How much of a difference is there really? Well women are generally paid way less in professional sports while men are paid way more. Women's sports are less noticed which leads to the companies not being able to pay them more, but that can change if we make an effort to go watch women's sports too.
Women’s Sports Foundation uses the U.S.’s national soccer teams as an example, “For winning the 2015 Women’s World Cup, the U.S. Women’s National Team won $2 million. Germany’s men’s team took home $35 million for winning the 2014 World Cup. The U.S. men’s team finished in 11th place and collected $9 million, and each men’s team that was eliminated in the first round of the 2014 World Cup got $8 million each, which is four times as much as the
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In the article Taking a Closer Look at The Gender Pay Gap in Sports, John Walters states, “WNBA players are paupers next to their NBA counterparts. The league minimum in the NBA this season is $525,000. The WNBA league minimum last summer was $38,000.” The Men’s NBA player that is payed the least still gets payed over $487,000 more than the highest payed WNBA player. Women's sports are generally payed less than men's by as much as thousands of dollars to even millions.
Tim Wigmore discusses this common issue in his article Sport’s Gender Pay Gap: why are women still payed less than men?, “Women’s treatment in sport has always been a manifestation of wider gender inequality and, as sports evolved and professionalised, became self-perpetuating. The huge funding disparity between male and female sport means that women have had fewer opportunities to play sport, have suffered from inadequate coaching and facilities compared with those enjoyed by men, and have been paid meagre sums, even for playing international
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Those that have played have often not been professional, so had less chance to hone their skills; and the lack of financial rewards mean that many leading players have retired prematurely."
Wigmore shares information he found from a survey in 2014, "Globally, 25 out of 35 major sports pay equal prize money to men and women, found a BBC survey in 2014. Olympians are still not paid prize money by the Games, although most countries offer their medal winners prize money, and sums are equal for men and women."
The Olympic Games is one of the most widely known sports events throughout the world, In Tim Wigmore's article about gender pay gap he gather's an opinion from Collins, "In many ways the Olympic Games in Rio represent a significant staging post in the rise of female sport: 47.7 per cent of competing athletes are women, a record for a summer Games. Yet true pay equality in sport is still far away. “Until there is a fundamental shift towards gender equality across society,” Collins says, “women in sport will always be treated as under-paid second-class citizens.”
The gender pay gap is noticed by a lot of people all around the world , but will it ever actually
Traditionally men have dominated the world of sports however in recent year’s women’s sports have become popular and with their new found popularity, women’s sports have evolved into marketable leagues of their own. Although women’s sports took a huge leap forward, women players still don’t receive the same financial compensation for playing the same sports in the same arenas as their male counterparts. In Purse Snatching by Donna Lopiano, she points out sexism may have a huge effect on this financial discrepancy between women and men athletes. Analyzing sports economics may point to a different reason why women are receiving such a compensation disparity.
Mark Murphy, Director of Athletics at Northwestern University, who participated in an ESPN debate on the topic of paying student-athletes, argues that these athletes currently receive scholarships, whose value, in some instances, totals close to $200,000 over four years. He stated that all student-athletes have made similar commitments to the schools, and that football and basketball players should not be treated any different than other athletes, who participate in sports that are not as popular and lucrative. Paying athletes anything beyond a scholarship, argues Murphy, would cause problems, particularly from a gender equity standpoint. What Murphy seems to referring to when he says "gender equity" is Title IX federal regulations, which cut off federal funding of colleges if those colleges discriminate on the basis of sex. Paying male student athletes more than female student-athletes could possibly be construed as discrimination.
According to the Women 's Sports Foundation, they claim that paying men more for the same sport gives women in the sport less incentive to push themselves and discourages future female participation in the sport. Which is true, why would women want to play the same sport as men and get paid less money. A good example where women get paid much less money for the same sport is a WNBA. Women’s Sports Foundation says that players from the WNBA in the 2015 season, the minimum salary was $38,913, the maximum salary was $109,500, and the team salary cap in 2012 was $878,000. For NBA players in the 2015-2016 season, the minimum salary is $525,093, the maximum salary is $16.407 million, and the team salary cap is an all-time high of $70 million. David Berri’s article on, “Basketball’s gender wage is even worse than you think,” he talks about that in 2013-14, the Phoenix Suns employed Dionte Christmas for 198 minutes. For those minutes–the only minutes Christmas has ever played in the National Basketball Association–he was paid the league minimum of $490,180. However, Diana Taurasi made the All-Women 's National Basketball Association First Team in 2014 and helped the Phoenix Mercury win the league 's championship. That season, she was paid the WNBA maximum salary of $107,500. This is huge difference between the two
Women have forever had this label on their back of being too small, too weak, too feminine, and too boring. The traditional gender roles of the female interfere with the extortionate nature of competing in sports. Men are usually the ones to go 100% and give whatever they got, and to show masculinity while doing it. The standard masculinity of being strong, smart, and taking charge over dues the feminine traits of being soft, gentle, and polite. That’s what society has taught us to learn and accept. But the traditional female gender role is diminished when participating in athletics and people may think it’s weird to see females compete at the same level as males do. Men have always had the upper hand in the professional, collegian, and high
Another issue that comes into play is the salaries of male professional athletes compared to female professional athletes.
