The Fast Track
Inside the Surging Business of Women’s Sports
Fifty years of progress toward gender equity in sports is highlighted in sports media professor Jane McManus’s smart, persuasive book The Fast Track.
With insights from athletes and advocates, financiers, commentators, and analysts, the book includes a wealth of affecting stories, jaw-dropping statistics, and inside analysis about women’s sports and their growing fan base. Its examination begins with tennis in the 1970s, set amid broader improvements for women in the US. Early chapters profile Billie Jean King, one of “the Original 9” professional women tennis players. With her partner, Ilana Kloss, King continues to fight for equal investment in women’s sports.
Newer equal pay advocates include Venus Williams and soccer star Megan Rapinoe. One kickass recent story comes from the WNBA in 2020. Playing in a bubble during the pandemic, the women of the Atlanta Dream leveraged the spotlight on their sport into support for a political candidate who they found better aligned with their values than the incumbent competition—who happened to be the team’s own owner.
Importantly, other factors that work against women in sports are discussed, racism, homophobia, and expectations of femininity among them. One tellingly-titled section, “Your Budget is Your Values,” analyzes how investors view women’s versus men’s sports. Women’s teams fill seats and sell merchandise when they’re given space to do so, it shows, yet macho advertisements create a cycle of male viewership, and internet searches about sports bring results about men’s sports. In one anecdote, Pat Lowry of ESPN recalls changing the camera angles in order to showcase the athleticism in women’s professional basketball, literally adjusting the way we see women athletes.
The Fast Track is a superb recent history of women’s sports and women’s sports media that makes a strong argument for giving women’s athletics the attention and funding they need.
Reviewed by
Meredith Grahl Counts
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
