If I were to ask who Aaron Judge is, odds are you would be able to tell me without any hesitation. However, if I asked you who Kelly Kretschman is, you would probably scratch your head, rack your memory, and conclude you have no idea. Then you would probably proceed to tell me more about how many homeruns Aaron Judge hit -- and forget to tell me how many times he struck out!

You would not be able to tell me how Kelly Kretschman has been an Olympic gold and silver medalist in softball, or that she was a four-time NCAA Division 1 All-American at the University of Alabama. You wouldn’t know that she has been the National Pro Fastpitch Most Valuable Player… three years in a row…. the last one awarded at the age of 38.

But it’s not your fault that you cannot identify one of the most phenomenal female athletes on this planet. Just as it’s not Kelly Kretschman’s fault that she will never make the amount of money or earn the same recognition as Aaron Judge, regardless that she hit .488 for the USSSA Pride in the National Pro Fastpitch League as opposed to Judge’s .284 average for the Yankees in Major League Baseball.The blame lies with the dynamic of a male-dominated sports world.

This is a problem cause it allows for little opportunity for women to have any type of substantial career or notable recognition in athletics. It is not right that female athletes do not have these opportunities to reach the highest level of recognition and reward. Something has to change.

We as women can put this disparity, this inequality, this lack of attention on the shoulders of the culture of the world. We can sit here and complain about how the world is dominated by this male sports world, that oppresses women. We can argue that if only we got more television coverage, if only we were paid more, then people would watch, then people would care.

Or, we can make an active movement towards equality for women in sports through EARNING television coverage, working hard to maintain this coverage, and using the resources that we already have to create attention and recognition for the female athletic world.

Earning attention is the first step to earning equality. Nothing was ever accomplished by complaining. And surely nothing was accomplished by sulking and feeling sorry for oneself.

So if female athletes want coverage, they have to earn it. It is not fair and it is not right, but it is the harsh reality is that Susan B. Anthony did not fight for the right to vote by complaining and sitting around. She fought through rallies, conventions, and activist work, proved herself worthy to vote, and eventually with the help of the other dynamic women earned it.

So how are female athletes going to earn this attention, this coverage, and most importantly this equality? The answer lies in a few factors, but what really must be taken advantage of is the fact that we have social media.

If television stations are not going to give equal coverage, female athletes can create equal coverage. There is Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook. There is Periscope. Women can create their own videos, their own highlight reals, their own stories.

They can now devise their own platforms and use them to broadcast their voices, successes, and athletic accomplishments. Social media is going to be the key to earning initial attention that is crucial if female athletes aspire to anything more than what we have now.

It is also necessary that those female figures and highly recognized female athletes really utilize their social media platforms and their voices to promote females in sports. They figured out how to break through the male sports world to gain some recognition. They have the attention, so they need to help other female athletes boost their following in their respective sports.

For example, Billie Jean King has built up a profile with both men and women by her amazing feats in tennis. She now heads the Women in Sports Foundation and hosts conferences and galas to specifically recognize the amazing accomplishments of women in sports. This is not saying that other female athletes have to start their own foundations; but, they can promote each other. For example, players in the WNBA can start conversations on social media about the NPF and vice versa.

Now, female athletics has begun to gain more attention, and ultimately more coverage. This year, every single NCAA Division 1 Softball Tournament was broadcast by ESPN. However, it is crucial for equality that once we have the coverage that we make the absolute most of it.

We must demonstrate to the broadcasting stations, the advertisers, and the audience of both males and females, that women’s sports can be entertaining and can make money. In the most simplest of terms, female athletics needs to make the most of every single opportunity that is given to them; and, in the past five years, they have been doing just that.

The number of viewers of the NCAA Women’s basketball tournament has drastically increased by almost 20% every year over a three-year period, meaning that the amount of people who are watching the Women’s NCAA tournament is increasing by 20% every time the tournament is broadcast.

In addition, the week of the NCAA Division 1 Women’s College World Series had 9% better ratings than the programs that ESPN broadcast the previous week. In addition, the ratings from the week of the Women’s College World Series in 2017 had an 8% better rating than the week of the Women’s College World Series in 2016.

The viewership is increasing with every opportunity. The coverage increased in the World Series and the ratings increased. To further this point, I also examined the comparison between the men’s NCAA Divison 1 Baseball World Series. In the past three years, each game broadcast on ESPN averaged 1,476,111 viewers.

In comparison, each women’s game broadcast averaged 1,627,950. The coverage was equal. Both were championship series. Both were college athletics. Both were sports of a similar type of entertainment. And, in the midst of this equality… women win. If we continue to make the most of these opportunities, we will start to gain more and more recognition. Like the rookie beginning in the minor leagues, with each stolen base, each diving play, we have the possibility of getting called up.

Female athletics has a chance to positively impact the way that people view sports and females in general. No, the coverage is not there yet. Yes, there are still battles of money, viewership, and advertising that are still not won. However, if females continue to persist and make the most they can with all of the resources they can, then maybe one day Kelly Kretschman will be just as famous as Aaron Judge and female athletes can earn the same amount of money through the same amount of coverage as male sports.