A physical education teacher by the name of Senda Berenson, began women's basketball in 1892. Hired at Smith College she took the rules and regulations from the men's game and modified it for the women's. On March 21, 1893, Senda organized the first women's basketball game; competing her freshmen and sophomore players. As the pioneer and mother of women's basketball, in 1899, her rules for the game were published and inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985, paving the way for what will now be known as Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
The WNBA got its start on April 24, 1996, by the NBA Board of Governors. By the time it came for tipoff, eight teams were created by the inaugural season. And since then, that number has grown to sixteen. Logos and uniforms were created for the players as well as court and equipment regulations. The size ball used is 28.5 inches in circumference, resulting in one inch smaller than the men's NBA regulation ball. It was chosen that the games would be played during the summer, when other sports calendars were less crowded. At the end of the first season, the WNBA had over 50 million viewers, which was being broadcasted off their three sponsoring networks: ESPN, Lifetime and NBC. By 2001, their viewing audience was nearly 60 million, supported in 23 different languages and over 167 countries.
Sources:
Information - http://www.wnba.com/about_us/historyof_wnba.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball#Women.27s_basketball
Picture - http://www.topnews.in/files/WNBA.jpg
A league of their own speaks volumes to the progress women have made in fighting gender bias in sports. Senda Berenson refused to be shut out of Basketball by gender. Her efforts opened the door to sports for all young women. Many scientific advancements have been made over the years in developing apparel, footwear and equipment specifically for women in sports. Fashion has brought artistic, beautiful, functional clothing to the forefront in women's sports (most notably in tennis outfits).Hey, if you are going to sweat, you might as well look good!
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