It’s Been About Time: Reflections on Experiences and Inequities within Women’s Basketball

This work examines the social, structural, and cultural realities conveyed through women’s basketball in the 21st century. This study utilizes a critical autoethnographic approach to examine author experiences navigating women’s basketball through four distinctive experiences: (1) As a high school boys’ basketball player at a school where the girls’ basketball team competed for four consecutive state championships; (2) as a practice player for a women’s basketball team at a Division 1 school; (3) as a graduate student examining collegiate athletes’ experiences of emergent Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies; and (4) as a professional conducting NIL research. Risman’s (2004) gender as a structure framework is utilized to examine shifts of individual, social, and structural attitudes within and surrounding basketball to inform policy and practice recommendations.