Gender Inequality in Sports

Women’s potential in sports has been doubted since the beginning of time. Even the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin said in 1896, “No matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks.” 

This doubt expressed by Coubertin has only been stimulated by the introduction of sports coverage and the growth of this sector. While 40% of sportspeople are women, only 6-8% of the sports media coverage follows women. This not only translates to the differences in amounts players make both each match but also the sponsorships they receive which is where many players really make most of their money. Rencently, Forbes released the 2019 highest paid athletes and out of the 100 people on the list only one, Serena Williams at #63, was a woman. One may optimistically assume that this year is just a little different than past years, more of an outlier. However, this year is follows the trend of many past years with only female tennis players every cracking the top 100 since the list has existed. 

Serena Williams former world #1 and only female to make the Forbes 100 highest paid athletes list.

​The gender pay gap can be seen in nearly every industry and sports is one of the worst examples of this issue. While players in male dominated sports have been able to rank among the top earners in their sports including UFC and WWE star Ronda Rousey and race car driver Danica Patrick women just as talented and impressive in team sports have struggled to achieve any sort of equality to their male counterparts. One of the most clear examples of this pay gap can be seen in basketball when comparing the WNBA vs. NBA salaries. Last season the top WNBA salary was $117, 500 last season. In stark contrast the top NBA salary was $37.4 million. ​

For many female athletes they are tired of these inequities and have started to demand equal pay. The United States Women’s Soccer Team is leading this movement. In March of 2019 the women’s team filed a lawsuit against their employer, the United States Soccer Federation claiming that the USSF is in violation of the U.S. Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In one hypothetical case mentioned in the lawsuit, if both teams one 20 straight games in a season the women would only earn 38% of what the men due for the same exact job. Their spokeswoman Molly Levinson spoke on the matter shortly after the Women's World Cup win, “At this moment of tremendous pride for America, the sad equation remains all too clear, and Americans won’t stand for it anymore. These athletes generate more revenue and garner higher TV ratings but get paid less simply because they are women. It is time for the Federation to correct this disparity once and for all.”

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Even in sports where these pay gaps are not as prevalent, it is often not as equal as it seams. One example of this can be seen in tennis. Although Wimbledon became the last grand slam in 2007 to award equal prize money to men and women winners over a decade later when looking closer across the entire year the gender pay gap in tennis is still as prevalent than ever. Because the truth is more than 70% of the men in the world’s top 200 have earned more than their female counterparts in 2018 with prize money only being equal in the majors. 
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2019 Women’s World Cup Champions who are currently suing their employer USSF  for equal pay.

BBC graph showing that sports is not the only sector where men make more than women, as nearly every sector of the economy pays men more on average.

​As women all over the world continue to advocate for equal rights in all sectors of society including at in the classroom and at work, athletes all around the world have to continue to fight and speak out against the injustices in sports, because when we fail to speak out about injustices happening to us and people around us we allow them to continue and it is our responsibility to stop that cycle of injustice so that in the future, gender equality is not something that has to be fought for, but rather something that already exists. 

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/serena-williams-only-woman-forbes-2019-list-highest-paid-athletes-n1016531
https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviaabrams/2019/06/23/why-female-athletes-earn-less-than-men-across-most-sports/#1a984bc840fb
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2018/jul/14/tennis-pay-gap-shouldnt-be-gender-based
https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviaabrams/2019/06/23/why-female-athletes-earn-less-than-men-across-most-sports/#1a984bc840fb
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/08/us/us-womens-national-team-equal-pay-lawsuit/index.html