ANALYSIS: Women’s Month is over, but women’s sports continue
As sports personalities, they couldn’t be more different.
One is a WNBA champion who is also among the more recognizable faces in women’s basketball.
The other burst into mainstream consciousness only after a declared run for Congress.
And yet, as they spoke of women’s sports, they trumpeted a familiar refrain.
“Women’s sports, with its own identity, produce its own thrills.”
“I think it’s possible if you just continue to pave the way for [girls] to be able to dream of becoming whatever it is they want to,” Sabrina Ionescu, the sweet-shooting guard of the New York Liberty, told reporters during her visit to the country when asked about women pursuing pro hoops dreams.
READ: Sabrina Ionescu thrilled to see growth of women’s sports
“If we can help one girl or one woman achieve her dream [of playing professionally] in sports, then we did our job,” said Milka Romero, a candidate for next month’s election under the 1Pacman party list who, along with sister Mandy, owns two semi-professional clubs—the Capital1 Solar Spikers in the PVL and the Capital1 Solar Strikers in the PFF Women’s League.
Because that’s what women’s sports is, right? In 2025, it is still an advocacy.
Female athletes have always had to carry an extra burden on their shoulders.
They don’t merely have to be good at what they do. They need to justify their existence, too.
Bee Go, who founded Atleta Filipina, a platform for telling the story of female athletes, assembled an event in March that celebrated the triumphs of Olympic (Olympic!) bronze medalist Aira Villegas and world and SEA Games champion Josie Gabuco.
READ: 1-Pacman first nominee Milka Romero advocates for women in sports
I asked a young kid in the audience what she remembered most about the talk given by both boxers and she said: “Even if I’m a girl, I can be great.”
Maybe because it was women’s month? Perhaps that’s the message that needed to be delivered.
But we have to look beyond women’s sports as merely an advocacy.
Villegas doesn’t just box as well as men do. Villegas boxes great, period.
A flood of support for women’s sports, which will help athletes achieve their professional dreams, should not be difficult to rally.
Women’s sports, with its own identity, produce its own thrills.
Women’s basketball, for instance, features crisp, patient passing and accurate shooting. Women’s volleyball features longer, suspense-filled rallies. Yes, La Salle swept UE in their recent UAAP match. But the last point scored by the Lady Spikers needed 41 hits to settle. Forty-one. That’s unheard of in the men’s game.
READ: Growing women’s basketball starts with investing in youth
Women’s football?
“Hmm… That’s a tough one,” said Hali Long, the national team defender and World Cup skipper who is seeing action for Kaya Iloilo in the Women’s League. “We play really hard, that’s one. But, see, maybe if people came to watch us, they will help us figure out our identity.”
And watching women’s sports will help them grow beyond the moral obligation that female athletes bear. When that happens, support will come.
“It’s hard sometimes, you know,” Long told the Inquirer. “You play in the World Cup where everything is just great and then you come back home and see that there are still lots of gaps that need to be filled.”
Fan and financial support will help fill those gaps. They will allow the Romero sisters, who talk about sports so excitedly that one mic isn’t enough for them because they finish each other’s sentences, to focus on the ups and downs of their teams’ performances.
March is over. Women’s month is done. But women’s sports continue.
Don’t just advocate for women’s sports.
Go watch them.
(Francis T. J. Ochoa is the sports editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer)
