Have you ever watched a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) event or attended a women's sporting event? What if you were an accomplished athlete and had never received the media attention you deserve? Today's sports media is clearly dominated by male athletes, as a result female athletes get minimal recognition in the media for their athletic achievements. The media plays a significant role in influencing our ideas, values ​​and attitudes towards specific topics. In today's media, female athletes are continually sexualized and objectified, while male athletes are shown to have strength and power; To correct this problem, society can take many steps, including empowering girls to play sports and encouraging the media to cover girls' sports more often. Title IX was federal civil rights legislation passed in 1972 that leveled the playing field for women seeking to participate in organized sports. The law required educational institutions to provide girls and women with equal access to sports and educational facilities (Kane 99). Before Title IX, society had questioned whether it was right for women to participate in organized sports at educational institutions. Title IX was a revolutionary law for all women because it gave them hope that they could participate in sports without being questioned about whether it was culturally appropriate to participate in athletics. Mary Jo Kane, a researcher and advocate for women's sports, says in defense of Title IX "In one generation we have gone from girls hoping there was a team, to hoping they were part of the team" (103). While Title IX did not completely level the playing field for female athletes, it has had a significant impact over the course of four decades. According to the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) I...... half of the document......ooky. “Gender in Television Sports: News and Entertainment Highlights, 1989-2000.” Sociology of Sport Journal 27.2 (2010): 139-59. SocINDEX with full text. Network. July 16, 2014.O'Reilly, Jean. “The women's sports film as new melodrama.” Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader. Boston: UP Northeast, 2007. 283-97. eBook Collection. Network. July 14, 2014. Weber, Jonetta D. and Robert M. Carini. "Where Are the Female Athletes in Sports Illustrated? A Content Analysis of the Covers (2000-2011)." International Journal of Sociology of Sport 48.2 (2013): 196-203. SocINDEX with full text. Network. July 9, 2014. Whiteside, Erin and Marie Hardin. “Women (Not) Watching Women: Leisure, Television, and Implications for Television Coverage of Women's Sports.” Communication, Culture and Criticism 4.2 (2011): 122-43. Communication and mass media completed. Network. 15 July 2014.