The Portrayal of Female Athletes on the Covers of The New Yorker 1925-2016

For decades sport has been a predominantly masculine area. And even though sport participation amongst women has undoubtedly progressed over time, female athletes still receive unequal mass media coverage. Thus, the question about the perception of women as athletes in media remains open. This thesis examines the patterns of female athletes’ portrayal on the front covers of The New Yorker magazine starting from the very beginning of The New Yorker’s publishing history in 1925 through December 2016. For this purpose I conducted a content analysis of covers of The New Yorker. I found that, despite some improvements, the messages that The New Yorker conveys about women in sports continue to reinforce traditional gender norms. Conservative trends and lack of coverage of female athletes has been observed resulting in feminine features and sex appeal being more evident in portrayals than women’s athletic skills. This study is designed to add to existing scholarship on gender and sport in media as well as expand the limited scholarly work on The New Yorker magazine