March is Women’s History Month, and the NCAA recently released data from the 2023-2024 academic year that highlights the trends in female student-athletes and women’s successes in the organization.
According to the NCAA, 235,735 women competed in the NCAA across all divisions in the 2023-24 academic year, and participation has seen positive growth for the past ten years.
Women’s track and field, soccer, softball and volleyball continue to be the sports with the highest participation numbers. “In 2023-24, there were 32,367 student-athletes in outdoor track and field, while indoor track and field accounted for 30,380 student-athletes. Both sports have seen more than 18% increases in participation in the past decade.”
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Some lesser-known women’s sports including wrestling, acrobatics and triathlon, all classified as emerging sports for women by the NCAA, have also seen significant growth in the past few years. Women’s wrestling in particular has surged from 769 participants in the NCAA to 1,171 participants. As a whole, these emerging sports account for over 5,000 female student-athletes.
Women in the NCAA are succeeding beyond the field of play as well. According to the NCAA, for Division I athletes, “Graduation Success Rate data came in at 95% in 2024 for women's sports, an increase of 10 percentage points since 2002.”
And the women who flourished as student-athletes are going on to pursue sports leadership opportunities at never-before-seen rates. In 2023-24, there were 276 female athletic directors in the NCAA, a 23% increase in the past ten years. The number of female head coaches also increased by 16%, with Division III schools boasting over 2,000 female coaches.
As Women’s History Month comes to a close, the NCAA “proudly acknowledges the remarkable contributions and advancements of women in college sports.”
