By Joshua LaBrosse
In a society where income inequality and the gender pay gap is evident, little is being done to address this critical issue. This issue is extremely relevant in the disparity of unequal pay in women’s sports, which is not being addressed appropriately to create any sense of equality.
Female athletes from almost every sport statistically make significantly less than their male counterparts. The main argument behind unequal pay between these athletes is that men’s sports tend to be more entertaining and more dynamic compared to women’s sports. One of the biggest reasons for this inequality is down to the amount of revenue and profits that professional sports teams and leagues for both men and women generate.
A prime example is a difference in revenue between the WNBA and the NBA. According to an article by Forbes, the WNBA generates about $25 million annually in revenue from its television deal from ESPN. When compared the NBA’s revenue from its television deal with ESPN and TNT, which generates almost 100 times more than the WNBA, the female basketball teams and leagues make significantly less primarily to lack of interest which results in less crowd attendances to games and other factors that contribute to the massive gap in income between men and women leagues.
This discrimination in pay also goes beyond team sports. Individual sports, such as golf, show significant differences in the prize money men and female competitors earn. Female golfer, Lydia Ko, who was the youngest player of either gender to be ranked number one in professional golf in 2015, received less money than the male golfer ranked 25th in the most recent PGA Tour, according to BBC.
Hearing these statistics makes me think more about how unfair it is that the women do not receive equal or more substantial reimbursement for achieving equal if not more significant success than their male counterparts.
From a business perspective, women’s sports do not generate as much interest, and viewership as many male-dominated sports do. The effects of this mean less money is generated from television deals and event attendances for women’s sports. The argument can be made that women do not deserve the same salaries and payments the men do. However, if you compare the success of the female athletes compared to the men, then the women should get their fair share of the earnings.
This case of female athletes not being deservingly compensated for their successes compared to the somewhat mediocre performances of the male athletes is very apparent in today’s culture, most notably in the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. Over the last five years, the team has had significant successes that have made a good case for equality in the women’s game.
The women’s national soccer team has won the last 2 World Cups in 2015 and 2019 and have a combined four titles to their name. Compared to the men who have not won any World Cup title and even fail to qualify for the latest edition of the tournament in 2018, the women’s team has certainly made their point about wanting an even playing field with the men.
With the women’s successes overshadowing the men’s, it should be clear that they deserve equal opportunities to earn the same if not more than the men do. I cannot think of a more realistic solution to implement then to figure out a compromise that at the very least closes the pay gap or idealistically, match the earnings and revenues to guarantee both male and female will make the same or more than their counterparts based more off their performances on the field, not on television deals, viewership, or brand deals.
However, this discrimination is not only occurring on the field, but it’s also very apparent off the field with not just the players, but with the coaching staffs as well at both senior and youth level.
U.S. Women’s Soccer Coach Jill Ellis has experienced this wage discrimination for the last half-decade. Despite leading the team to two World Cup championships and other personal superlatives during her current tenure as coach, she is still paid less than the majority of the coaches for the men’s national team, including U-20 men’s coach Tab Ramos, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation. This disparity highlights the ongoing issue of wage discrimination even though protected classes include age, gender, race, religion, etc.
For the most part, most youth national team managers only make a fraction of what the head coach of the first team would make. The fact that Jill Ellis makes less than a coach who is in a lower position than her in the U.S. Soccer organization is a prime example of the inequality that exists not only within the sport but the U.S. Soccer organization itself.
The fight for equality in sports has been a long uphill battle that these female athletes and advocates for justice have been facing for the last decade and does not seem to look like it will end anytime soon. However, if these female athletes and organizations continue to persist, bring awareness to the issue, and keep these organizations like U.S. Soccer accountable for their poor treatment of their female athletes, I believe that we will be in a world where athletic equality will be reached or get very close to achieving equal terms with their male counterparts.