In response to watching the Women’s World Cup this summer, I read how the World Cup female soccer players were treated differently than the males. After the US Women’s team won the tournament the won $2 million for the team to split and the men whom got knocked out the in their second game were awarded $4 million dollars. It got me wondering how deep does this unfair treatment and sexism go in sports, especially soccer. After much research, I now know that…
The same should be said about every job so why is it that players, especially in the NFL, NBA and ABC are paid crazy salaries. There needs to be regulations and caps guiding how much a player can make. This would help insure that all sports remain competitive and everyone has a chance to win. There is no shortage in athletes who want to go pro. Due to the lack of requirements, the work schedule, and the fact that their job is to entertain. There needs to be real change in the sports industry. Lowering athletes’ salaries would only hurt the current players’ lifestyles. The ones up and coming would still have an excellent future if they made even 500,000 dollars a year. Which is still seven times higher than the WNBA is willing to pay their athletes. The WNBA are just as serious of a competitor as other sports, whether it be ice skating, wrestling or football. Therefore it’s time to make sure that every athlete women or male should get paid a fair and justifiable
Men and women have been separated since the beginning of life. God put Adam in charge of the Earth. When God created Eve, he took a piece of Adam’s rib from his stomach to create Eve. From this story that came from the bible, men believe that God made them better than women. And this has created a gender inequality between man and woman ever since then. Gender inequality, as stated on The Free Dictionary’s website is, “the difference between women and men in regard to social, political, economic, or other attainments or attitudes, or the problem perceives to exist because of such difference.” I believe that, when it comes to women’s sports, there is a pretty big difference in genders. Some of these differences are caused by men. A good example is that there are an enormous amount of men that take it as a joke. Most men feel that women just do not have the capability to ever have the strength and skills to compete with men. While others look at it as women are too girly to play and that they will cry and complain if they break a nail. Some think women are too fragile and if they try to compete against a man they will get badly injured. I believe these opinions that men have about women in sports, leads to the gender inequalities in it.
One would think that a professional player on an elite team would be making enough money to support herself and continue doing what she loves, but this assumption is sadly false. Rejzovic plays volleyball professionally and has a full-time job as though she is an amateur. According to the chairman of her club team, she is playing the wrong sport and is not of the opposite gender. Rejzovic stated, “Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a pro. I thought it would be glamourous, but life as a pro isn’t what I imagined” (Tornkvist, 2016). The discrimination is preventing women from progressing forward in professional sports. Payment has nothing to do with performance because Rejzovic and her team has been number one in the league many times in the past ten years (Tornkvist,
We may just not be being told any information. In Lenny Liebmann's article, "Mending the Gender Gap," he reveals that women earn an average of $18,000 less annually than men. He further reports that the US Census Bureau states the male/female pay differential ranges between 15-50%, depending on the industry and the job title. Not to mention that within the Fortune 1000, 95% of all executive positions were held by men in 1997. (62-63)
While football and basketball players would receive payment without difficulties primarily because of the popularity of the two events, but the question is what amount would go to each student (Meshefejian 2). Finally, college athletes already get money; majority of colleges give notable services to the athletes, who are held to a greater level than the rest of the students. They also have access to the best gymnasiums, receive free health cover from injuries sustained, free food and perhaps most importantly free
Men even dominate the population of workers in the most dangerous jobs, which happen to pay more in order to attract more workers. An example of this is that we as a workforce see no women in the career fields of “...lumberjacks, iron workers, or Alaskan king crab fishermen nor politicians proposing social engineering to achieve equality in work-related deaths-- an area where 92 percent of the victims are men” (Perry and Biggs). Consider how male and female athletes are viewed. Complaints on how male and female athletes who play the same sport should be paid the same amount. The truth is that they aren’t. Male tennis player are paid more while female volleyball players are paid more than their male counterparts. If female tennis players want to be paid as much as male, then they should play in the men’s league. Taking a look at things from the female side, the top female models are paid ten times as much as the top male models. These predicaments have nothing to do with which sex is “better” than the other. The direct factor in their higher income is the fact that in some fields, a certain sex satisfies the market better than the
Recently a major issue for women in sports is female coaches and their salaries. The salaries of the male coaches in athletics have continuously been on the rise. And on top of that, the male coaches make 159% of the money that female coaches make. Female participation in College athletics are also on the rise. However, the majority of funding in colleges goes into the men's athletic programs.
In summary, Despite opponents argue, fans want to see thunderous dunks and incredible athleticism over the lesser abilities of females, male competitions is more intense and there is more at risk, and male driven associations produce more revenue than female driven associations. It is apparent that male and females are built differently therefore they have different abilities, females go through the same types of events and often have more on the line, and female athletics aren 't given the same recognition or praise. Then, maybe one day female will receive the same amount of pay as their male counterparts. As, Vera Nazarian once implied, “A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less. Equality is a given. A woman is human.”
Gender inequality in the United States is a serious problem, and it is often overlooked. It is a big issue, especially within sports. We live in a society where our culture prefers men 's sports over women 's. Labeling activities as feminine and masculine is a social construction based on stereotyped expectations regarding gender and perceived gender differences (McCullick, 2012). In 1972 Title IX was passed stating that, no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. This opened up athletics to women and girls (Education Amendment Act of 1972, 1972). Although