditional hierarchies, resonating with a generation raised on collaboration. The same qualities are embodied by Kara Lawson, the Team USA head coach, who recently stepped into the role following a five-season resurgence with Duke’s women’s team.
The business world is taking note. Google, Nike and AT&T are just a few of the blue-chip companies investing heavily in the WNBA, which kicked off the 2025 season with a record 46 sponsors and is also opening up new sponsor categories like beauty (Glossier), contraceptives (Opill), and dating apps (Bumble). According to the WNBA, sponsorship is up 17% in reaction to a 170% rise in ESPN viewership; in 2024, the league also posted a 600% year-on-year increase in merchandise sales. Meanwhile, expansion is on the horizon, with new franchises in Toronto, Portland, Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia eager to follow in the footsteps of the Golden State Valkyries, whose inaugural season valuation of $500 million has made them the most valuable teams in all of women’s sports. Once considered a niche product, the WNBA is fast becoming a model for what modern, inclusive sports can look like – not only as entertainment, but as a proving ground for leadership innovation.
Globally, the story is similarly electric in women’s soccer, which 2024 research by Parity and SurveyMonkey showed to be the most popular sport among women’s sports fans in multiple markets, from Germany to Australia. The 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand drew nearly 2 billion viewers, a dramatic jump from previous years. The Uefa Women’s Euro 2025 tournament, hosted by Switzerland, saw in-person attendances rise 14% on the 2022 tournament, while in the UK, a peak audience of 16.2 million watched England’s Lionesses successfully defend their title against Spain – making the final the most-watched television moment of 2025 to date across all UK TV broadcasters.
Change is afoot in the US, too. The national team continues to command one of the most loyal fanbases in American sports: US fans of women’s soccer are 58% more likely to have made a purchase because of a brand’s sponsorship of women’s sports than fans of any other women’s sport. Growth isn’t limited to the international game, either. The club scene is just as dynamic. England’s Women’s Super League (WSL) has seen average attendances rise from 1,000 in 2018 to over 7,000 in 2024.
This isn’t only a story of commercial success. A 2022 study on elite women’s football published by researchers at Loughborough and Sheffield Hallam universities in the UK highlights how transformational leadership – characterized by idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration – is a defining feature of success. These leaders empower their teammates, embody shared values and inspire collective achievement. In a sport often seen through a masculine lens, these women are forging a different, deeply effective leadership paradigm.
Rising tides across the sports world
Beyond basketball and football, stories of progress abound. In tennis, women have long shared center stage thanks to icons like Billie Jean King, Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. But newer players like Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek are commanding global followings – and prizes that, at the grand slam tournaments at least, now match the men’s.
Motorsports is also shifting, although the road ahead remains long. F1 Academy, launched to develop women drivers, has seen exponential interest from sponsors and, critically, provides concrete inspiration for future drivers. At the Forbes Power Women’s Summit in September 2025, F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff said, “Whenever I go to a kart track now, all these little girls come up to me and say, ‘Remember my name. I’m going to be racing in F1 Academy in ten years.’” Meanwhile, women’s mixed martial arts continue to soar, with stars like Amanda Nunes and Rose Namajunas headlining events and drawing massive pay-per-view numbers. Each of these athletes serves as a public-facing example of individual leadership: building resilience, owning one’s narrative, and influencing change.
In surfing, another tide is turning. The World Surf League (WSL) became the first global league to offer equal prize money to men and women in 2019. Since then, viewership for women’s heats has grown steadily. Jessi Miley-Dyer, the WSL’s head of competition and chief of sport, has led from the front, advocating for parity and performance. Under her leadership, events like the Pipeline Pro and Tahiti’s Teahupo’o have featured women competing in waves once deemed too dangerous for them. Spoiler alert: they didn’t just survive – they dominated.
And there’s more. The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup – hosted and won by England – smashed previous viewing records. In Australia and New Zealand, women’s rugby teams now enjoy TV deals once reserved exclusively for men’s competitions. Cricket is on the up, too: in India, the Women’s Premier League cricket tournament launched to strong ratings and high sponsorship interest. Even eSports are showing growth in women’s participation and viewership.
Everywhere you look, ceilings are cracking, and behind each breakthrough is a leader, a captain, a coach, or an organizer driving the movement.
