Having worked as an editor and proofreader I usually pick up on details. I noticed long ago that the logo on the basketball courts for the women’s NCAA basketball tournaments said something different than the men’s courts. The men’s: March Madness, the women’s: NCAA Women’s Basketball. But on a personal level, I thought March Madness included both tournaments.

I was wrong.

The use of March Madness to promote the national college basketball tournament was limited to the men’s games.

Until this year.

Until this month.

Until this coming week when the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament begins with 68 teams for the first time—the same number that have been playing in the men’s tournament since 2011. The Final Four games will be held April 1-3 in Minneapolis. This year, the women’s tournament will also be branded for March Madness.

By the looks of the Target Center seating availability chart, it looks like the finals are on their way to a sell-out. Basketball fans appreciate not only the women’s talent, but the teamwork and strategy that is more evident in their games than some of the men’s. The long-held argument that no one wants to watch women play sports, or read about women’s sports in the news, needs to be put to rest—permanently. It’s simply not true. Audiences for women’s sports continue to grow.

Appropriate branding is critical when it comes to changing the perception and treatment of female athletes. But it’s just the beginning. Other initiatives to come out of last year’s embarrassing exposure of the weight room inequity for men and women participating in the tournament include a zero-based budgeting process for both the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments this year.

There have been some significant shifts lately in women’s sports. But these changes didn’t happen overnight. Women have been fighting for equal rights for decades. We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of Title IX and there’s still work to be done. Women like Billie Jean King have been working for equality for more than 50 years.  

I’m glad to be watching some long overdue changes take place.

And for the next few weeks, I’ll be watching some good basketball played by both men and women.

Photo by Stephen Baker on Unsplash