A long-standing commitment, an active agenda
Women’s sports have been part of the NCAA since 1981, when the Association approved a plan to add them and conducted the first women’s championships in field hockey, cross country, and volleyball.
Today the NCAA sponsors 45 women’s championships and three coed championships across 21 sports — and is actively working to close the participation gap that still exists between women and men in college athletics.
Women athletes across NCAA sports, 2024-25
Women’s NCAA championships across 21 sports
Women athletics directors — up 24% in a decade
Athlete gap remaining between men and women in NCAA sports
Three areas of focus
The NCAA’s work on women and gender equity moves on three fronts: celebrating the women who shape college sports, creating new opportunities to compete, and supporting the leaders who run athletics programs.
Browse every woman recognized through NCAA awards programs.
Emerging sports for women and growing pathways to play.
SWA designation, the Pathway Program, and more.
A landmark law: Title IX
Passed in 1972 as part of the Educational Amendments to the Civil Rights Act, Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program that receives federal funding. The NCAA expects every member institution to uphold and abide by its requirements.
In celebration of Title IX’s 50th anniversary in 2022, the NCAA released The State of Women in College Sports report, illustrating advancements in women’s sports participation and access to opportunities.
Advancing gender equity
Following a 2021 review of gender equity across NCAA championships, the Association moved to address specific disparities. A new eight-year media rights agreement covering 40 championships — including women’s basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and softball — has significantly increased revenue. And beginning with the 2025 tournament, Division I established revenue distribution units for the women’s basketball tournament, paying conferences for participation and performance for the first time — one of the final pieces of equity between the women’s and men’s tournaments.
How we define it
The NCAA Gender Equity Task Force defines gender equity this way:
“An athletics program can be considered gender equitable when the participants would accept as fair and equitable the overall program(s) offered for other genders. No individual should be discriminated against on the basis of gender, institutionally or nationally, in intercollegiate athletics.”
— NCAA Gender Equity Task Force, 2024
Senior Woman Administrators
The senior woman administrator is the highest ranking woman in each NCAA athletics department or conference office — a role created to ensure women help shape the leadership and management of college sports.
NCAA members established the designation in 1981, the same year they added women’s championships. Schools aren’t required to designate an SWA, yet 99% do. SWAs are eligible to serve on NCAA committees, take part in eligibility hearings and receive select grants, and many hold senior management responsibilities across both men’s and women’s sports.
Departments that fully use the designation see the benefits: stronger decision-making from diverse perspectives, leadership demographics that better reflect the student-athlete population, visible role models for student-athletes and staff, and more points of contact for raising issues. SWAs also open pathways toward athletics director and conference commissioner roles.
SWA 201: Division-specific education
Building on the SWA basics, these division-specific resources go deeper on maximizing the designation. Select your division for key highlights and the full guide.