Six domains of leadership
The kind of leadership visible in the explosion of women’s sports aligns closely with Sim Sitkin’s Six Domains of Leadership model, developed at Duke University. Sitkin proposes that effective leadership requires strength across six interdependent domains: personal, relational, contextual, inspirational, supportive and responsible. Leaders in women’s sports, like Miley-Dyer and others, are excelling, not just by inspiring performance, but by transforming the environments in which that performance happens. For example, Miley-Dyer doesn’t only rally athletes around a shared vision – she builds trust through authentic relationships, adapts to evolving cultural and institutional contexts, and takes personal responsibility for sustaining change. These are not traits limited to athletic leadership; they represent a broader, transferable leadership architecture capable of reshaping entire systems.
In women’s sports, this multi-domain model is not theoretical – it’s visible in action. When athletes speak out on pay equity (as WNBA athletes are doing at the time of writing), when teams co-create inclusive cultures, or when league executives mobilize new audiences through digital platforms, they are enacting leadership across Sitkin’s six dimensions. Their success lies not in a single leadership style, but in an ability to lead holistically – balancing influence with integrity, vision with support, and ambition with accountability. As Sitkin emphasizes, lasting leadership impact comes from integrating these domains to generate alignment and trust. Women’s sports are proving this is not just possible, but powerful.
Capital, community, and the compounding curve
Underpinning the growth of women’s sport is a financial and cultural awakening. Capital is finally following the eyeballs and the enthusiasm. Deloitte has projected that women’s elite sports will be a $2.35 billion industry in 2025, more than double its size in 2023. Private equity firms like Sixth Street have invested over $125 million in women’s football ventures, while venture capitalists back women-focused media and merchandising platforms. Although men’s sports still command a greater media share, streaming platforms – liberated from legacy gatekeepers – are making women’s sports more widely accessible. Meanwhile, a small but growing cohort of companies are making bold financial bets across the women’s sports landscape, including Ally Financial (which in 2022 pledged to spend 50% of its sports-paid media dollars on women’s sports within five years) and Gainbridge (allocating 40% of its sports sponsorship dollars to women’s sports).
Yet it is not just corporations fueling this surge – it’s advocacy and leadership. Organizations like Parity, which connects brands with elite women athletes, are creating direct pipelines between talent and sponsorship, providing athletes from a wide range of sports with much-needed supplemental income, while helping sponsors capitalize on the rapidly expanding business opportunity. With fans expressing higher-than-ever levels of trust in professional women athletes, women’s sports are not just a cause – they’re a lucrative category. The women’s sports ecosystem is rapidly adapting to this shift in framing, reflecting Sitkin’s call to move beyond idealized leadership styles to the actual work leaders do: mobilizing systems, building trust and aligning values with action.
Sponsorship, long the Achilles heel of women’s sports, is becoming a growth engine. Brands are recognizing that women’s sports attract more diverse, engaged and socially conscious audiences. Families are attending events in higher numbers, seeing women’s leagues as safer and more inclusive. At a time when traditional sports face scrutiny over violence and toxic cultures, women’s leagues offer a compelling alternative: sport as a force for community and progress.
The fan base is changing too. Nielsen data shows Gen Z fans are more likely to follow women athletes than any previous generation. They value authenticity, equity and impact – and women’s leagues over-index in all three areas.
These fans don’t just watch; they build movements. They engage, post, and elevate their heroes as cultural icons.
Still, barriers remain. Investment is growing, but it’s far from equal; sponsorship dollars and media coverage remain heavily skewed toward men’s leagues. But the tectonic plates are shifting. The question is no longer whether women’s sports can succeed, but how fast and how sustainably they can scale.
If current trends hold, by 2035 the top women’s leagues could rival men’s in sponsorship, viewership, and cultural significance. The product is thrilling. The athletes are world-class. And the demand is unmistakable. What makes this tipping point different is the leadership within: athletes, coaches, executives, and communities co-creating the future of sport.
As we look forward, let us not forget Switzer and the many who ran despite being told to stop. They didn’t just break barriers – they carved new highways. They emboldened today’s athletes to follow in their footsteps and plant seeds for the next generation. In their slipstream are also the women entrepreneurs, executives and founders scaling sports-tech startups, negotiating broadcast deals, and launching global campaigns. They’re not waiting for permission – they’re seizing the initiative. As Switzer herself once said: “Talent is everywhere, it only needs the opportunity.”
Matthew Butler-Adam is regional managing director, UK and EU, and head of London office, at Duke Corporate Education. Leela Srinivasan is CEO at Parity
